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Detecting seasonal movement from animal dung: an investigation in Neolithic northern Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Soultana Maria Valamoti
Soultana Maria Valamoti*
Affiliation:
*Department of Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki, Greece (Email: sval@hist.auth.gr)
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Extract

Neolithic northern Greece has both tell sites and extended ‘flat’ sites, with an implication that people lived differently and may have managed their animals differently on each type of site. The author investigates these differences using characteristic plant assemblages deriving from animal dung. She finds that samples from tells are rich in processed crops and wild seeds, indicating grazing on and off the fields near home. But those from the flat sites were rich in chaff and contain no wild seeds, indicating the absence of animals out grazing on the hills when the wild plants are in seed. These were seemingly two alternative categories of Neolithic farmer, the one organising grazing differently from the other.

Keywords

NeolithicGreeceagriculturearchaeobotanydungtells‘flat’ settlementstranshumance
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 314 , 1 December 2007 , pp. 1053 - 1064
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

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