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The chicken (Gallus domesticus) originates from the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), a bird found in south and south-east Asia. The timing of the initial domestication, as well as its spread to western Asia and Europe, are still unclear. In Italy, the species was likely to have been introduced in the early Iron Age, though the precise chronology of this event is hitherto unconfirmed. By the 6th – 5th century BC, chicken remains occur at several Italian sites. Probably, the bird was originally raised for its symbolic value rather than for food, as its presence in early and mid-Iron Age cultic archaeological contexts suggests. We have re-analysed remains identified as ‘chicken’ from a cinerary hut urn found at Montecucco in central Italy during a 19th century archaeological investigation, to verify identification and establish an ante quem date for the introduction of the chicken in Italy. The analysis of these remains, combined with a review of additional zooarchaeological and iconographic evidence, has allowed us to push back the date of the earliest presence of this bird in Italy to at least the first half of the 9th century BC. This has also relevance for our understanding of the dynamics of chicken diffusion in the rest of Europe.

Carne, latte e derivati: gli animali come fonte di cibo nell’età del Bronzo italiana – Il contributo rappresenta una sintesi dei dati archeozoologici fino ad oggi disponibili per gran parte dell’età del Bronzo dell’Italia peninsulare per la definizione degli aspetti legati al consumo di carne, latte e derivati. Il quadro che ne deriva, sebbene significativo per la ricostruzione degli aspetti di sussistenza delle comunità che si susseguirono sul territorio italiano nel corso dell’età del Bronzo, non può essere unitario e coerente per la presenza di macroaree culturalmente e geograficamente disomogenee e per la differenza della documentazione disponibile da sito a sito, da area ad area e da periodo a periodo; di queste difficoltà il contributo tiene conto, mantenendo una suddivisione per aree geografiche e culturali. Meat, milk and milk derivatives: animals as a source of food in the Italian Bronze Age – The paper is a synthesis of zooarchaeological data nowadays available for most of the Italian Bronze Age to define all aspects relating to the consumption of meat, milk and milk derivatives. The resulting scenario, though significant for understanding of the role of animals as food source in the Italian Bronze Age, is not uniform due to differently cultural and geographical areas and due to the diverse and available documentation from site to site, area to area and period to period. Of these difficulties the paper takes into account, maintaining a subdivision of the text into geographical and cultural areas.

In recent years, extensive archaeological studies have provided us with new knowledge on wool and woollen textile production at the Terramare site of Montale, in the Po plain, northern Italy. The large number of textile tools, and of zooarchaeological evidence suggesting intense sheepherding, hints at Montale being a specialized centre of wool production during the local Middle and Recent Bronze Age. The aim of our study has been to investigate, by means of strontium isotope analyses, whether engagement in this economic activity was facilitated by mobile herding practices or by regional/interregional exchange/trade of animals. To this aim, we conducted 75 strontium isotope analyses of tooth enamel from 36 zoo-archaeological remains of as many sheep/goat individuals from all the 11 archaeological phases identified at Montale and of four from the neighbouring early Middle Bronze Age site of Baggiovara. We also created a multi-proxy baseline from environmental samples of the region around Montale to interpret the results of the analyses from the sheep/goat teeth. Strontium isotope analyses have proven to be a powerful tool for the investigation of mobility when relevant and well-established baselines are available; our results hint at sheep herded to a consistent extent in the territory surrounding the respective sites. The data obtained in this study support earlier works suggesting that the territory around Montale had a significant pastoral vocation.

Despite the hostile climate, since the Bronze Age the populations of Southern Turkmenistan have been able to create, through an impressive network of canals, an artificial agricultural territory with villages and large towns. Between 2400 and 1950 BCE, the Murghab alluvial fan was characterised by the presence of complex urban societies. This period was followed by a deep crisis that led to the disappearance of the largest sites. At the beginning of the Iron Age (1300 BCE), the water flow in the Murghab River decreased, resulting in a southward movement of settlements and the abandonment of a large portion of the territory by sedentary farmers. At the same time, new groups of mobile pastoralists began to settle in the area and started to interact with farmers. The excavations of Togolok 1 are providing vital data on the integration between sedentary and mobile pastoralist cultures, as well as on the birth and evolution of urbanism during the later Iron Age.

