Emergence and intensification of dairying in the Caucasus and Eurasian steppes.

Animals Archaeology Cattle Dairying Grassland Horses Humans Livestock Sheep White People

Journal

Nature ecology & evolution

ISSN: 2397-334X

Titre abrégé: Nat Ecol Evol

Pays: England

ID NLM: 101698577

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
06 2022

Historique:

received: 17 09 2021

accepted: 07 02 2022

pubmed: 9 4 2022

medline: 11 6 2022

entrez: 8 4 2022

Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Archaeological and archaeogenetic evidence points to the Pontic-Caspian steppe zone between the Caucasus and the Black Sea as the crucible from which the earliest steppe pastoralist societies arose and spread, ultimately influencing populations from Europe to Inner Asia. However, little is known about their economic foundations and the factors that may have contributed to their extensive mobility. Here, we investigate dietary proteins within the dental calculus proteomes of 45 individuals spanning the Neolithic to Greco-Roman periods in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe and neighbouring South Caucasus, Oka-Volga-Don and East Urals regions. We find that sheep dairying accompanies the earliest forms of Eneolithic pastoralism in the North Caucasus. During the fourth millennium BC, Maykop and early Yamnaya populations also focused dairying exclusively on sheep while reserving cattle for traction and other purposes. We observe a breakdown in livestock specialization and an economic diversification of dairy herds coinciding with aridification during the subsequent late Yamnaya and North Caucasus Culture phases, followed by severe climate deterioration during the Catacomb and Lola periods. The need for additional pastures to support these herds may have driven the heightened mobility of the Middle and Late Bronze Age periods. Following a hiatus of more than 500 years, the North Caucasian steppe was repopulated by Early Iron Age societies with a broad mobile dairy economy, including a new focus on horse milking.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01701-6 PMID: 35393601 PMC: PMC9177415

pubmed: 35393601

doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01701-6

pii: 10.1038/s41559-022-01701-6

pmc: PMC9177415

doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

Pagination

813-822

Informations de copyright

Références

Bleasdale, M. et al. Ancient proteins provide evidence of dairy consumption in eastern Africa. Nat. Commun. 12, 632 (2021).

pubmed: 33504791 pmcid: 7841170 doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20682-3

Wilkin, S. et al. Dairy pastoralism sustained eastern Eurasian steppe populations for 5,000 years. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 4, 346–355 (2020).

pubmed: 32127685 pmcid: 7212056 doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1120-y

Evershed, R. P. et al. Earliest date for milk use in the Near East and southeastern Europe linked to cattle herding. Nature 455, 528–531 (2008).

pubmed: 18690215 doi: 10.1038/nature07180

Salque, M. et al. Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium BC in northern Europe. Nature 493, 522–525 (2013).

pubmed: 23235824 doi: 10.1038/nature11698

Dunne, J. et al. First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium BC. Nature 486, 390–394 (2012).

pubmed: 22722200 doi: 10.1038/nature11186

Hendy, J. et al. Ancient proteins from ceramic vessels at Çatalhöyük West reveal the hidden cuisine of early farmers. Nat. Commun. 9, 4064 (2018).

pubmed: 30283003 pmcid: 6170438 doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06335-6

Wilkin, S. et al. Dairying enabled Early Bronze Age Yamnaya steppe expansions. Nature 598, 629–633 (2021).

pubmed: 34526723 pmcid: 8550948 doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03798-4

Jeong, C. et al. Bronze Age population dynamics and the rise of dairy pastoralism on the eastern Eurasian steppe. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, E11248–E11255 (2018).

pubmed: 30397125 pmcid: 6275519 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1813608115

Honeychurch, W. & Makarewicz, C. A. The archaeology of pastoral nomadism. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 45, 341–359 (2016).

doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-095827

Weaver, C., Wijesinha-Bettoni, R. McMahon, D. & Spence, L. n Milk and Dairy Products in Human Nutrition (eds Muehlhoff, E., Bennett, A. & Macmahon, D.) 103–206 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013).

Tishkoff, S. A. et al. Convergent adaptation of human lactase persistence in Africa and Europe. Nat. Genet. 39, 31–40 (2007).

pubmed: 17159977 doi: 10.1038/ng1946

Ségurel, L. & Bon, C. On the evolution of lactase persistence in humans. Annu. Rev. Genomics Hum. Genet. 18, 297–319 (2017).

pubmed: 28426286 doi: 10.1146/annurev-genom-091416-035340

Metheny, K. B. & Beaudry, M. C. Archaeology of Food: An Encyclopedia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).

Wijesinha-Bettoni, R. & Burlingame, B. in Milk and Dairy Products in Human Nutrition (eds Muehlhoff, E., Bennett, A. & Macmahon, D.) 41–102 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013).

Bogaard, A. The archaeology of food surplus. World Archaeol. 49, 1–7 (2017).

doi: 10.1080/00438243.2017.1294105

Dunne, J., di Lernia, S., Chłodnicki, M., Kherbouche, F. & Evershed, R. P. Timing and pace of dairying inception and animal husbandry practices across Holocene North Africa. Quat. Int. 471, 147–159 (2018).

doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2017.06.062

Frachetti, M. D. Multiregional emergence of mobile pastoralism and nonuniform institutional complexity across Eurasia. Curr. Anthropol. 53, 2–38 (2012).

doi: 10.1086/663692

Segurel, L. et al. Why and when was lactase persistence selected for? Insights from Central Asian herders and ancient DNA. PLoS Biol. 18, e3000742 (2020).

pubmed: 32511234 pmcid: 7302802 doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000742

Taylor, W. T. T. et al. Evidence for early dispersal of domestic sheep into Central Asia. Nat. Hum. Behav. 5, 1169–1179 (2021).

pubmed: 33833423 doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01083-y

Jeong, C. et al. A Dynamic 6,000-year genetic history of Eurasia’s Eastern Steppe. Cell 183, 890–904.e29 (2020).

pubmed: 33157037 pmcid: 7664836 doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.015

Allentoft, M. E. et al. Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia. Nature 522, 167–172 (2015).

pubmed: 26062507 doi: 10.1038/nature14507

Mathieson, I. et al. Genome-wide patterns of selection in 230 ancient Eurasians. Nature 528, 499–503 (2015).

pubmed: 26595274 pmcid: 4918750 doi: 10.1038/nature16152

Kovalev, A. A. & Erdenebaatar, D. in Afanas’yevskiy sbornik [in Russian] (eds Stepanova, N. F. & Polyakov, A. V.) 91–108 (Azbuka, 2010).

Haak, W. et al. Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe. Nature 522, 207–211 (2015).

pubmed: 25731166 pmcid: 5048219 doi: 10.1038/nature14317

Olalde, I. et al. The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe. Nature 555, 190–196 (2018).

pubmed: 29466337 pmcid: 5973796 doi: 10.1038/nature25738

Sjögren, K.-G., Price, T. D. & Kristiansen, K. Diet and mobility in the corded ware of Central Europe. PLoS ONE 11, e0155083 (2016).

pubmed: 27223117 pmcid: 4880197 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155083

Papac, L. et al. Dynamic changes in genomic and social structures in third millennium bc central Europe. Sci. Adv. 7, eabi6941 (2021).

pubmed: 34433570 pmcid: 8386934 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi6941

Benecke, N. Archaeozoological studies on the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in the North Pontic region. Anthropozoologica 25, 631–641 (1997).

Meshveliani, T. et al. Mesolithic hunters at Kotias Klde, Western Georgia: preliminary results. Paléorient 33, 47–58 (2007).

doi: 10.3406/paleo.2007.5220

Vybornov, A., Kosintesev, P. & Kulkova, M. The origin of farming in the Lower Volga region. Documenta Praehistorica 62, 67–75 (2015).

Nishiaki, Y. et al. The Mesolithic-Neolithic interface in the Southern Caucasus: 2016–2017 excavations at Damjili Cave, West Azerbaijan. Archaeol. Res. Asia 19, 100140 (2019).

doi: 10.1016/j.ara.2019.100140

Skourtanioti, E. et al. Genomic history of Neolithic to Bronze Age Anatolia, Northern Levant, and Southern Caucasus. Cell 181, 1158–1175.e28 (2020).

pubmed: 32470401 doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.044

Wang, C.-C. et al. Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions. Nat. Commun. 10, 590 (2019).

pubmed: 30713341 pmcid: 6360191 doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-08220-8

Gorelik, A. F., Cybrij, A. & Cybrij, V. Zu kaukasischen und vorderasiatischen Einflüssen bei der Neolithisierung im unteren Donbecken. Eurasia Antiq. 20, 143–170 (2017).

