Morphometric characteristics of the bovine bones from the excavations of the Bronze Age site of Gonur-depe

Abstract

Gonur-depe is a Bronze-Age archaeological site in Turkmenistan, the presumable center of Ancient Margiana (the Bactrian-Margiana archaeological complex), located in the South-Eastern Karakum. The proto-urban center was functioning from 2500 to 1500 BC. The basis of the economy of the ancient population was mixed farming, including irrigated agriculture and livestock. Cattle was used as the source of meat, milk, skins, as well as draft animals and in rituals. In terms of the number of bones from the excavations, cattle is inferior to small cattle. However, in terms of the meat production, the contributions of bovine cattle and small cattle to the diet of the inhabitants of Gonur-depe were commensurable. Bones of older individuals predominate amongst the animals slaughtered for meat. Bones of bovine cattle are found in all excavation trenches of the site in garbage layers and ritual structures. At the same time, information on the morphological features of the cattle has been extremely limited until recently. Therefore, this study was aimed at the analysis of the morphometric characteristics of the skeletal remains of cattle from the excavations of Gonur. These data give an idea of the size of the cattle bred by the ancient population. Complete skeletons are of particular interest for the morphological study. We have studied the skeletons from burial No. 3895 of Northern Gonur, tomb No. 12 of Gonur-21, and remains of a dismembered carcass from burial No. 3890. The first skeleton belongs to an adult bull, the second to a calf, and the dismembered carcass belongs to a young cow. The size of the bull, measured by the skeleton, is quite large. It reached a height of at least 136 cm. Comparison of the measurements of disparate cattle bones from Gonur and other sites of the Bronze Age shows that they are on average larger than those of cattle of the Late Bronze Age of Eastern Europe, close in size to the bones of cattle from the Trans-Urals, and slightly smaller than the Eneolithic cattle of Southern Turkmenistan. The sizes of the metapodia, talus bones and first phalanges were used to calculate the height at the withers by disparate bones. The average height at the withers of the cattle from Gonur, reconstructed on the basis of the measurements of the skeletons and scattered bones, was at least 120 cm for cows, at least 130 cm for bulls, and 132 cm or more for oxen. Therefore, the size of the cattle bred by the inhabitants of Gonur in arid conditions was not smaller, and in some cases even larger than that of cattle of some other cultures of the Late Bronze Age and differed insignificantly from the Eneolithic cattle of Southern Turkmenistan.

Keywords

• turkmenistan
• bronze age
• bactrian-margiana archaeological culture
• ancient animal husbandry
• cattle