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Diet, dispersal and social differentiation during the Copper Age in eastern Hungary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

Julia I. Giblin
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Anthropology, Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Avenue, Hamden CT 06518-1908, USA (Email: julia.giblin@quinnipiac.edu)
Richard W. Yerkes
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, 4034 Smith Laboratory, 174 West 18th Avenue, Columbus OH 43210-1106, USA
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Abstract

Why did the early farming societies of south-east Europe ‘collapse’ and become apparently less complex at the end of the Neolithic? Stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen from Late Neolithic and Copper Age cemeteries in eastern Hungary provides new insights into this question by exploring dietary changes during this key transitional period. Results show that diet did not change significantly over time, and there was no evidence that individuals of different sex or social status were consuming privileged diets. The changes of this period appear to indicate a reorganisation of society, perhaps based around extended families, with greater dispersal across the landscape, but without reliance on dairying or the emergence of powerful leaders.

Information

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 
Figure 0

Figure 1. Map of Hungary showing archaeological sites sampled in this study.

Figure 1

Table 1. Site information and summarised isotope data for Neolithic and Copper Age humans (LN = Late Neolithic; ECA = Early Copper Age; MCA = Middle Copper Age).

Figure 2

Figure 2. Human and animal bone collagen stable isotope data from the Great Hungarian Plain: circles = Late Neolithic humans; squares = Early Copper Age humans; diamonds = Middle Copper Age humans; animal values are shown as the mean ± 1σ.

Figure 3

Figure 3. Stable isotope data for humans from the Great Hungarian Plain grouped by time period: circle = Late Neolithic humans; square = Early Copper Age humans; diamond = Middle Copper Age humans; values expressed as the mean ± 1σ.

Figure 4

Figure 4. The relationship between δ15N and the quantity and type of grave goods recorded for males (triangles) and females (open circles) during the Late Neolithic and Copper Age.

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