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Husbandry and Wild Animal Exploitation. Characteristics and Evolution from a Multidisciplinary Perspective

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Prehistoric Herders and Farmers

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

Abstract

The importance of animal husbandry at El Mirador cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) and its use as a sheepfold has been confidently confirmed. This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary approach that includes traditional zooarcheological methods, isotopic analyses and archeobotanical studies of faunal and plant remains from El Mirador cave. The main objective of this study is to perform an in-depth analysis of the husbandry carried out at this site. We also aim to understand the implementation and evolution of these livestock rearing practices from the second half of the 6th millennium to the 2nd millennium BCE. The characterization of the use of the different landscapes by the herders is further completed with a study of hunting and fishing practices. Herd management was analyzed from a broad perspective: herd composition and feeding, birth management, and inferences regarding the potential use of domesticated animals. Husbandry practices evolved over the four millennia studied. In the Neolithic, livestock pressure on the landscape was minor and breeding practices focused mainly on sheep and goats. However, husbandry activities intensified throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Pollen values suggest that livestock pressure on the landscape increased and cattle breeding and hunting also became more important.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by AGAUR (2017 SGR 1040 and 2017-SGR 836), URV (2018PFR-URV-B2-91) and MICINN-FEDER PGC2018-093925-B-C32). The Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA) has received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the María de Maeztu program for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000945-M).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona, Spain

    Patricia Martín, Isabel Expósito, Aitor Burguet-Coca & Carlos Tornero

  2. Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain

    Patricia Martín, Isabel Expósito, Aitor Burguet-Coca & Carlos Tornero

  3. Departamento de Medicina Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain

    Jaime Lira-Garrido

  4. Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain

    Jaime Lira-Garrido

  5. Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment (SHEP), University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Àngel Blanco-Lapaz

  6. Institut für Naturwissenshaftliche Archäeologie, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Àngel Blanco-Lapaz

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  1. Patricia Martín
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Correspondence to Patricia Martín .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona, Spain

    Ethel Allué

  2. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona, Spain

    Patricia Martín

  3. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain

    Josep Maria Vergès

1 Electronic Supplementary Material (S)

Supplementary Information 12.1

Material and methods (DOCX 27 kb)

Supplementary Information 12.2

Number of remains and number of identified remains of mammals and birds distributed by level (XLSX 16 kb)

Supplementary Information 12.3

Minimum number of individuals (MNI) of mammals and birds distributed by level (XLSX 14 kb)

Supplementary Information 12.4

Osteometric data of cattle and suids from El Mirador cave following the measures proposed by Driesch (1976) (XLSX 12 kb)

Supplementary Information 12.5

Determination of the age at death of ovicaprines using dental criteria (XLSX 10 kb)

Supplementary Information 12.6

(a) First thoracic vertebra of Salmo trutta from El Mirador cave (MIR20 Q21) (scale bar 1 mm). (b) Caudal vertebra of Salmo trutta from El Mirador cave (MIR20 Q22) (scale bar 3 mm). Arrows point to winter marks (age 5+). Close up picture of the growth bands is shown on the right (Scale bar 300 μm). All the images were taken using a scanning electron microscopy (ESEM FEI QUANTA) (ZIP 554 kb)

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Martín, P., Expósito, I., Burguet-Coca, A., Lira-Garrido, J., Blanco-Lapaz, À., Tornero, C. (2022). Husbandry and Wild Animal Exploitation. Characteristics and Evolution from a Multidisciplinary Perspective. In: Allué, E., Martín, P., Vergès, J.M. (eds) Prehistoric Herders and Farmers. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12278-1_12

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