P Halstead
Biographic Data
| ID | 68779 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P Halstead |
| GIVEN NAMES | P |
| FAMILY NAME | Halstead |
| SIGNATURE | HALSTEAD P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sheffield |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3347-0637 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 69 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1020 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 69 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Wet Season Carbon (δ 13 C) and Nitrogen (δ 15 N) Composition of Modern Plants as Isotopic Framework for Agropastoral and Palaeoecological Studies in Northern Greece
Mediterranean wetlands are one of Europe's most vital and endangered biodiversity hotspots. This study determined the carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) isotope values of modern plants to construct an isotopic framework by which to contextualize agropastoral management in and around past wetland ecosystems. Dispilio is a Neolithic site (5700–3600 cal bce ) on the shore of Lake Kastoria, western Greek Macedonia, where ongoing studies are explor…
Zooarchaeological evidence for livestock management in (earlier) Neolithic Europe
With the increasingly routine recovery of faunal remains from archaeological excavations and zooarchaeological analysis of such assemblages by macroscopic and, more recently, biomolecular methods, we now have an unprecedented wealth of evidence for early European livestock management at local, regional and continental scales. We can identify broad geographical and temporal trends in the relative abundance, size and mortality patterns of different…
Management of feral goats Capra hircus Linnaeus, 1758 in insular southern Greece
Halstead, Paul, Isaakidou, Valasia (2024): Management of feral goats Capra hircus Linnaeus, 1758 in insular southern Greece: implications for prehistory. Anthropozoologica 59 (6): 77-95, DOI: 10.5252/anthropozoologica2024v58a6, URL: https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/anthropozoologica2024v59a6.pdf
Τhe domestication of southwest Asian 'farmyard animals
Understanding early animal domestication is complicated by disagreement over what, in cultural terms, differentiates domestic (closely managed? privately owned?) from wild and by the difficulty of distinguishing these categories zooarchaeologically. We describe recent feral populations of goats, sheep, cattle and pigs in Greece, comprising descendants of animals escaped or released from controlled domestic herds but remaining in private ownership…
Changing Land Use and Political Economy at Neolithic and Bronze Age Knossos, Crete
Excavations at Knossos have uncovered faunal and archaeobotanical archives spanning the Neolithic and Bronze Age (7th–2nd millennia bce ), during which one of Europe’s earliest known farming settlements developed into its first major urban settlement and centre of one of its oldest regional states. Through stable isotope (δ 13 C, δ 15 N) analysis of seeds and bones (as evidence for the growing conditions of cereal and pulse crops and for the type…
The ‘Wild’ Goats of Ancient Crete
Exploring Diversity in Neolithic Agropastoral Management in Mainland Greece Using Stable Isotope Analysis
New stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values of charred plant and bone collagen remains from 6th mill. BCE Halai, central Greece, together with datasets from 6th mill. BCE Kouphovouno, southern Greece, and later 6th/early 5th mill. BCE Makriyalos, northern Greece, demonstrate how early farming communities in mainland Greece adapted mixed farming strategies to distinct local environmental and cultural settings. Intra-site similariti…
Animal carcass processing, cooking and consumption at Early Neolithic Revenia-Korinou, northern Greece
From texts to teeth
Strontium isotope evidence for human mobility in the Neolithic of northern Greece
Strontium isotope ratios are widely used in archaeology to differentiate between local and non-local populations. Herein, strontium isotope ratios of 36 human tooth enamels from seven archaeological sites spanning the Early to Late Neolithic of northern Greece (7th–5th millennia B.C.E.) were analysed with the aim of providing new information relating to the movement of humans across the region. Local bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr signals were establishe…
Sheep in the Garden
A bottom-up view of food surplus
We use stable isotope analysis of crop, faunal and human remains to investigate agricultural strategies and diet at EBA-LBA Archontiko and MBA-LBA Thessaloniki Toumba. Crop production strategies varied between settlements, phases and species; flexibility is also apparent within the crop storesof individual houses. Escalating manuring intensity at LBA Thessaloniki Toumba coincides with large co-residential ‘blocks’ geared towards hoarding of agric…
Early farmers from across Europe directly descended from Neolithic Aegeans
Significance One of the most enduring and widely debated questions in prehistoric archaeology concerns the origins of Europe’s earliest farmers: Were they the descendants of local hunter-gatherers, or did they migrate from southwestern Asia, where farming began? We recover genome-wide DNA sequences from early farmers on both the European and Asian sides of the Aegean to reveal an unbroken chain of ancestry leading from central and southwestern Eu…
Two Oxen Ahead
Refining human palaeodietary reconstruction using amino acid δ15N values of plants, animals and humans
An established method of estimating the trophic level of an organism is through stable isotope analysis of its tissues and those of its diet. This method has been used in archaeology to reconstruct past human diet from the stable nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values of human and herbivore bone collagen. However, this approach, using the 15N-enrichment of human bone collagen δ15N values over associated herbivore bone collagen δ15N values to predict the …
Stable carbon isotope analysis as a direct means of inferring crop water status and water management practices
Stable carbon isotope analysis of plant remains is a promising tool for researchers studying palaeoclimate and past agricultural systems. The potential of the technique is clear: it offers a direct measure of the water conditions in which plants grew. In this paper, we assess how reliably stable carbon isotope discrimination can be used to infer water conditions, through the analysis of present-day crop plants grown at multiple locations across t…
Manuring and stable nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals and pulses
Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies. Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies
Nakassis et al., in their contribution to this Forum, argue that the term “redistribution” has been used with a range of meanings in the context of the Aegean Bronze Age and so obscures rather than illuminates the emergence and functioning of political economies. They call for detailed empirical investigation rather than reliance on ambiguous idealized types. Lupack and Schon concur, arguing respectively that the palace shared control of the Myce…
Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies
Variations in the 13C/12C ratios of modern wheat grain, and implications for interpreting data from Bronze Age Assiros Toumba, Greece
Professor Andrew Sherratt
Professor Andrew Sherratt
was an Old World prehistorian with an unusual breadth of knowledge, interests and vision.At a time when increasing specialisation has driven most prehistorians to focus on particular aspects of life in the distant past, he moved nimbly from settlement
The Economics of Sheep and Goat Husbandry in Norse Greenland
Insight into the relative importance of sheep and goat herding and of the economic significance of each species (i.e., milk vs. meat vs. wool) in Medieval Greenland is obtained through the application of Halstead et al.'s (2002) criteria for the identification of adult ovicaprine mandibles to faunal assemblages from three Norse farmsteads: Sandnes, V52a, and Ø71S. The economic strategies identified are broadly comparable between the two species a…
Mycenaean Feasting on Tsoungiza at Ancient Nemea
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 73, Number 2, April-June 2004
Farming and feasting in the Neolithic of Greece
Fine Neolithic ceramics from Greece are widely interpreted in terms of ceremonial eating and drinking, while the spatial organisation of settlement suggests that such commensality played a significant role in shaping social relationships. Faunal evidence implies consumption of many domestic animals inlarge-scale commensality and supports the view that this promoted competition as well as solidarity. This paper explores the ecological context of s…
Manuring and stable nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals and pulses
Sorting the Sheep from the Goats
Stable carbon isotope analysis as a direct means of inferring crop water status and water management practices
Stable carbon isotope analysis of plant remains is a promising tool for researchers studying palaeoclimate and past agricultural systems. The potential of the technique is clear: it offers a direct measure of the water conditions in which plants grew. In this paper, we assess how reliably stable carbon isotope discrimination can be used to infer water conditions, through the analysis of present-day crop plants grown at multiple locations across t…