Reinhold, A., Belinskiy, A. B. & Korobov, D. S. in Archaeology of Mountain Landscapes: Interdisciplinary Research Strategies of Agro-Pastoralism in Upland Regions (ed Garcia-Molsosa, A.) Chapter 9 (State University of New York Press, 2022).

Rassamakin, Y. in Late Prehistoric Exploitation of the Eurasian Steppe (eds Levine, M. et al.) 59–182 (Univ. Cambridge, 1999).

Trifonov, V. in Adaptation of Paleolithic–Eneolithic Cultures to Changes in the Natural Environment in the North-West Caucasus [in Russian] (ed Trifonov, V.) 84–93 (Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS, 2009).

Kohl, P. L. & Trifonov, V. in The Cambridge World Prehistory (eds Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P.) 1571–595 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).

Lyonnet, B. in Les Cultures du Caucase (VIe- IIIe Millénaires avant Notre ère): Leurs Relations avec le Proche-Orient (ed Lyonnet, B.) 133–161 (CNRS Éditions, 2007).

Shishlina, N. in Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen (eds Bergerbrant, S. & Sabatini, S.) 53–60 (BAR International, 2013).

Knipper, C. et al. Diet and subsistence in Bronze Age pastoral communities from the southern Russian steppes and the North Caucasus. PLoS ONE 15, e0239861 (2020).

Benecke, N. in The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology (eds Albarella, U. et al.) 319–332 (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017).

Librado, P. et al. The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes. Nature 598, 634–640 (2021).

pubmed: 34671162 pmcid: 8550961 doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9

Anthony, D. W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. (Princeton Univ. Press, 2010).

Guimaraes, S. et al. Ancient DNA shows domestic horses were introduced in the southern Caucasus and Anatolia during the Bronze Age. Sci. Adv. 6, eabb0030 (2020).

pubmed: 32938680 pmcid: 7494339 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abb0030

Staubwasser, M. & Weiss, H. Holocene climate and cultural evolution in late prehistoric–early historic West Asia. Quat. Res. 66, 372–387 (2006).

doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2006.09.001

Shishlina, N. Reconstruction of the Bronze Age of the Caspian Steppes: Life Styles and Life Ways of Pastoral Nomads (Archaeopress, 2008).

Shishlina, N., Sevastyanov, V. & Kuznetsova, O. Seasonal practices of prehistoric pastoralists from the south of the Russian plain based on the isotope data of modern and archaeological animal bones and plants. J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 21, 1247–1258 (2017).

Hambleton, E. & Maltby, M. The Animal Bones from Excavations in Meshoko Cave in the Northern Caucasus (Bournemouth Univ. & St Petersburg State Univ., 2016); http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/24860/1/MeshokoCaveReportJuly2016.pdf

Reinhold, S. et al. in Appropriating Innovations: Entangled Knowledge in Eurasia, 5000‒1500 BC (eds Stockhammer, P. & Maran, J.) 78–97 (Oxbow Books, 2017).

Chechushkov, I. V. & Epimakhov, A. V. Eurasian steppe chariots and social complexity during the Bronze Age. J. World Prehistory 31, 435–483 (2018).

doi: 10.1007/s10963-018-9124-0

Shishlina, N., Orfinskaya, O. V. & Hommel, P. Bronze Age wool textile of the Northern Eurasia: new radiocarbon data. Nanotechnol. Russ. 15, 629–638 (2020).

doi: 10.1134/S1995078020050146

Ethier, J. et al. Earliest expansion of animal husbandry beyond the Mediterranean zone in the sixth millennium BC. Sci. Rep. 7, 7146 (2017).

pubmed: 28769118 pmcid: 5541088 doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-07427-x

Stojanovski, D. et al. Living off the land: terrestrial-based diet and dairying in the farming communities of the Neolithic Balkans. PLoS ONE 15, e0237608 (2020).

pubmed: 32817620 pmcid: 7444498 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237608

McClure, S. B. et al. Fatty acid specific δ

pubmed: 30183735 pmcid: 6124750 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202807

Herrscher, E. et al. Dietary inferences through stable isotope analysis at the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus (sixth to first millenium BC, Azerbaijan): from environmental adaptation to social impacts. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 167, 856–875 (2018).

pubmed: 30351449 doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23718

Reinhold, S., Korobov, D. & Belinskij, A. B. Landschaftsarchäologie im Nordkaukasus. Studien zu einer Neu Entdeckten bronzezeitlichen Kulturlandschaft im Hochgebirge des Nordkaukasus Vol. 38 (Habelt-Verlag, 2017).

