Книга: Новейшие археозоологические исследования в России: К столетию со дня рождения В.И. Цалкина

P. A. Kosintsev Livestock breeding in the forest-steppe and steppe areas of Western Siberia in the late bronze and iron ages Summary

P. A. Kosintsev

Livestock breeding in the forest-steppe and steppe areas of Western Siberia in the late bronze and iron ages

Summary

Two parameters of osteological collections have referred in this paper — the composition of bone remains as to the species and age of the animals killed for meat. Claster Analysis had be used to select the typologically homogeneous groups of settlements in proportion to the bone remains of the main domestic animals. As result for the forest-steppe zone there is one tendency of change in the structure of bone remains. It is the increase of the proportion of horse bones and decrease in the number of sheep and goat bones. This might possibly be connected with the fact that the climate became colder in the early Iron Age (sub-Atlantic) and it became more difficult to breed sheep and goat owing to a thicker layer of snow on the ground. In these conditions the horse was much more at an advantage because it can push the snow aside with its hoofs. This region is characterized by a general tendency to breed domestic ungulates from the beginning up to the late Bronze Age. This meant a weakening of the meat-producing factor (cattle, sheep and goats) and a specialization (the horse), a factor reflected in the changes of the age structure of the animals killed for meat/ A specific feature of this livestock-breeding region during the whole Bronze and early Iron Ages was the absence of the pig in the herds. Generally speaking, livestock breeding in the south of Western Siberia had a lot in common with livestock breeding in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of Eastern Europe in the same period.