Content:
The migration of Yamnaya people in the Early Bronze Age, ca. 3,300 BCE–2,800 BCE, into the Pontic-Caspian steppe changed the genetic fabric of Europe. However, how much of the existing societal fabric, if any, was influenced by this migration and subsequent genetic mixing has not been thoroughly explored. Determining the extent of the Yamnaya influence on prehistoric Europe requires an interdisciplinary approach that combines multiple lines of evidence.
This poster presents how this potential cultural flow is being investigated through the lens of diet, via both organic residue and stable isotopic analysis. As Yamnaya are represented exclusively by burial mounds, faunal bones and pottery are rare. Heavily pastoralist subsistence patterns of Yamnaya are generally assumed, based on the lack of settlement evidence. Here, dietary practices within the Yamnaya are directly reconstructed using bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analysis of human skeletal remains. Faunal baseline carbon isotope values will be modelled based upon lipids extracted from pots from local contemporary non-Yamnaya settlements, and Yamnaya faunal bones where available. The analysis of pottery sherds from a diachronic perspective also allows for an investigation of potential cultural exchange between migrating Yamnaya and Balkan societies. Samples of 166 skeletal remains and 238 pottery sherds were chosen to reflect this angle of inquiry creating a sample group that is comprised of Eneolithic, Early Bronze Age, and Middle Bronze Age pots and skeletal remains from across modern day Bulgaria and Romania, creating an in-depth study of both spatial and temporal dietary trends.
This study will provide the first detailed picture of the subsistence patterns and change throughout the Yamnaya migration and subsequent contact with Eneolithic Balkan societies.
Keywords:
stable isotopes, Yamnaya culture, organic residue, subsistence, cultural interactions