Large-scale carbon and nitrogen isotopic investigations into caprine diet and management at Tepe Yahya, southeastern Iran.

ABSTRACT: Tepe Yahya, a small urban center in southeastern Iran, was embedded in cross-cultural exchange with the many entities of southwestern Asia. Besides an understanding that caprines dominated the animal economy, we have little knowledge of how these animals were managed. The site was discontinuously occupied from the Neolithic to Sassanian periods (6500 BCE to 200 CE). As one of the longest occupied archaeological sites in Iran, Tepe Yahya provides a unique opportunity to examine whether diversity in caprine management accompanied the site's development and expanded need for provisioning. We examine the diet of 254 sheep and goats between 6500 and 2000 BCE, the Neolithic to Bronze Age, using carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotopic analysis, and estimate the percentage of C3 plants i

SUBMITTER: Seabrook M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12463267 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature