Cargando…
Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur
During the third millennium BC, Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in modern Iraq-Syria), was dominated by the world’s earliest cities and states, which were ruled by powerful elites. Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, was one of the largest and most important of these cit...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9200365/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35704593 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265170 |
_version_ | 1784728046123614208 |
---|---|
author | Greenfield, Tina L. McMahon, Augusta M. O’Connell, Tamsin C. Reade, Hazel Holmden, Chris Fletcher, Alexandra C. Zettler, Richard L. Petrie, Cameron A. |
author_facet | Greenfield, Tina L. McMahon, Augusta M. O’Connell, Tamsin C. Reade, Hazel Holmden, Chris Fletcher, Alexandra C. Zettler, Richard L. Petrie, Cameron A. |
author_sort | Greenfield, Tina L. |
collection | PubMed |
description | During the third millennium BC, Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in modern Iraq-Syria), was dominated by the world’s earliest cities and states, which were ruled by powerful elites. Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, was one of the largest and most important of these cities, and irrigation-based agriculture and large herds of domesticated animals were the twin mainstays of the economy and diet. Texts suggest that the societies of the Mesopotamian city-states were extremely hierarchical and underpinned by institutionalised and heavily-managed farming systems. Prevailing narratives suggest that the animal management strategies within these farming systems in the third millennium BC were homogenous. There have been few systematic science-based studies of human and animal diets, mobility, or other forms of human-animal interaction in Mesopotamia, but such approaches can inform understanding of past economies, including animal management, social hierarchies, diet and migration. Oxygen, carbon and strontium isotopic analysis of animal tooth enamel from both royal and private/non-royal burial contexts at Early Dynastic Ur (2900–2350 BC) indicate that a variety of herd management strategies and habitats were exploited. These data also suggest that there is no correlation between animal-management practices and the cattle found in royal or private/non-royal burial contexts. The results demonstrate considerable divergence between agro-pastoral models promoted by the state and the realities of day-to-day management practices. The data from Ur suggest that the animals exploited different plant and water sources, and that animals reared in similar ways ended up in different depositional contexts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9200365 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92003652022-06-16 Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur Greenfield, Tina L. McMahon, Augusta M. O’Connell, Tamsin C. Reade, Hazel Holmden, Chris Fletcher, Alexandra C. Zettler, Richard L. Petrie, Cameron A. PLoS One Research Article During the third millennium BC, Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in modern Iraq-Syria), was dominated by the world’s earliest cities and states, which were ruled by powerful elites. Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, was one of the largest and most important of these cities, and irrigation-based agriculture and large herds of domesticated animals were the twin mainstays of the economy and diet. Texts suggest that the societies of the Mesopotamian city-states were extremely hierarchical and underpinned by institutionalised and heavily-managed farming systems. Prevailing narratives suggest that the animal management strategies within these farming systems in the third millennium BC were homogenous. There have been few systematic science-based studies of human and animal diets, mobility, or other forms of human-animal interaction in Mesopotamia, but such approaches can inform understanding of past economies, including animal management, social hierarchies, diet and migration. Oxygen, carbon and strontium isotopic analysis of animal tooth enamel from both royal and private/non-royal burial contexts at Early Dynastic Ur (2900–2350 BC) indicate that a variety of herd management strategies and habitats were exploited. These data also suggest that there is no correlation between animal-management practices and the cattle found in royal or private/non-royal burial contexts. The results demonstrate considerable divergence between agro-pastoral models promoted by the state and the realities of day-to-day management practices. The data from Ur suggest that the animals exploited different plant and water sources, and that animals reared in similar ways ended up in different depositional contexts. Public Library of Science 2022-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9200365/ /pubmed/35704593 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265170 Text en © 2022 Greenfield et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Greenfield, Tina L. McMahon, Augusta M. O’Connell, Tamsin C. Reade, Hazel Holmden, Chris Fletcher, Alexandra C. Zettler, Richard L. Petrie, Cameron A. Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur |
title | Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur |
title_full | Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur |
title_fullStr | Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur |
title_full_unstemmed | Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur |
title_short | Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur |
title_sort | were there royal herds? understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from early dynastic ur |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9200365/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35704593 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265170 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT greenfieldtinal werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur AT mcmahonaugustam werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur AT oconnelltamsinc werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur AT readehazel werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur AT holmdenchris werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur AT fletcheralexandrac werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur AT zettlerrichardl werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur AT petriecamerona werethereroyalherdsunderstandingherdmanagementandmobilityusingisotopiccharacterizationsofcattletoothenamelfromearlydynasticur |