Pre-Roman improvements to agricultural production: Evidence from livestock husbandry in late prehistoric Italy.

ABSTRACT: Domestication of wild cattle, sheep, and pigs began a process of body size diminution. In most of Western Europe this process continued across prehistory and was not reversed until the Roman period. However, in Italy, an increase in livestock body size occurred during the Iron Age, earlier than the Western provinces. In order to better understand the nature and timing of this early increase in animal size, this paper presents a detailed regional study of taxonomic abundance and biometric data from zooarchaeological assemblages recovered from the Po and Venetian-Friulian Plains in northern Italy. Our results demonstrate a high level of regionality in the choice of species exploited, with husbandry systems focused on different domesticates, as well as regional differences in animal size. How

SUBMITTER: Trentacoste A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6312331 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature