Neolithic to Bronze Age Human Impact on Island Landscapes and Faunal Communities: Exploring the Wild/Domestic Dichotomy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper synthesizes zooarchaeological and stable isotope evidence from the eastern and western Mediterranean to consider the influence of humans on island landscapes and ecosystems from the earliest Neolithic through the Bronze Age. How did the importation of new faunal species, whether domestic or wild, affect the extant endemic island communities? While the Neolithic is often regarded as a critical time of species introductions, it is likely that reintroductions also took place later in time in order to sustain or bolster island populations. To what extent were wild, non-endemic taxa managed by communities, and did these strategies overlap with those for domestic livestock management? Additionally, what role did marine resources play in the diet of island communities, and how did this change through time with concomitant changes in terrestrial faunal assemblages? Did mainland farmers adapt to island ecology by supplementing domestic food production with wild and marine resources, and if so, are there identifiable patterns in transitions? The combination of faunal analysis and multi-isotope studies has the potential to provide new insight into the nature of human-animal interactions on Mediterranean islands during the first half of the Holocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39462.0