Si presentano in queste pagine i risultati delle analisi archeozoologiche condotte da Laboratorio di Archeozoologia dell’Università di Lecce sullo scheletro di cane rinvenuto durante lo scavo della capanna 3 del villaggio del Bronzo antico in località Croce del Papa a Nola. Come è noto l’eccezionalità del rinvenimento di Nola è dovuta all’ottimo stato di conservazione delle strutture abitative. Queste, poco dopo l’inizio dell’eruzione, furono ricoperte da circa un metro di pomici e ceneri e quindi investite da un’alluvione fangosa che ne ha permesso un vero e proprio calco conservatosi sino a oggi. Al momento dell’eruzione vulcanica il cane aveva trovato invano riparo all’interno della capanna nella sua parte absidale.

The Grotta delle Veneri near Parabita has yielded a fair quantity of faunal remains, chronologically dated to the period from the Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) to the Upper Palaeolithic (Epigravettian and Romanellian). Those of the Middle Palaeolithic, less numerous, include aurochs, horse, deer, fox, wild boar and porcupine, which seems to indicate an environment characterised by both grassland and not particularly dense woodland. More frequent are the remains dated to the Upper Palaeolithic, which are associated with the Epigravettian and the Romanellian. The fauna of these periods is characterised above all by aurochs (about 33% for both the Epigravettian and Romanellian) followed by equids (respectively 23% in the older phase and 15% in the more recent phase) and, in smaller quantities, wild boar and fox. Particularly interesting is the presence of both the cave hyena (Crocuta crocuta spelaea Goldfuss) and the porcupine (Hystrix cristata L.). The presence of the former in the Grotta delle Veneri near Parabita would seem to be one of the most recent reported cases of this mammal in Italy. In contrast, given its preference for caves, the presence of the porcupine in the Romanellian levels is probably the result of a more recent intrusion.

The twin burial in the Veneri cave near Parabita yielded 26 atrophic deer canines, all covered in ochre and pierced at the root, found on the edge of the pit. The arrangement of the canines at the moment of their discovery indicates that at least 24 of them probably belonged to a headdress. Morphometric and functional analysis showed that the majority (25 out of 26) of the atrophic canines belonged to adult male individuals, indicating selective hunting.

As concerns the continuing debate over the impact of Roman conquest in the world, Rome represents a very interesting case study as it represented the core of the Roman Empire and the geographic foundation of Roman culture. In this respect, the zooarchaeology of Rome itself provides a most promising area of investigation, as the modern city has been the scene of extensive archaeological activity in recent years. The results from the analysis of animal assemblages from Rome and neighbouring geographic areas show that significant changes occurred across the pre-Roman/Roman transition and throughout the Roman period. They include substantial changes in diet, with pork consumption becoming predominant, improvements in pig and other livestock, the development of breeds and varieties of dogs, and the introduction of exotic animals for use in exhibitions and games.

In this study, we integrate osteometric and palaeogenetic data to investigate dog variability in the Roman Empire in Iberia and North Africa. Osteometry was used to distinguish the statusddomestic or wild, of approximately 2000 years old Canis remains and to understand to what extent teeth and long bones varied in dogs in the Roman provinces of Mauretania Tingitana, Lusitania and Tarraconensis. Highthroughput 454-DNA sequencing technology was used to obtain mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from 15 bone and teeth samples.We identified five dog haplotypes from partial sequences of the hypervariable D-loop region. MtDNA haplotypes were grouped into two of the four major clades found in present-day dogs. We detected three clade A haplotypes in 12 samples from Portugal, Spain and Morocco, and a single clade D haplotype in 3 samples from Spain. So far, this is the oldest evidence for the presence of dog clade D in Iberia. It is dated to the late Roman occupation in the 4th-5th cent. AD (ca. 1,600 years ago). Our results confirm the existence of distinct dog morphotypes in Roman times that also harboured distinct genetic lineages. According to our data, dogs from distinct mtDNA lineages (clades A and D) have been continuously bred in the Iberian Peninsula since at least 1600 years ago. Moreover, the sharing of matrilines between dogs from Spain and North Africa may indicate gene flow. Dogs could have been easily transported between these regions by humans along maritime and terrestrial trade routes. These results provide new insights into pre-Roman and Roman domestication practices, confirming selection practices were extensively applied to dogs during the first centuries of our era in the Iberian Peninsula. We show that the greater size variability of teeth length (and consequently cranium) and long bone breadths (and consequently phenotype) of Roman dogs in the Iberian Peninsula, is concomitant with the detection of diverse and rare maternal lineages. This would reflect an intensification of dog breeding and the use of non-local dogs for breeding., This study was funded by the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) within the research PTDC/HIS-ARQ/100225/2008; and AE Pires grant SFRH/BPD/112653/2015; C Detry grant SFRH/BPD/108326/2015 and C Ginja contract grant IF/00866/2014.

