Tethered, Ad Hoc, Resilient, or Structured? An Isotopic Investigation of Pastoral Strategies in Montane Ecosystems of Central Asia

Summary

This paper focuses on tracking the mobility and diets of domesticated animals using isotopic analysis. We present two archaeological contexts from mountain regions of Central Asia: 1) A 9th-10th century (medieval) iron smelting town located at 2000 masl in the Zaamin Mtns. of Uzbekistan and 2) a series of Bronze Age (2500-1200 BCE) pastoral settlements located between 900 and 1500 masl in the Dzhungar Mtns. of eastern Kazakhstan. We are curious about pastoral productivity as it relates to social organization and cultural traditions across ecological gradients. We expect the case of Bronze Age pastoralists will show a diffuse and highly variable pastoral industry which may have provided more resilience to socio-ecological changes, resulting in a high degree of variability in social interaction. For the medieval case, we expect that a centrally organized economy, like iron metallurgy, would result in a greater demand for pastoral foodstuffs and likewise would structure pastoral management, resulting in more rigidity in socio-ecological adaptation and more environmental degradation. The differences between these two examples is important for understanding the interface of herd management and economic organisation across agricultural landscapes of high socio-ecological dynamism.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Applications of Isotope Research in Zooarchaeology

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