Pasture usage by ancient pastoralists in the northern Kazakh steppe informed by carbon and nitrogen isoscapes of contemporary floral biomes

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0660-4 ORIGINAL PAPER Pasture usage by ancient pastoralists in the northern Kazakh steppe informed by carbon and nitrogen isoscapes of contemporary floral biomes A. R. Ventresca Miller 1,2,3 & T. M. Bragina 4,5 4 4 & Y. A. Abil & M. M. Rulyova & C. A. Makarewicz 2 Received: 8 August 2017 / Accepted: 22 May 2018 # The Author(s) 2018 Abstract Identification of variation in pasture use by domesticated livestock has important implications for understanding the scale of animal husbandry and landscape use in modern and ancient societies alike. Here, we explore the influence of pasture floral composition, salinity, and water availability on the carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic composition of plants from the steppes of Kazakhstan. Our findings demonstrate geospatially defined differences in the isotopic composition of sedge marshes, saline marshes, and meadow steppes, information which we then use to inform animal management strategies used in the past. We then examine pasture usage by ancient livestock through carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of bone collagen from animals that grazed in the northern Kazakh steppe. Pasturing strategies varied according to livestock taxa, with horses exhibiting lower δ13C and δ15N values relative to cattle, sheep, and goat. We argue that horses, which are highly mobile and freely graze over pastures extending over wide areas, were grazed under an extensive pasturing system. These data suggest that the isotopic composition of contemporary vegetation communities can help inform animal management strategies used in the past. Keywords Bronze age . Sintashta . Andronovo . Kazakhstan . Livestock . Pasture Introduction Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0660-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * A. R. Ventresca Miller 1 Graduate School for Human Development in Landscapes, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Leibnizstr. 3, 24118 Kiel, Germany 2 Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Johanna-Mestorf-Straße 2-6, 24118 Kiel, Germany 3 Department of Archaeology, Stable Isotope Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany 4 Kostanay State Pedagogical Institute, Tauelsizdik street 118, Kostanay, Kazakhstan 110000 5 Federal State Budget Scientific Institution Azov Fisheries Research Institute, 21V Beregovaya street, 344002 Rostov-on-Don, Russia Pastoralists employ a diverse set of animal management strategies to ensure their subsistence and that of their herds. One important husbandry practice involves moving livestock to different pastures in order provide herd animals with a continuous source of fresh graze (Wright and Makarewicz 2015; Outram 2015). The spatial extent of pasturing systems and the intensity of pasture use depend on a complex intersect of ecological and social factors including seasonality, graze availability, water point, predators, stocking rate, and pasture access rights (Fernandez-Gimenez 2000, 2002; Kerven et al. 2006; Milner-Gulland et al. 2006; Kerven et al. 2016). While the intensity of pasture usage structures pastoralist movement and has direct consequences for the health of pastoral herds, little is known about pasturing intensity for different livestock species in prehistoric pastoralist contexts. Typically, contemporary pastoralists partition their herd animals into different groups depending on species, age, and animal value. These separate herds are then directed to different pastures according to the quantity and quality of pasturage in order to balance graze intake and (re)productive output (Fernandez-Gimenez 2000; Fernandez-Gimenez 2002; Kerven et al. 2016). Archaeol Anthropol Sci The practice of partitioning herds and subsequent dispersal of animals to different pastures is widely practiced in pastoralist societies across the globe. Contemporary agro-pastoralists in Kazakhstanalsoemployseveralvariantsofthisherdmanagement strategy, taking advantage of diverse forage quality and quantity on the landscape, both of which vary on a seasonal basis (Robinson et al. 2003; Kerven et al. 2006; Schillhorn van Veen et al. 2003; Kerven et al. 2016). These include intensive pasturing strategies involving grazing of herds (cattle, goats) within 5 km of small villages and more extensive herding strategies that place herds onto distant pastures up to 20 km from settled areas (horse, cattle, sheep,goat) (Kerven et al. 2006, 2016). Some herders graze livestock at distant pastures more than 20 km from village while others entrust their livestock to owners of remote pastures (Kerven et al. 2006; Kerven et al. 2016). Pasture stocking rates (density of animals grazing per acre) vary depending on local environmental conditions that in turn influence the spatial extent of pasturing systems. For example, locations that receive higher amounts of precipitation, which promotes pasture growth, tend to support high herd densities even for heavily subscribed pastures located near villages (Robinson et al. 2003; Kerven et al. 2006; Kerven et al. 2016). Kazakh herders also divide small-stock and large-stock into separate pastures. Cattle are frequently grazed on low-quality forage (e.g., coarse reeds) in river floodplains and saline marshes located within 5 to 20 km villages. During the milking season, lactating cows and suckling calves are often grazed on higher-quality pastures located near villages (Robinson et al. 2003; Kerven 2016). Sheep and goats are often grazed in the open steppe where they feed on shorter herbs and finer grasses that can be grazed all year (Kerven 2016). While all livestock roam somewhat freely, horses are the most autonomous and least likely to be attacked by predators; therefore, they range the farthest from villages searching for appropriate vegetation (Kerven et al. 2016). Establishing the scale and intensity of pasture use by different livestock species potentially provides insights into pastoralist adaptations to shifting graze availability and social landscapes (Honeychurch and Makarewicz 2016). However, the extent of pasture use by ancient steppe pastoralists has so far only been indirectly inferred based on the distribution, size, and occupation density of prehistoric settlements (Epimakhov 2002; Epimakhov 2009; Frachetti 2009; Hanks 2009; Batanina and Hanks 2013). Here, we explore pasture use by different livestock taxa during the second millennium cal BCE in the northern Kazakh steppe through carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of caprines, cattle, and horse remains recovered from MBA sites of Bestamak, Kamennyi Ambar, and Bolshekaragansky alongside the LBA site of Lisakovsk. Stable isotope analysis provides a direct measure of livestock dietary intake and offers a powerf (...truncated)