Julia Giblin: Isotope Analysis on the Great Hungarian Plain. An Exploration of Mobility and Subsistence Strategies from the Neolithic to the Copper Age

Abstract

From the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain (4,500 BC, calibrated) a transformation in many aspects of life has been inferred from the archaeological record. This transition is characterized by changes in settlements, subsistence, cultural assemblages, mortuary customs and trade networks. Some researchers suggest that changes in material culture, particularly the replacement of longoccupied tells with smaller, more dispersed hamlets, indicates a shift from sedentary farming villages to a more mobile, agropastoral society. In this study, stable isotope analysis was used to test two hypotheses about this transition: (1) mobility increased from the Neolithic to the Copper Age, and (2) diet became more focused on domesticated plants and animals. Stable strontium isotope ratios (Sr/Sr) in human and animal dental enamel were used to test the first hypothesis, and the abundance of stable carbon (δC) and nitrogen (δN) isotopes in human and animal bone were be used to test the second. Isotopic measures of diet, residence and animal husbandry strategies do not change significantly from the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age, as originally proposed, and indicate that the emergence of an agropastoral society does not explain the transition in material culture that has been observed on the Plain. Interestingly, when the time frame is expanded to include the entire Neolithic and Copper Age sequence (i.e., the Early and Middle Neolithic and the Middle Copper Age), changes in the δN and