Chazin, H. The Politics of Pasture: The Organization of Pastoral Practices and Political Authority in the Late Bronze Age in the South Caucasus (Univ. Chicago, 2016).

Uerpmann, M. & Uerpmann, H. P. Bronze and Iron Age animal economy at Didi-gora and Tqisbolo-gora (Kakhetia, Georgia). Archäol. Mittl. aus Iran und Turan 40, 169–264 (2008).

Warinner, C. et al. Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus. Sci. Rep. 4, 7104 (2014).

pubmed: 25429530 pmcid: 4245811 doi: 10.1038/srep07104

Ricci, A., D’Anna, M. B., Lawrence, D., Helwing, B. & Aliyev, T. Human mobility and early sedentism: the Late Neolithic landscape of southern Azerbaijan. Antiquity 92, 1445–1461 (2018).

doi: 10.15184/aqy.2018.230

Berthon, R. Past, current and future contribution of zooarchaeology to the knowledge of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures in South Caucasus. Stud. Cauc. Archaeol. 2, 4–30 (2014).

Piotrovskij, J. J. in Der Kaukasus zwischen Osteuropa und Vorderem Orient in der Bronze und Eisenzeit (eds Kašuba, M. T. et al.) Vol. 19 (Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2020).

Korenevsky, S. N. The Most Ancient Farmers and Stockbreeders of the Pre-Caucasus Region: The Maikop–Novosvobodnoe Community, Problems of Internal Typology and Symbolism of Funerary Practices [in Russian] (Nauka, 2004).

Merpert, N. Y. A. The most ancient stockbreeders of the Volga-Ural interfluve [in Russian] (Nauke, 1974).

Kaiser, E. Das Dritte Jahrtausend im Osteuropäischen Steppenraum: Kulturhistorische Studien zu Prähistorischer Subsistenzwirtschaft und Interaktion mit Benachbarten Räumen. Vol. 37 (Freie Univ. Berlin, 2019).

Connor, S. E. & Kvavadze, E. V. Modelling late Quaternary changes in plant distribution, vegetation and climate using pollen data from Georgia, Caucasus. J. Biogeogr. 36, 529–545 (2009).

doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.02019.x

Davis, B. A. S., Brewer, S., Stevenson, A. C. & Guiot, J. The temperature of Europe during the Holocene reconstructed from pollen data. Quat. Sci. Rev. 22, 1701–1716 (2003).

doi: 10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00173-2

Borisov, A. V., Demkina, T. S. & Demkin, V. A. Paleoenvironments and the Climate of Yerengei in the Bronze Age, IV-II Millennium bc [in Russian] (Nauka, 2006).

Malashev, V. Y. in Traditions of the Middle Sarmatian Culture in Burial Mounds of the Caspian Dagestan in the Second Half of the Second–First Half of the Fifth Century ad [in Russian] Vol. 35 85–97 (Bulletin of Volga State Univ., 2015).

Erlikh, V.R. in Achaemenid Impact in the Black Sea: Communication of Powers (eds Nieling, J. & Rehm, E.) 47–66 (Aarhus Univ. Press, 2010).

Reinhold, S., Belinskij, A. B. & Atabiev, B. H. in Der Kaukasus zwischen Osteuropa und Vorderem Orient in der Bronze und Eisenzeit (eds Kašuba, M. T. et al.) Vol. 19 (Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2020).

Anthony, D. W. & Brown, D. R. Eneolithic horse exploitation in the Eurasian steppes: diet, ritual and riding. Antiquity 74, 75–86 (2000).

doi: 10.1017/S0003598X00066163

Taylor, W. T. T. et al. Early pastoral economies and herding transitions in Eastern Eurasia. Sci. Rep. 10, 1001 (2020).

pubmed: 31969593 pmcid: 6976682 doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-57735-y

Khazanov, A. M. Nomads and the Outside World (The Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1994).

Gaunitz, C. et al. Ancient genomes revisit the ancestry of domestic and Przewalski’s horses. Science 360, 111–114 (2018).

pubmed: 29472442 doi: 10.1126/science.aao3297

Taylor, W. T. T. & Barrón-Ortiz, C. I. Rethinking the evidence for early horse domestication at Botai. Sci. Rep. 11, 7440 (2021).

pubmed: 33811228 pmcid: 8018961 doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86832-9

Perevalov, S. M. The Sarmatian lance and the Sarmatian horse-riding posture. Anthropol. Archeol. Eurasia 40, 7–21 (2002).

doi: 10.2753/AAE1061-195940047

Spasskaya, N. N., Kantorovich, A. R. & Maslov, V. E. in Steppes of Northern Eurasia: Proceedings of the IX International Symposium [in Russian] Vol. 9 764–768 (Institute of the Steppe of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2021).