The Structure and Dynamics of Dry-Farming States in Upper Mesopotamia [and Comments and Reply]
Pastoralism or household herding? Problems of scale and specialization in early Greek animal husbandry
Recent strategies of animal husbandry in Greece range from pastoralism to mixed farming. Pastoralists tend to keep larger herds, schedule grazing to enhance nutrition and productivity, and specialize in particular products for exchange. Each of these tendencies has implications for the species and age/sex composition of livestock which are amenable to archaeozoological investigation. Faunai assemblages from seventh‐second millennium BC Greece mat…
Maslins, mixtures and monocrops
Variations in the 13C/12C ratios of modern wheat grain, and implications for interpreting data from Bronze Age Assiros Toumba, Greece
A bottom-up view of food surplus
We use stable isotope analysis of crop, faunal and human remains to investigate agricultural strategies and diet at EBA-LBA Archontiko and MBA-LBA Thessaloniki Toumba. Crop production strategies varied between settlements, phases and species; flexibility is also apparent within the crop storesof individual houses. Escalating manuring intensity at LBA Thessaloniki Toumba coincides with large co-residential ‘blocks’ geared towards hoarding of agric…
The analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites
Burnt animal sacrifice at the Mycenaean 'Palace of Nestor', Pylos
The burnt sacrifice of bare (defleshed) bones, described in Homer's Odyssey and well documented from Archaic and Classical Greece, is now clearly attested by burnt faunal remains from the 'Palace of Nestor' at Mycenaean Pylos. This evidance is of great importance for understanding both the historical role of sacrifice in Greek religion and the significance of fensting in Mycenaean palatial society
Refining human palaeodietary reconstruction using amino acid δ15N values of plants, animals and humans
An established method of estimating the trophic level of an organism is through stable isotope analysis of its tissues and those of its diet. This method has been used in archaeology to reconstruct past human diet from the stable nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values of human and herbivore bone collagen. However, this approach, using the 15N-enrichment of human bone collagen δ15N values over associated herbivore bone collagen δ15N values to predict the …
Ask the Fellows who Lop the Hay
As recently as the first half of this century, leaf- and twig-fodder cut from trees played a major role in animal husbandry across most of Europe and, in many areas, stored leafy hay was of critical importance to the survival of stalled livestock over winter (e.g. Brockmann-Jerosch, 1936; Radley, 1961; Spray, 1981; Salvi, 1982; Sigaut, 1982; Haas and Rasmussen, 1993). In addition to its importance to livestock, leaf- and twig-foddering also playe…
Waste not, want not
On May 29 1986, a storm tracked across central Macedonia. In the hills north of the small market town of Langadhas, a violent fall of hail flattened ripening cereal crops, but the destruction was very patchy: some fields belonging to the village of Assiros were devastated, but others were unharmed and the storm spared a neighbouring village before causing renewed damage further along its path. Farmers hit by the storm were lucky – they received c…
Early Animal Domestication and Its Cultural Context
Identifying the intensity of crop husbandry practices on the basis of weed floras
A question of broad economic and social significance is the extent to which farming in prehistoric times, and perhaps even in historical times, was characterised by cultivation on a small scale and with intensive methods. Archaeobotanically, a distinction may be possible between intensive and extensive cultivation on the basis of the weed seeds associated with ancient grain samples. To this end, an ecological study was carried out in central Ewia…
Mycenaean Feasting on Tsoungiza at Ancient Nemea
Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens - Volume 73, Number 2, April-June 2004
Towards the archaeobotanical identification of intensive cereal cultivation
Leafy Hay
(1998). Leafy Hay: an Ethnoarchaeological Study in NW Greece. Environmental Archaeology: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 71-80
The Archaeology of Fodder
Behavioural archaeology and refuse patterns
This paper examines the association and distribution of different classes of refuse around a late Iron Age and Roman settlement in Essex, England. It is shown, for instance, that bone and pottery refuse from the eating of meals was distributed differently from that deriving from food preparation. Some conclusions are then drawn about activity variation within the settlement. Clearly, this approach can extract a great wealth of information from ex…
Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies
An unusual Iron Age burial at Hornish Point, South Uist
Ritual, or apparently ritual, burials of Iron Age date are not uncommon in Britain. However, most of those for which records survive were recovered in less than ideal circumstances or from sites which are not securely dated. This example was recovered in recent excavations of a well-dated site, and from an area of Britain for which evidence of Iron Age burial practices is unusually scanty
Man and Other Animals in Later Greek Prehistory
Excavations in Greece over the last fifty years have produced considerable remains of animals from prehistoric sites. This paper discusses which species were exploited by man, and at what periods, the way in which each species was managed and the role of animal husbandry in the overall economy
Dimini and the ‘DMP’
Hourmouziadis' recent analysis of the extensive excavations at Dimini has isolated a series of residential subdivisions or ‘domestic areas’ within the Late Neolithic settlement. Faunal remains from the ‘central court’ and from five surrounding domestic areas suggest a remarkably uniform pattern of animal exploitation. Individual domestic units kept cows, goats, pigs, and especially sheep; sheep and pigs, at least, seem to have been raised princip…
Excavations at Assiros, 1975–9
Archaeological research into the prehistory of Central Macedonia started at the end of the last century with the explorations of Makridis, Schmidt, Träger, Wace and others, who reported on the numerous mound settlements and the surface material to be found on these, or undertook minor excavations. Extensive excavation began fortuitously with the entrenchments of the French and English expeditionary forces who arrived in 1916 to open a new front a…
The Bronze Age Demography of Crete and Greece—A Note
One of the specialist contributions often appended to an archaeological report is the analysis of human skeletal material. Such an analysis is rarely of sufficient interest to be included in the main report, largely because the excavator has not set pertinent and soluble problems for the analyst. The time of specialists has been wasted measuring morphological minutiae in a vain attempt to track down quasi-tribal entities in which archaeologists n…
Behavioural archaeology and refuse patterns
This paper examines the association and distribution of different classes of refuse around a late Iron Age and Roman settlement in Essex, England. It is shown, for instance, that bone and pottery refuse from the eating of meals was distributed differently from that deriving from food preparation. Some conclusions are then drawn about activity variation within the settlement. Clearly, this approach can extract a great wealth of information from ex…
Excavations at Assiros, 1975–9
Archaeological research into the prehistory of Central Macedonia started at the end of the last century with the explorations of Makridis, Schmidt, Träger, Wace and others, who reported on the numerous mound settlements and the surface material to be found on these, or undertook minor excavations. Extensive excavation began fortuitously with the entrenchments of the French and English expeditionary forces who arrived in 1916 to open a new front a…
Crop Storage at Assiros
The analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites
Man and Other Animals in Later Greek Prehistory
Excavations in Greece over the last fifty years have produced considerable remains of animals from prehistoric sites. This paper discusses which species were exploited by man, and at what periods, the way in which each species was managed and the role of animal husbandry in the overall economy
Introduction
The world about us is in a constant state of flux. The nomad in the Kalahari Desert and the Western city-dweller in front of his television set are both repeatedly confronted by changes in their natural surroundings and in the behaviour of other members of their own species. In this respect, at least, their experience is no different from that of all other organisms. Culture endows man with exceptional flexibility in coping with his surroundings …
The economy has a normal surplus
The subject of surplus may seem out of place in a volume concerned with scarcity, but the two issues are integrally linked. The importance of surplus lies in its problematic relationship with the emergence and maintenance of elites and other non-producing specialists. It is proposed that surplus be viewed as a normal response to the risk of scarcity in certain types of economy and certain types of environment. The changing role of surplus, and th…
Landscape and people of the franchthi region (excavations at franchthi cave, Greece
Star Carr Revisited
(1989). Star Carr Revisited: a re-analysis of the large mammals. By A.J. Legge and P. A. Rowley-Conwy. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 146, No. 1, pp. 586-587
The Palaeoeconomy of the Central Balkans (Serbia)
An unusual Iron Age burial at Hornish Point, South Uist
Ritual, or apparently ritual, burials of Iron Age date are not uncommon in Britain. However, most of those for which records survive were recovered in less than ideal circumstances or from sites which are not securely dated. This example was recovered in recent excavations of a well-dated site, and from an area of Britain for which evidence of Iron Age burial practices is unusually scanty
Waste not, want not
On May 29 1986, a storm tracked across central Macedonia. In the hills north of the small market town of Langadhas, a violent fall of hail flattened ripening cereal crops, but the destruction was very patchy: some fields belonging to the village of Assiros were devastated, but others were unharmed and the storm spared a neighbouring village before causing renewed damage further along its path. Farmers hit by the storm were lucky – they received c…
Conceptual issues in environmental archaeology
Bad Year Economics
Dimini and the ‘DMP’
Hourmouziadis' recent analysis of the extensive excavations at Dimini has isolated a series of residential subdivisions or ‘domestic areas’ within the Late Neolithic settlement. Faunal remains from the ‘central court’ and from five surrounding domestic areas suggest a remarkably uniform pattern of animal exploitation. Individual domestic units kept cows, goats, pigs, and especially sheep; sheep and pigs, at least, seem to have been raised princip…
Bone remains from Flag Fen platform and Fengate Power Station post alignment
The bone assemblages from the Flag Fen platform itself and from the contemporary post alignment revealed at the Fengate Power Station site are small (respectively c. 150 and c. 600 identified pieces), but may nonetheless shed some light on the nature of human activity at the two sites. For obvious reasons, this study is principally directed towards understanding the circumstances of bone deposition rather than towards a reconstruction of local an…
Early Animal Domestication and Its Cultural Context
Charred plant remains from neolithic–bronze age Platia Magoula Zarkou, Thessaly
Charred plant remains of middle neolithic to middle bronze age date indicate the processing for storage or consumption of emmer ( Triticum dicoccum ), hulled six-row barley ( Hordeum vulgare ), bitter vetch ( Vicia ervilia ) and acorns ( Quercus sp. ). Samples of emmer, barley, and bitter vetch from an early bronze age destruction level are valuable evidence for economic diversification at a household level
An early find of ‘fava’ from Thebes
A polychrome style krater from an LH I A destruction level in Thebes contained charred seeds of Vicia faba L. (field bean), which had been split in the manner of Greek ‘fava’ (φάβα). The growing archaeological evidence for late bronze age consumption of pulses contrasts with their absence from the Linear B archives. Consumption of the field bean as fava affects the intake of toxins which may cause lethal anaemia, but may also afford protection ag…
Spondylus shell ornaments from late Neolithic Dimini, Greece
Rings and buttons and beads cut from the marine shell, Spondylus gaederopus, are among the most distinctive exchange items of Neolithic Europe. From sources on the coast of the Mediterranean, these highly valued objects were widely distributed across central Europe. A re-examination of the nature and contexts of shell objects and manufacturing waste at Dimini, a key late Neolithic site on the coast of northern Greece, explores their social role w…
The Structure and Dynamics of Dry-Farming States in Upper Mesopotamia [and Comments and Reply]
Maslins, mixtures and monocrops
Late bronze age grain crops and Linear B ideograms * 65, * 120, and * 121
For late bronze age Greece, archaeobotanical research has demonstrated a striking range of grain crops, whereas only two or three categories of grain are recorded in Linear B texts. It is unlikely that each Linear B grain ideogram covers several crops, or that the paucity of grain ideograms results from the partial preservation of texts. It is argued that the Linear B evidence reflects selective palatial involvement in grain production, although …
Leafy Hay
Geography (53 works) · Archaeology (51 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (48 works) · Biology (34 works) · History (25 works) · Ecology (22 works) · Agriculture (21 works) · History (16 works) · Ancient history (13 works) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History (12 works)