Animal husbandry, isotopes, and land use at the Late Bronze Age Hittite city of Şapinuva (Šapinuwa), Turkey: insights from strontium isotopes

Date

2023-05-01

Author

Pişkin, Evangelia
Köksal, Serhat
Durdu, Gamze

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Land use, distribution, and ownership are important elements of the economic strategies applied by any given society, and hence of wide interest for various disciplines. Here, we examine whether it is possible to recognise land allocation for the pasture of sheep, goats, and cattle at the Late Bronze Age Hittite city of Şapinuva (fourteenth century BC), Turkey, through strontium isotope analyses, with particular attention to possible differentiation of Palace and Temple lands. We first created an Sr isotope distribution on the map of the region using rock and snail samples, against which we plotted data from archaeological animal teeth. Whilst we found clear evidence for winter and summer pastures, we had weak indications for land provisions to different institutions and separation according to species. Importation of animals to the city from elsewhere seemed plausible. The major difficulty in reaching fine resolution results was the limited range of 87Sr/86Sr data, which at the same time were very widespread over the landscape around Şapinuva.

Subject Keywords

Animal husbandry, Land use, Late Bronze Age, Strontium isotope ratio, Turkey, Şapinuva

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https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85154045932&origin=inward
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/103375

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Article