Approaching sheep herds origins and the emergence of the wool economy in continental Europe during the Bronze Age

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00856-x ORIGINAL PAPER Approaching sheep herds origins and the emergence of the wool economy in continental Europe during the Bronze Age S. Sabatini 1 1 2 & S. Bergerbrant & L. Ø. Brandt & A. Margaryan 3,4 & M. E. Allentoft 3 Received: 20 February 2019 / Accepted: 8 May 2019 # The Author(s) 2019 Abstract In recent years, extensive archaeological studies have provided us with new knowledge on wool and woollen textile production in continental Europe during the Bronze Age. Concentrations of large numbers of textile tools, and of zooarchaeological evidence suggesting intense sheepherding, hint at specialized centres of wool production during the Bronze Age. The aim of this paper is to discuss whether engagement with this economic activity was facilitated by the introduction of new foreign sheep types, possibly from the Eastern Mediterranean, where well-established wool economies existed, or by using local sheep, or a mixture of local and non-local types. A small-scale genetic pilot study, presented in this paper, primarily aimed at testing the DNA preservation, and thus the genomic potential in Bronze Age sheep remains provides evidence of both mitochondrial haplogroups A and B among Bronze Age sheep in Hungary. This result could hint at sheep herds with mixed origin but further in-depth studies are necessary to address this. We aim to promote scholarly interest in the issue and propose new directions for research on this topic. Keywords Ancient wool . Breeding practices . Textile production . Ancient DNA . Second millennium BC Introduction The introduction of wool and of woollen textile production represented in all likelihood a major innovation in Bronze Age Europe during the 2nd millennium BCE. Wool was clearly becoming increasingly appreciated and widespread in Europe. This is demonstrated by the presence of woollen textile fragments in the archaeological record from various parts of the continent (see below). Despite the need for more data to better understand the characteristics of the continental wool economy, current research suggests that local production of wool and woollen products emerged and developed in Europe * S. Sabatini 1 Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden 2 Centre for Urban Network Evolutions, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark 3 Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, Copenhagen 1350, Denmark 4 Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 7, Hasratian St., 0014 Yerevan, Armenia during the Bronze Age (e.g. Becker et al. 2016; Bergerbrant 2018; Bergerbrant in press; Gleba 2017; Sabatini et al. 2018; Vretemark 2010). Moreover, recent strontium isotope analyses on wool textiles from the Early Bronze Age in Denmark suggest that the clothing found in a number of local elite graves was manufactured mainly with wool produced outside present-day Danish territory, the island of Bornholm excluded (Frei et al. 2015; Frei et al. 2017; see Thomsen and Andreasen 2019 for baseline discussion). These results show the existence of a continental trade of wool and/or of woollen textiles on a large scale (Kristiansen and Sørensen in Press). Multiple factors must have contributed to this rise of continental wool economies, including technological exchange and a growing demand (e.g. Bender Jørgensen 2018; Frei et al. 2017; Harris 2012; Kristiansen 2016). However, the emergence of local production might have been triggered, or facilitated, in the first place by access to woollier animals. This could have happened through the introduction of new foreign animals or by extensive breeding in local sheep or maybe a mixture of both. To understand the development of the wool economy, it is therefore of critical importance to identify the type of sheep used for production. Supported by the results of our small-scale genetic study (see below), we argue that an interdisciplinary approach is essential to addressing this problem, and valuable insights are expected to come in the future through the study of ancient DNA (aDNA) from sheep. Archaeol Anthropol Sci The emergence of wool production during the European Bronze Age A wealth of archaeological evidence has shown that woollen textiles came into use across continental Europe at the onset of the second millennium BCE (Bender Jørgensen 1992; Bender Jørgensen and Rast-Eicher 2016; Bender Jørgensen and RastEicher 2018; Gleba and Mannering 2012; Rast-Eicher and Bender Jørgensen 2013), and also that a local production emerged at some sites throughout the following centuries (Belanová Štolcova and Grömer 2010; Bergerbrant 2018; Bergerbrant in press; Earle and Kristiansen 2010b; Sabatini et al. 2018). Fully developed wool economies already existed in the Near East during the third millennium BCE as documented by archaeological, iconographical and written sources (e.g. Biga 2011; Breniquet and Michel 2014; Michel and Nosch 2010; Wisti Lassen 2010). A comparable combination of evidence shows that wool and woollen textile production also flourished in the Aegean during the second millennium BCE (e.g. Burke 2012; Del Freo et al. 2010; Killien 2015; Nosch 2014; Nosch 2015). Around the coasts of the northeastern Mediterranean, the wool economy appears to have been an expansive activity involving large numbers of animals, intense labour, specialised artisans and meticulous administration. However, it is clear that written archive records from these areas represent a major source of information and we could not have gained such insights by relying only on archaeological evidence (see e.g. Burke 2012; Siennicka 2014; Skals et al. 2015; Tournavitou et al. 2015). For the study of wool economy in the continental context, textual and archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean world, although politically and socio-culturally different, represent important contemporaneous references (Sabatini 2018). However, when lacking written sources, we must rely on three kinds of archaeological evidence to assess wool production in Bronze Age Europe: (1) the occurrence and distribution of tools related to the production of textiles, (2) the zooarchaeological remains revealing the presence of high proportions of sheep/goats among the domesticated animals, and (3) the presence of fragments of wool textiles. Textile tools attest to the production of textiles (e.g. Barber 1991; Gleba 2008), but how these can be used to assess the quality, type and origin of the fibres has been much debated (e.g. Andersson Strand et al. 2008; Andersson Strand and Nosch In press; Grömer 2006; Kania 2015). Zooarchaeological studies, in combination with the study of the archaeobotanical remains, are critical to our understanding of whether there was access to wool or plant fibres or both (e.g. Barber 1991; Bender Jørgen (...truncated)