Community negotiation and pasture partitioning at the Trypillia settlement of Maidanetske

The inhabitants of the vast Chalcolithic Trypillia sites of Eastern Europe required highly organised strategies to meet subsistence needs. Here, the authors use isotopic analyses of faunal remains from Maidanetske, Ukraine, to identify intensive and extensive grazing practices. The former demanded i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antiquity 2022-08, Vol.96 (388), p.831-847
Main Authors: Makarewicz, Cheryl A., Hofmann, Robert, Videiko, Mykhailo Y., Müller, Johannes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Animals
Archaeology
Bones
Cattle
Cooperation
Domestication
Excavation
Exploitation
Farming
Grazing
Hogs
Households
Houses
Isotopes
Landscape
Maximum likelihood method
Negotiation
Seasons
Social structure
Taxonomy
Young adults
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Summary:The inhabitants of the vast Chalcolithic Trypillia sites of Eastern Europe required highly organised strategies to meet subsistence needs. Here, the authors use isotopic analyses of faunal remains from Maidanetske, Ukraine, to identify intensive and extensive grazing practices. The former demanded intra-community negotiation to ensure access to high-quality pastures for valuable animals such as dairy cows, suggesting that pasture may have also served socially integrative functions. The simultaneous use of extensive pasturing strategies for cattle placed on different pastureland suggests that landscapes were partitioned, with access determined by cooperation or competition. Maidanetske's dual pasturing system reflects the importance of spatially organised practices in maintaining social structure.
ISSN:0003-598X
1745-1744
DOI:10.15184/aqy.2022.32