Exploitation of Domestic Ungulate Bones by Bronze Age Pastoralists of the Southern Urals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2025.1.199.213Keywords:
archaeozoology, zooarchaeology, fragmentation, bone industries, bone marrow, bone fat, bone carving, blanksAbstract
The article deals with one of the striking features of the archaeozoological material from the Bronze Age sites in the Southern Urals, which is expressed in the longitudinal fragmentation of livestock bones. Analysis of archaeozoological collections shows that this feature of bone fragmentation covers all major periods of the Bronze Age and is inherent in all types of monuments, regardless of their settlement or funerary nature. It is most likely that this tradition is an attempt to obtain a wide range of blanks for the further production of bone tools. The same fragmentation system does not exclude the fact of relatively intensive use of the nutritional contents of bones by Bronze Age pastoralists of the Southern Urals. Intact tubular bones are almost completely absent in the collections of the settlements, which may indicate a fairly high degree of exploitation of all types of livestock bone resources in the Bronze Age.
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