Animal Economies and Emergent Complexity in the European Bronze Age

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Animal Bones to Human Behavior" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Bronze Age is marked by dramatic social changes throughout much of the Old World. In Eastern Europe, and elsewhere, we see the emergence of regional hierarchies characterized by political and economic centralization and heightened status differentiation. While focus traditionally has been placed on the manufacture and exchange of metals, significant changes in livestock management systems can also be seen at this time. At central settlements, such as Pecica-Şanţul Mare (Romania), animal husbandry shifts from employing risk-buffering to resource-maximizing strategies, intensifying the production of high-value animals and their products. This, in part, reflects the desire to increase exportable commodities. Other changes are responses to local elite demands for high-quality meat, including the implementation of provisioning systems and ritualized feasting. Restructuring of animal production and consumption practices is tightly integrated within, and central to, broader economic changes that lay the foundation for complex polities in the European Bronze Age.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Animal Bones to Human Behavior   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32363