The MICROARCHEODUNG project has established a standard state-of-the-art interdisciplinary methodology for insight into livestock dung as a valuable source of information on a range of environmental, ecological, socio-economic and cultural aspects of past life-ways and the developments early farming and more complex urban communities in key research areas, including in the central Zagros, central Anatolia, the Levant, and northern Africa. The major outcome is the demonstration that dung is an ubiquitous material in most human settlements after the domestication of herds, but even before, thus providing us with critical information on the earliest stages of animal management and domestication, as morphological changes in their bones may be delayed by up to around one thousand years. At the beginning of the project very little had been investigated on the origins of animal management and domestication through the study of livestock dung, and direct evidence from animal faecal remains in northern Africa in particular was almost absent.
Through five workpackages, the project has 1) established a state-of-the art interdisciplinary methodology that integrates field, micromorphological, plant and faecal microfossil, and biomolecular analyses; 2) developed comparative modern livestock dung collections and models; 3) conducted vital experimental studies on the presence and preservation of dung and impact of burning to study fuel use; 4) investigated human-animal interactions and development of early farming and complex societies; and 5) shared methods and findings across the scientific community and the society at large.
The selected case-studies have shown that animal dung provides important new direct evidence for tracing human-animal relationships in different regions and key episodes of environmental and social change. Results from MICROARCHEODUNG indicate considerable chronological and contextual variation in human-animal inter-relations across territories, thus providing new insights into early farming practices, animal management and diet, and ecological diversity through time. In addition, in the central Zagros and central Anatolia, traces of omnivore faecal remains have been found within early Neolithic occupations, and identified as human coprolites, as indicated by coprostanol contents through biomolecular analyses, providing critical new information on early settled agricultural diet. MICROARCHEODUNG results also demonstrate the widespread use of animal dung for fuel purposes, a practice detected at early Neolithic settlements across the Near East and the Eastern Maghreb, and resource still used by many rural communities today.
