Isotope Analysis on the Great Hungarian Plain: An Exploration of Mobility and Subsistence Strategies from the Neolithic to the Copper Age

From the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain (4,500 BC, calibrated) a transformation in many aspects of life has been inferred from the archaeological record. This transition is characterized by changes in settlements, subsistence, cultural assemblages, mortuary customs and trade networks. Some researchers suggest that changes in material culture, particularly the replacement of long-occupied tells with smaller, more dispersed hamlets, indicates a shift from sedentary farming villages to a more mobile, agropastoral society. In this study, stable isotope analysis was used to test two hypotheses about this transition: (1) mobility increased from the Neolithic to the Copper Age, and (2) diet became more focused on domesticated plants and animals. Stable strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) in human and animal dental enamel were used to test the first hypothesis, and the abundance of stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotopes in human and animal bone were be used to test the second.

Isotopic measures of diet, residence and animal husbandry strategies do not change significantly from the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age, as originally proposed, and indicate that the emergence of an agropastoral society does not explain the transition in material culture that has been observed on the Plain. Interestingly, when the time frame is expanded to include the entire Neolithic and Copper Age sequence (i.e., the Early and Middle Neolithic and the Middle Copper Age), changes in the δ¹⁵N and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope ranges support alternative explanations for the gradual development of smaller, dispersed farming villages. For example, the nitrogen isotope results do not change significantly between the Late Neolithic and Copper Age samples, but are significantly higher than previously studied samples from the Early and Middle Neolithic. Similarly, the strontium isotope results from human teeth are not much different between the Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age, but are statistically more variable later on in the time sequence, by the Middle Copper Age. While the elevated nitrogen composition of Late Neolithic and Copper Age humans indicates a relatively high protein diet throughout the time sequence, it may also reflect the consumption of crops that were fertilized by manure from livestock. These results point to the possible importance of a previously overlooked secondary animal product, manure fertilizer, which may have played a role in the dispersal of Neolithic and Copper Age cultures on the Plain by increasing the productive potential of larger areas of the environment.

These isotope results, in context with recent multidisciplinary research on this transition, provide support for the gradual emergence of the household as the primary unit of economic and social reproduction. Increasing variability of strontium isotope values during the Middle Copper Age, without subsequent dietary changes, indicates the importance of horizontal social mobility, whereby humans and animals interacted and were exchanged throughout the Plain. It is proposed that this was a necessary social mechanism to minimize the risk of agricultural failure and labor shortage that would cripple an independent household not tied into the larger fabric of society.