Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SUSTAIN (Sustainability of Agriculture in Neolithic Europe)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-01-01 bis 2023-06-30
SUSTAIN seeks to understand sustainability in early Neolithic agricultural societies in Europe by examining communities that had recently settled in new environments and had begun to practice mixed agro-pastoral husbandry for the first time. This novel way of interacting with the environment involved a new scale of human engagement with the life cycles of plants and animals, a practice that set into motion events that shaped Europe’s societal developments for millennia. The project explores the beginnings of this historical trajectory and asks what allowed these early communities to self-perpetuate and carry on, i.e. to remain sustainable.
SUSTAIN weaves together approaches from social anthropology, biogeography, bioarchaeology and complexity science in a manner that has not been attempted previously. From a scientific perspective, this is the first project to combine cutting-edge methodologies of biomolecular and model-based archaeology in ways that stretch practice beyond its current limits. From a theoretical perspective, SUSTAIN does not conform to the established paradigms of archaeology, but fits into current, radical theoretical shifts occurring in the humanities, social sciences, and in science and technology studies that recognize the inseparability of nature and culture. Traditionally, archaeologists subscribe to a conceptual framework in which the natural domain of organism-environment interactions is separate from the social domain of interpersonal relations. This idea of humans as divided beings, simultaneously belonging to two separate worlds of biological "nature" and an encultured "society", is implicit in most archaeological reasoning. Such separation of the social from the biological domain creates unresolvable contradictions by assuming that humans can occupy a world of human sociality outside of that of all other organisms. Instead, humans and other living beings should be regarded as parts of only one world that is equally natural and social, and overwhelmingly relational. This type of thinking is of critical importance for understanding the sustainability of societies in both the past and the present. Our model-based approach ensures reproducible outcomes and interpretations that allow us to produce insights that challenge conventional wisdom about farming and environmental sustainability, particularly with regard to social connectedness, relations of sharing, and mobility, which will have value and impact beyond archaeology. Archaeology is a critical source of data on environmental history, but more importantly, the deep-time perspective of archaeology can help to identify solutions which make agro-pastoral societies sustainable, not just on the scale of generations but millennia.
The overarching aim of the project is to elucidate how early agricultural societies in Europe maintained their capacity to self-generate and persist through time, or remain sustainable. To conduct analyses, interlocking sets of data on agricultural and animal husbandry practices are being collected from four study regions which are situated at the climatic and agronomic edges of Neolithic agricultural practice - the Balkans (6000-5500 BCE), the Prut-Dnepr area (5500-4000 BCE), Belgium/Northeastern France (5200-4700 BCE) and Southern Scandinavia (4000-3500/3000 BCE). Specifically, SUSTAIN uses a combination of isotopic methods, lipid analyses, radiocarbon dating, and modelling to evaluate 1) the relationship between domesticated species’ range expansions and climatic conditions, 2) variation in human-managed crop growing conditions, 3) herding practices and human involvement in animal life cycles and 4) the productivity and sustainability of crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Finally, SUSTAIN will assess the role of social parameters for a society’s persistence by identifying which social factors promote long-term sustainable growth at the local, regional, and supra-regional scales for each case study.
SUSTAIN weaves together approaches from social anthropology, biogeography, bioarchaeology and complexity science in a manner that has not been attempted previously. From a scientific perspective, this is the first project to combine cutting-edge methodologies of biomolecular and model-based archaeology in ways that stretch practice beyond its current limits. From a theoretical perspective, SUSTAIN does not conform to the established paradigms of archaeology, but fits into current, radical theoretical shifts occurring in the humanities, social sciences, and in science and technology studies that recognize the inseparability of nature and culture. Traditionally, archaeologists subscribe to a conceptual framework in which the natural domain of organism-environment interactions is separate from the social domain of interpersonal relations. This idea of humans as divided beings, simultaneously belonging to two separate worlds of biological "nature" and an encultured "society", is implicit in most archaeological reasoning. Such separation of the social from the biological domain creates unresolvable contradictions by assuming that humans can occupy a world of human sociality outside of that of all other organisms. Instead, humans and other living beings should be regarded as parts of only one world that is equally natural and social, and overwhelmingly relational. This type of thinking is of critical importance for understanding the sustainability of societies in both the past and the present. Our model-based approach ensures reproducible outcomes and interpretations that allow us to produce insights that challenge conventional wisdom about farming and environmental sustainability, particularly with regard to social connectedness, relations of sharing, and mobility, which will have value and impact beyond archaeology. Archaeology is a critical source of data on environmental history, but more importantly, the deep-time perspective of archaeology can help to identify solutions which make agro-pastoral societies sustainable, not just on the scale of generations but millennia.