Masseti M., Albarella U. & De Grossi Mazzorin J. 2010. — The crested porcupine, Hystrix cristata L., 1758, in Italy. Anthropozoologica 45 (2): 27–42.

The knuckle-bone has always had both a ritual function linked to the practice of divination and a profane use as a gaming piece for infants and adults. Knuckle bones from different animal species can be used, but sheep and goat (Ovis and Capra)and pig (Sus domesticus) generally prevail. These bones are small and can easily be handled together. Groups of worked and non-modified knucklebones have been discovered in several archaeological contexts in Italy. The most important evidence for the funerary use of these bones in Italy is undoubtedly represented by the thousands of knuckle-bones discovered in the cemetery of Locri Epizefiri, dated to the Hellenistic period. In recent times, large amounts of worked and non-modified knuckle-bones have been brought to light in the cemeteries of Le Grotte near Populonia (4th-3rd c. BC) and Poggio Picenze in Abruzzi (3rd-2nd c. BC). The zooarchaeological analysis of these samples and their comparison with other evidence can contribute to our understanding of se...

Jacopo De Grossi Mazzorin, État de nos connaissances concernant le traitement et la consommation du poisson dans l'Antiquité à la lumière de l'archéologie. L'exemple de Rome, p. 155-167. Parmi les activités vivrières, la pêche ne figure que de façon sporadique dans les différents habitats du Latium antique. À notre connaissance, les témoignages directs ou indirects d'activités halieutiques documentées, sur les sites archéologiques de Rome ou de ses environs immédiats, sont rares pour la période proto-historique. En revanche, on relève une sensible augmentation de la quantité de ce type de vestiges concomitante à l'explosion démographique que la Ville a connue au cours des phases plus tardives d'urbanisation, et notamment pendant l'Empire. La découverte d'une épine pectorale de poisson-chat de l'espèce Clarias présente un grand intérêt. Ces espèces (Claridae) sont actuellement répandues dans toute l'Afrique mais la diffusion géographique de l'une d'elles, le Clarias gariepinus s'étend au Moyen-Orient. La présence de l'épine d'un poisson-chat à Rome amène naturellement un certain nombre de questions et notamment pour quelles raisons et de quelle manière ce résidu est-il arrivé dans ce contexte?, De Grossi Mazzorin Jacopo. État de nos connaissances concernant le traitement et la consommation du poisson dans l'Antiquité, à la lumière de l'archéologie. L'exemple de Rome. In: Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Antiquité, tome 112, n°1. 2000. pp. 155-167.

Riparo di Biarzo si trova a 160 m s.l.m. alla base di un terrazzo alluvionale lungo la sponda sinistra del Fiume Natisone nel Friuli orientale. Scavi del deposito sono stati diretti dal Prof. A. Guerreschi negli anni 1982, 1983 e 1984 in collaborazione con la Dr.ssa F. Bressan del Museo Friulano di Storia Naturale (UD). La sequenza antropica comprende livelli attribuibili all’Epigravettiano finale, Mesolitico e Neolitico. Si presenta lo studio condotto sui resti ossei rinvenuti nel livello Epigravettiano, datato 11.100 ± 125 14C B.P. (R-1850). Lo spettro faunistico evidenzia la presenza dominante di cinghiale tra gli ungulati e la prevalenza dell’orso bruno tra i carnivori. La situazione geografica di bassa pianura del giacimento ha favorito l’abbondanza di Sus scrofa mettendo in risalto un quadro faunistico singolare rispetto ad altri siti della fascia pedemontana e montana dell’Italia Nord Orientale alla fine del Tardiglaciale. L’analisi tafonomica ha evidenziato tracce di intervento antropico sulla maggior parte dei resti attribuibili ad ungulati. Un marcato sfruttamento del cervo a scopo alimentare è ben documentato in tutte le fasi della catena di macellazione. Tra i carnivori solo alcuni resti ossei di Ursus arctos presentano tracce di taglio da strumento litico. The shelter of Biarzo is located at the base of an alluvial terrace on the left side of the Natisone river at 160 m.l.s. in the eastern of Friuli. The deposit was excavated fr om 1982 to 1984 by Prof. A. Guerreschi and was divided into several layers dated to the final Epigravettian, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic periods. Our contribution presents the results of the study carried out on the faunal remains recovered in the epigravett ian layer, dated to 11.100 ± 125 14C BP. The predominance of wild boar among the ungulates is of particular interest when compared to other epigravett ian sites of northeastern Italy. Traces of human actions have been identifi ed on the most ungulates bones, whereas among the carnivores only a few bear bones have been clearly showed cut marks.