The natural history of the fallow deer, Dama dama (Linnaeus, 1758) in Bulgaria in prehistory and new evidence for the existence of an autochthonous Holocene population in the Balkans
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4635237 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nadezhda Karastoyanova (0000-0001-6032-4873, Department of Paleontology and Mineralogy National Museum of Natural History‐Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia Bulgaria), John Gorczyk (0000-0001-5782-5909, Department of Anthropology Cornell University Ithaca NY USA, corresponding author), Nikolaï Spassov (0000-0002-2891-7457, Department of Paleontology and Mineralogy National Museum of Natural History‐Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia Bulgaria) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 616-628 |
| Publication date | 2020-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Osteoarchaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1047-482X • E-ISSN: 1099-1212 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/oa.2886 |
| OpenAlex | W3027986626 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 10 |
The fallow deer (Dama dama Linnaeus, 1758) has a long history of interaction with prehistoric humans. Beginning in the Neolithic, humans introduced fallow deer to several areas of the eastern Mediterranean and mainland Europe, with later additional importing happening in the Bronze and Iron Ages. However, in some parts of southeastern Europe, autochthonous populations of extant fallow deer may have survived through the end of the Pleistocene and into the early Holocene, making them available for exploitation by Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities. Climatic and vegetational regimes favourable to fallow deer covered nearly all of Bulgaria during this period; yet, the heavy use of the species by human communities was restricted to a very small area around southeastern Bulgaria. Eventually, climate deterioration, habitat change and overhunting led to the decline of fallow deer in later prehistory in Bulgaria. This paper offers a discussion of the environmental and cultural background of human-fallow deer interactions from the sixth to fourth millennium BCE in Bulgaria. Using bivariate scatterplots and log ratio techniques, we demonstrate that Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities exploited a large extant fallow-deer population, appearing to target both males and females equally. Our results are the first step in a larger archaeological investigation of human-fallow deer relations that unfolded over several millennia, touching upon issues of settlement, migration and perhaps even taming or domestication
Archaeology · Biology · Bronze Age · Chalcolithic · Domestication · Geography · Holocene · Iron Age · Population · Prehistory · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Demography · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Ecology
Southeastern Europe in the transition to agriculture in Europe
Towards the vegetation and settlement history of the southern Dobrudza coastal region, north-eastern Bulgaria
On the holocene history of vegetation in SE Bulgaria (Lake Arkutino, Ropotamo region)
Man and Other Animals in Later Greek Prehistory
Balkan Prehistory
Changes in the size and shape of fallow deer-evidence for the movement and management of a species
The Early Process of Mammal Domestication in the Near East
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |