Abstract:
Activities associated with the inclusion of pastoralism in a population's subsistence strategy are notoriously difficult to identify in the archaeological record. Pastoral encampments tend to contain predominantly transportable material possessions and temporary dwellings constructed from materials that do not preserve well in the archaeological record. A combined reliance on pastoral activities and hunter-gathering or agriculture, or interactions with populations relying on other subsistence strategies also frequently leads to ambiguous archaeological remains. As a result of this, identification of pastoral activities in the archaeological record is usually based solely on the absence of evidence for permanent settlements, or on faunal evidence for domesticated mammals. The aim of this study is to determine whether human remains can be used to aid in the identification of pastoral activities in the archaeological record. Data was collected on a range of ecological, demographic and cultural variables from 82 populations who were engaged in pastoral activities. Using these data an ecological model of pastoralism was constructed. This model was used to predict likely patterns of pathology among prehistoric populations which could be associated with pastoral activities. These predictions were then tested against two Bronze Age skeletal collections. The first is a sample from northern Mongolia (n=25) who are known to have engaged in pastoral activities. The second comes from the Early Bronze Age IA level of the Bab edh-Dhra cemetery site in Jordan (n=578) and represents a population whose mode of subsistence is currently contested. The results of the analysis suggest that the incidence of dental pathology, trauma and schmorl's nodes are most consistent with the model. They also indicate that in keeping with the assumptions of the model, the palaeopathological indicators analysed relate to diet and activity associated with a mode of life, not a specific subsistence label or necessarily a conventional grouping.