Early herding at Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş (early sixth millennium bc, Romania): environments and seasonality from stable isotope analysis

Stable isotope analyses were conducted on faunal remains from the site of Magura-Boldul lui Mos Ivanus with the objective of characterizing the environments and seasonality of husbandry in the earliest Neolithic (Gura Baciului-Carcea/Starcevo-Cris I) of southern Romania. Results from bone collagen analysis indicate extensive herding strategies for cattle and pigs. However, sequential analysis in tooth enamel also provides evidence for winter leaf foddering in one bovine, potentially kept by the settlement over winter. In some instances, sheep were fed a C-13-enriched resource in late winter, which may have also coincided with lactation. It could not be determined whether this contribution was from C-3 or C-4 plants. Although isolated, these findings may be important in evaluating how early agricultural communities dealt with environmental constraints. These results are also interpreted with reference to the models of intensive mixed farming systems recently proposed by Bogaard (2004) and Halstead (2006).