Animal exploitation and breeding strategies

Zooarchaeological studies in Central Asia are still very scarce. The analysis of the faunal assemblage retrieved during seven archaeological campaigns at the fortified settlement of Kojtepa allows obtaining information about the breeding strategy and animals exploitation in the Samarkand oasis during late and post-Hellenistic period, ca. 4th to 2nd centuries BC. The preliminary zooarchaeological analysis was conducted over 1420 faunal remains retrieved in the 2009-2015 seasons. Domestic animals resulted predominant, with sheep and goats covering more than half of the total, followed by fewer cattle, pigs and equids including horses, donkeys and their crossbreeds. The identification of a limited number of bird bones, mainly galliformes, integrates the data about domestic animal exploitation. For what concerns wild animals, a significant amount of turtles (Testudo sp.) was also found, while a few osteological remains testify to the hunt of marmot (Marmota sp.), which was probably exploited for its fur. As confirmed by the analysis carried out on the faunal remains from the comparable site of Kafir Kala, the subsistence economy of the steppes was already based on the harmonization between irrigated agriculture and semi-nomadic pastoralism, where flocks did not provide only meat but most likely secondary products, such as wool, leather and milk. Cattle and the rare pigs were mainly meat source, while equids were probably used as traction animals. Wild animals represented instead an occasional resource.