The overarching aim of the project is to elucidate how early agricultural societies in Europe maintained their capacity to self-generate and persist through time, or remain sustainable. To conduct analyses, interlocking sets of data on agricultural and animal husbandry practices are being collected from four study regions which are situated at the climatic and agronomic edges of Neolithic agricultural practice - the Balkans (6000-5500 BCE), the Prut-Dnepr area (5500-4000 BCE), Belgium/Northeastern France (5200-4700 BCE) and Southern Scandinavia (4000-3500/3000 BCE). Specifically, SUSTAIN uses a combination of isotopic methods, lipid analyses, radiocarbon dating, and modelling to evaluate 1) the relationship between domesticated species’ range expansions and climatic conditions, 2) variation in human-managed crop growing conditions, 3) herding practices and human involvement in animal life cycles and 4) the productivity and sustainability of crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Finally, SUSTAIN will assess the role of social parameters for a society’s persistence by identifying which social factors promote long-term sustainable growth at the local, regional, and supra-regional scales for each case study.
During the first reporting period, a database was constructed for collecting and managing existing information on sites, radiocarbon dates, plant, animal and human stable isotopes, pottery residues, zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data. The SUSTAIN data was integrated with existing and newly created database resources of the beneficiaries UCL and UNIVBRIS, to avoid the duplication of efforts for data collection in completed (EUROEVOL, NeoMilk) and ongoing (COREX, SUSTAIN) ERC projects at the three beneficiaries. The extensive converged and shared data collection already creates considerable benefits for all SUSTAIN beneficiaries. In the future, this large data resource will have an important scientific impact on other researchers.
A major part of our extensive sampling programme was completed. Faunal remains were sampled from 7 sites in France, Sweden, Greece, the Republic of North Macedonia and Romania. Charred grains from 7 sites in Romania, Bulgaria and Germany were selected for isotope analyses and pottery sherds from 16 sites in Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Sweden were sampled for lipid analysis.
Botanical samples for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis were selected from cereal storages in House VII.2-3 at Slatina (Bulgaria, 6th mill. BC). The site of Slatina is exceptional with the rich archaeobotanical finds found in storage contexts in houses, allowing detailed reconstruction of crop growing conditions at household level. The selected house provided a very rich archaeobotanical assemblage with over 50 charred plant concentrations, mostly inside of clay storage bins located in three separate rooms, likely representing three separate households. The results indicate that the samples do not group according to crop taxa but according to storage container and room, suggesting that each household cultivated, manured and stored their own crops. Different wheat taxa (einkorn, emmer, “new glume” wheat) were not grown as monocultures but mixed, whereas barley was grown in separate fields. Wheat received more water than barley during the ripening stage, suggesting species-specific water management. Further botanical samples from the site are currently analysed to better understand the households’ decisions regarding crop choices, soil management and agricultural productivity.
In Vienna, a new laboratory was set up at VIAS to enable collagen extraction and preparation of tooth enamel for isotope ratio analysis. The faunal samples from four sites were prepared at MNHN (Paris) and VIAS (Vienna). Stable isotope ratio measurements were performed at MNHN (Paris) on bones from Karleby (Sweden) and Oberschaeffolsheim (France) (d13C and d15N) and on teeth from Poduri (Romania) and Oberschaeffolsheim (d13C and d18O). The bone collagen results indicate contrasting herding strategies in different ecological settings, especially regarding pig husbandry. The results of d18O intra-tooth analysis at Poduri suggest a seasonal lambing pattern, taking place in late winter/spring. This new dataset extends previously published data for continental Europe, showing a similar pattern at sites dated to the 6th to 4th millennium cal BC. The combined sequential analysis of d13C and d18O at Poduri indicates that sheep frequently fed on forest resources in winter. This contrasts with data obtained previously from contemporaneous sites in the Danube floodplain, where no such practice was found, highlighting different adaptations of husbandry practices to local environmental constraints and resources.
A total of 240 potsherds from 6 sites in Bulgaria, Sweden, Ukraine and Moldova were analysed for lipid residues, providing information about the use of food resources by early farmers. Lipids were extracted and analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Highly sensitive detection of low-abundance aquatic biomarkers was performed using GC-MS operated in Selected Ion Monitoring Mode (SIM). Animal fats were further identified using GC-C-IRMS. The results reveal notable regional and temporal patterns in the use of animal products as reflected in the lipid residues in pots, in particular in terms of dairying intensity and use of aquatic foods.