McGuire, G. Cultural histories of kumiss: tuberculosis, heritage and national health in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Cent. Asian Surv. 36, 493–510 (2017).

doi: 10.1080/02634937.2017.1327420

Bat-Oyun, T., Erdenetsetseg, B., Shinoda, M., Ozaki, T. & Morinaga, Y. Who is making airag (fermented mare’s milk)? A nationwide survey of traditional food in mongolia. Nomad People 19, 7–29 (2015).

doi: 10.3197/np.2015.190103

Outram, A. K. et al. The earliest horse harnessing and milking. Science 323, 1332–1335 (2009).

pubmed: 19265018 doi: 10.1126/science.1168594

Butler, S. et al. The Iliad of Homer: Rendered into English Prose for the Use of Those who Cannot Read the Original (Longman’s, Green and Co., 1898).

Akhundov, T. I. Monuments of the Mugan steppe and preconditions for the settlement of early rarmers in the South Caucasus in the Neolithic–Eneolithic [in Russian]. Stratum Plus 2, 219–236 (2011).

Poulmarc’h, M. & Le Mort, F. Diversification of the funerary practices in the Southern Caucasus from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic. Quat. Int. 395, 184–193 (2016).

doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.04.040

Museyibli, N. Potter’s marks on Leilatepe culture pottery: Eastern Anatolian Chalcolithic traditions in the Caucasus. Mediterr. Archaeol. Archaeom. 16, 283–294 (2016).

Decaix, A. et al. in The Iranian Plateau during the Bronze Age: Development of Urbanisation, Production and Trade (eds Meyer, J.-W. et al.) 89–100 (MOM Éditions, 2019).

Lyonnet, B. et al. Late Chalcolithic Kurgans in Transcaucasia: the cemetery of Soyuq Bulaq (Azerbaijan). Archäol. Mittl. aus Iran und Turan 40, 27–44 (2008).

Nugent, S. E. Pastoralism and emergent complex settlement in the Middle Bronze Age, Azerbaijan: isotopic analyses of mobility strategies in transformation. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 171, 120–141 (2020).

pubmed: 31688956 doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23956

Sagona, A. The Archaeology of the Caucasus: From Earliest Settlements to the Iron Age. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2018).

Lau, H., Proctor, L., Gopnik, H. & Bakhshaliyev, V. Agropastoralism in middle Bronze through early Iron Age Naxçıvan: zooarchaeological and paleoethnobotanical data from Qızqala. J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 33, 102535 (2020).

Shishlina, N., Kaverzneva, E. & Fernandes, R. Subsistence strategies of Meshchera lowlands populations during the Eneolithic period — the Bronze Age: results from a multidisciplinary approach. J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 10, 74–81 (2016).

Schulting, R. J. & Richards, M. P. in A Bronze Age Landscape in the Russian Steppes: The Samara Valley Project (ed Anthony D.W. et al.) 127–149 (UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2016).

Nordqvist, K. & Heyd, V. The forgotten child of the wider Corded Ware family: Russian Fatyanovo culture in context. Proc. Prehist. Soc. 86, 65–94 (2020).

doi: 10.1017/ppr.2020.9

Narasimhan, V. M. et al. The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia. Science 365, eaat7487 (2019).

pubmed: 31488661 pmcid: 6822619 doi: 10.1126/science.aat7487

Ramsey, C. B. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51, 337–360 (2009).

doi: 10.1017/S0033822200033865

Reimer, P. J. et al. The IntCal20 northern hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon 62, 725–757 (2020).

doi: 10.1017/RDC.2020.41

Nesvizhskii, A. I., Keller, A., Kolker, E. & Aebersold, R. A statistical model for identifying proteins by tandem mass spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 75, 4646–4658 (2003).

pubmed: 14632076 doi: 10.1021/ac0341261

Keller, A., Nesvizhskii, A. I., Kolker, E. & Aebersold, R. Empirical statistical model to estimate the accuracy of peptide identifications made by MS/MS and database search. Anal. Chem. 74, 5383–5392 (2002).

pubmed: 12403597 doi: 10.1021/ac025747h