ABSTRACT
A key component in reconstructing the evolution of ancient pastoral management strategies and production systems is to trace geographical patterns in community grazing areas through time. Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) provide an ideal proxy and have been successfully used to investigate prehistoric mobility in domestic livestock. And comparison of patterns in domestic species with ‘natural’ grazing areas of exploited wild fauna deepens our picture of human economic decisions and their environmental context. But previous work has been hampered by coarse resolution in regional geographic variation in bioavailable isotope values. We interpolated values of bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr from a regional web of background samples surrounding Köşk Höyük (6200–4900 cal BC) to create a local ‘isoscape’ onto which we trace grazing areas for domestic ovicaprines and exploited wild equids. The results detail changes in local land-use patterns consistent with shifting production priorities and differentiation in rights of access to grazing spaces. We will consider the implications of the data, and factors in the use of such ‘isoscapes’ to understand past human ecology and economy.