A major part of our extensive sampling programme was completed. Faunal remains were sampled from 7 sites in France, Sweden, Greece, the Republic of North Macedonia and Romania. Charred grains from 7 sites in Romania, Bulgaria and Germany were selected for isotope analyses and pottery sherds from 16 sites in Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Sweden were sampled for lipid analysis.
Botanical samples for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis were selected from cereal storages in House VII.2-3 at Slatina (Bulgaria, 6th mill. BC). The site of Slatina is exceptional with the rich archaeobotanical finds found in storage contexts in houses, allowing detailed reconstruction of crop growing conditions at household level. The selected house provided a very rich archaeobotanical assemblage with over 50 charred plant concentrations, mostly inside of clay storage bins located in three separate rooms, likely representing three separate households. The results indicate that the samples do not group according to crop taxa but according to storage container and room, suggesting that each household cultivated, manured and stored their own crops. Different wheat taxa (einkorn, emmer, “new glume” wheat) were not grown as monocultures but mixed, whereas barley was grown in separate fields. Wheat received more water than barley during the ripening stage, suggesting species-specific water management. Further botanical samples from the site are currently analysed to better understand the households’ decisions regarding crop choices, soil management and agricultural productivity.
In Vienna, a new laboratory was set up at VIAS to enable collagen extraction and preparation of tooth enamel for isotope ratio analysis. The faunal samples from four sites were prepared at MNHN (Paris) and VIAS (Vienna). Stable isotope ratio measurements were performed at MNHN (Paris) on bones from Karleby (Sweden) and Oberschaeffolsheim (France) (d13C and d15N) and on teeth from Poduri (Romania) and Oberschaeffolsheim (d13C and d18O). The bone collagen results indicate contrasting herding strategies in different ecological settings, especially regarding pig husbandry. The results of d18O intra-tooth analysis at Poduri suggest a seasonal lambing pattern, taking place in late winter/spring. This new dataset extends previously published data for continental Europe, showing a similar pattern at sites dated to the 6th to 4th millennium cal BC. The combined sequential analysis of d13C and d18O at Poduri indicates that sheep frequently fed on forest resources in winter. This contrasts with data obtained previously from contemporaneous sites in the Danube floodplain, where no such practice was found, highlighting different adaptations of husbandry practices to local environmental constraints and resources.
A total of 240 potsherds from 6 sites in Bulgaria, Sweden, Ukraine and Moldova were analysed for lipid residues, providing information about the use of food resources by early farmers. Lipids were extracted and analysed by GC-FID and GC-MS. Highly sensitive detection of low-abundance aquatic biomarkers was performed using GC-MS operated in Selected Ion Monitoring Mode (SIM). Animal fats were further identified using GC-C-IRMS. The results reveal notable regional and temporal patterns in the use of animal products as reflected in the lipid residues in pots, in particular in terms of dairying intensity and use of aquatic foods.
The concept of sustainability originates in biology and describes not the survival of individual organisms, but the persistence of entire systems of activity through time. Transferred to human society, this notion of sustainability is of fundamental importance. Such transfer of meaning, however, has happened only recently, in the late 1980s, following the realisation that environmental resources in the Earth’s closed system are finite and our present-day choices endanger the livelihoods of future generations. Sustainability research is currently gaining pace in response to the intensifying environmental concerns and the uncertain future that global society is currently facing. A new and rapidly growing discipline of sustainability science has emerged in the past two decades, which seeks to understand the integrated “whole” of planetary and human systems and develop solutions for the integrated management of social and ecological systems. Such solutions have a historical dimension, to which projects like SUSTAIN can contribute significantly. Rapid advances in isotopic and molecular bioarchaeology have provided powerful new tools to infer growth conditions of past crops, feeding, birth seasonality, movement and dairying in prehistoric herds, human dietary preferences and mobility patterns, and the genetic ancestry, phenotypes and functional genetic traits of past domestic organisms and humans. In combination with advanced modeling approaches, the previously unimagined level of detail regarding the “biological” dimension of the past has the potential to bring archaeology’s contribution to sustainability research to a new level. SUSTAIN’s model-based, open-ended approach ensures reproducible outcomes and interpretations which will become more accurate as more data is added during the course of the project and beyond. They allow us to generate multiple “histories” and “what if” scenarios and to evaluate them against a stream of new archaeological and environmental data.