Season of death of domestic horses deposited in a ritual complex from Bronze Age Mongolia Insights from oxygen isotope time-series in tooth enamel
Nicolas Lazzerini
(1)
,
Antoine Zazzo
(1)
,
Aurélie Coulon
(2, 3)
,
Charlotte Marchina
(4)
,
Noost Bayarkhuu
(5)
,
Vincent Bernard
(6)
,
Mathilde Cervel
(7)
,
Denis Fiorillo
(1)
,
Dominique Joly
,
Camille Noûs
(8)
,
Tsagaan Turbat
(5)
,
Sébastien Lepetz
(1)
1
AASPE -
Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
2 CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
3 CESCO - Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation
4 IFRAE - Institut français de recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est
5 MAS - Mongolian Academy of Sciences
6 CReAAH - Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire
7 AOROC - Archéologie et Philologie d'Orient et d'Occident
8 Laboratoire Cogitamus = Cogitamus Laboratory
2 CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
3 CESCO - Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation
4 IFRAE - Institut français de recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est
5 MAS - Mongolian Academy of Sciences
6 CReAAH - Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire
7 AOROC - Archéologie et Philologie d'Orient et d'Occident
8 Laboratoire Cogitamus = Cogitamus Laboratory
Nicolas Lazzerini
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1193002
Antoine Zazzo
Connectez-vous pour contacter l'auteur
- Fonction : Auteur correspondant
- PersonId : 178947
- IdHAL : antoine-zazzo
- ORCID : 0000-0001-7608-2207
- IdRef : 066936004
Connectez-vous pour contacter l'auteur
Aurélie Coulon
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 176600
- IdHAL : aurelie-coulon
- ORCID : 0000-0003-0309-2214
- IdRef : 112621260
Charlotte Marchina
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1049347
- IdHAL : charlotte-marchina
- ORCID : 0000-0003-3776-9967
- IdRef : 194569772
Vincent Bernard
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 182293
- IdHAL : vincent-bernard
- IdRef : 050534076
Denis Fiorillo
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1232093
- ORCID : 0000-0002-7196-5673
Dominique Joly
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 750359
- IdHAL : dominique-georges-alfred-joly
Camille Noûs
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 183511
- IdHAL : cnous
- ORCID : 0000-0002-0778-8115
- IdRef : 249647966
Sébastien Lepetz
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 169696
- IdHAL : sebastien-lepetz
- ORCID : 0000-0001-9504-4871
- IdRef : 079032982
Résumé
The horse, as a domestic animal, had a strong impact on the organisation of ancient societies of the eastern steppes of Eurasia by enabling people to move faster and transport goods and people more efficiently. This newfound mobility was accompanied by profound changes in the expression of ritual practices, and horses are repeatedly found in funerary monuments of the Late Bronze Age in Mongolia. While recent advances in research have highlighted the link between the presence of horses in ritual monuments and their role in the pastoralist diet, little is yet known about their practical contexts – including the season in which the animals were slaughtered and the time of year when the funerary and ritual sites were visited. In modern Mongolia, horse meat is consumed during winter, but the antiquity of this practice is currently undocumented. Here, we use stable oxygen isotope variations (δ18O) recorded by developing molars of horses to estimate the season of slaughter of two horses deposited at the Late Bronze Age khirgisuur of Burgast (Bayan-Ölgii province, western Mongolia). The analysis of a modern reference set consisting of five horses from the same locality shows that it is possible to date the time of death with a resolution of the order of the season. Isotopic analysis of the two ancient horses suggests that they were slaughtered in early (November) and late (February) winter. Zooarchaeological evidence reveals that while the first horse was deposited shortly after death, the second was deposited several months after death, following open-air exposure. These preliminary results provide an important landmark to document the multi-dimensional aspects (economic, social, as well as cultural) of the role of horses in the ritual practices of Bronze Age Mongolia. They indicate that the timing of horse deposition is more complex than previously thought. They also demonstrate that winter slaughtering of horses dates back to the Late Bronze Age and was probably constrained by a combination of economic and practical decisions regarding meat preservation. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Domaines
Archéologie et PréhistoireFormat du dépôt | Fichier |
---|---|
Type de dépôt | Article dans une revue |
Résumé |
en
The horse, as a domestic animal, had a strong impact on the organisation of ancient societies of the eastern steppes of Eurasia by enabling people to move faster and transport goods and people more efficiently. This newfound mobility was accompanied by profound changes in the expression of ritual practices, and horses are repeatedly found in funerary monuments of the Late Bronze Age in Mongolia. While recent advances in research have highlighted the link between the presence of horses in ritual monuments and their role in the pastoralist diet, little is yet known about their practical contexts – including the season in which the animals were slaughtered and the time of year when the funerary and ritual sites were visited. In modern Mongolia, horse meat is consumed during winter, but the antiquity of this practice is currently undocumented. Here, we use stable oxygen isotope variations (δ18O) recorded by developing molars of horses to estimate the season of slaughter of two horses deposited at the Late Bronze Age khirgisuur of Burgast (Bayan-Ölgii province, western Mongolia). The analysis of a modern reference set consisting of five horses from the same locality shows that it is possible to date the time of death with a resolution of the order of the season. Isotopic analysis of the two ancient horses suggests that they were slaughtered in early (November) and late (February) winter. Zooarchaeological evidence reveals that while the first horse was deposited shortly after death, the second was deposited several months after death, following open-air exposure. These preliminary results provide an important landmark to document the multi-dimensional aspects (economic, social, as well as cultural) of the role of horses in the ritual practices of Bronze Age Mongolia. They indicate that the timing of horse deposition is more complex than previously thought. They also demonstrate that winter slaughtering of horses dates back to the Late Bronze Age and was probably constrained by a combination of economic and practical decisions regarding meat preservation. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
|
Titre |
en
Season of death of domestic horses deposited in a ritual complex from Bronze Age Mongolia Insights from oxygen isotope time-series in tooth enamel
|
Auteur(s) |
Nicolas Lazzerini
1
, Antoine Zazzo
1
, Aurélie Coulon
2, 3
, Charlotte Marchina
4
, Noost Bayarkhuu
5
, Vincent Bernard
6
, Mathilde Cervel
7
, Denis Fiorillo
1
, Dominique Joly
, Camille Noûs
8
, Tsagaan Turbat
5
, Sébastien Lepetz
1
1
AASPE -
Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
( 118105 )
- Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle - Case postale 56 - 55 rue Buffon - 75005 Paris
- France
2
CEFE -
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
( 1002332 )
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - 1919 route de Mende - 34293 Montpellier CEDEX 5
- France
3
CESCO -
Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation
( 542014 )
- Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation - 55 rue Buffon - 75005 PARIS
- France
4
IFRAE -
Institut français de recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est
( 1004990 )
- 2, rue de Lille - 75007 Paris
- France
5
MAS -
Mongolian Academy of Sciences
( 337004 )
- Amariin gudamj 1, Ulaanbaatar 210620, Mongolia
- Mongolie
6
CReAAH -
Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire
( 206481 )
- Université de Rennes 1
Bâtiment 24-25 Campus de Beaulieu
263, Avenue du général Leclerc
Campus de Beaulieu
CS 74205 -
35042 Rennes Cedex- France
- France
7
AOROC -
Archéologie et Philologie d'Orient et d'Occident
( 226098 )
- CNRS : UMR8546 - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - 45 Rue d'Ulm 75230 PARIS CEDEX 05
- France
8
Laboratoire Cogitamus = Cogitamus Laboratory
( 1004353 )
- France
|
Nom de la revue |
|
Date de publication |
2020-08
|
Langue du document |
Anglais
|
Vulgarisation |
Non
|
Comité de lecture |
Oui
|
Audience |
Internationale
|
Date de publication électronique |
2020-05-20
|
Volume |
32
|
Page/Identifiant |
102387
|
Projet(s) ANR |
|
Financement |
|
Domaine(s) |
|
Mots-clés |
en
Altai, Funerary practices, Geochemistry, Khirgisuur, Nomadism, Zooarchaeology
|
DOI | 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102387 |
Origine :
Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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