Animal husbandry in crisis? Archaeozoology of late Latène cultural developments between the Danube region and the Inn Valley

• Applicant: Dr. Simon Trixl
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 433366418

At the end of the 2nd century BC, the Oppida Civilisation had achieved a level of urbanisation and economic prosperity unseen before in Central Europe. For the northern Alpine Foreland, this system´s socio-economic collapse in the 1st half of the 1st century BC reflects a major break with previous cultural achievements. For the moment, however, the reasons for the upheavals are not well understood. Conceivably, a major role in the process is played by the Southeast Bavarian Group, a community that assumedly emigrated from the Central German Uplands to today´s Southern Bavaria. State-of-the-art research presumes that during the period succeeding the abandonment of the oppida, this group coexisted with the remaining autochthonous population. South of it in the Alps, the Fritzens-Sanzeno Culture was located. Although some observations hint at socio-economic changes in the Alps as well, this region seems far less affected by the aforementioned turmoil.Despite the crucial role played by animal husbandry in pre-modern subsistence strategies, the effects of the final La Tène crisis on livestock keeping and breeding have never been investigated so far. The present project aims to close this research gap through the archaeozoological investigation of animal bone assemblages from 11 sites associated with the Southeast Bavarian Group, the Fritzens-Sanzeno Culture and the Oppida Civilisation (c. 25.000 specimens). Based on this dataset, the following working hypotheses will be tested: (1) Since the Alpine foreland was simultaneously inhabited by the Southeast Bavarian Group as well as the remaining autochthonous population, different economic systems coexisted in this area. (2) In the course of the 1st century BC, processes of acculturation occurred between the two systems. (3) The critical socio-economic developments marking the end of the Oppida Civilisation caused a decline in agricultural productivity. (4) For reasons of ecogeography, Alpine Iron Age subsistence strategies differed from those practiced in the northern Alpine foreland. Nonetheless, slight economic changes can be expected for the Fritzens-Sanzeno Culture as well. (5) Given the continuity in the Late Iron Age-Early Roman occupation of the northern Alpine Foreland, regional variations in final La Tène animal husbandry resulted in distinct subsistence signatures across the Roman Province of Raetia. In addition to the osteometric and morphological approaches, stable isotope analysis will be applied to trace translocated animals introduced by the Southeast Bavarian Group. Since a detailed chronology of the sites considered here is crucial for clarifying the aforementioned issues, special attention must be paid to systematic 14C-dating, which will also contribute verifying and complementing the results obtained by typo-chronological methods. Against this background, the proposed study will also offer a valuable contribution to debates about the chronology of the Iron Age in Central Europe.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants