Animal management strategies in Bronze Age Italy. Integrating isotopes, ZooMS, bioarchaeology and land use modelling

The reconstruction of animal management practices is crucial for understanding prehistoric societies, their subsistence economies, and their relationships with the environment. Recent advances in biomolecular and biogeochemical research have provided key methodological tools for addressing these questions, which are particularly relevant for the study of emerging complex societies, such as those of 2nd millennium BCE Italy. In this study, we apply an integrated research protocol combining zooarchaeology, ZooMS, and strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope analyses to investigate husbandry practices at three key Italian Bronze Age sites – Solarolo-via Ordiere, Montarice, and Coppa Nevigata – each located within distinct ecosystems. Our results indicate that Bronze Age communities developed diversified management strategies adapted to local ecological conditions, aimed at maximising primary production. Marked differences emerge between lowland systems (the Po and Tavoliere plains), characterised by residential management of domestic herbivores, and the hilly areas of Central Italy (Marche region), where transhumance were likely employed to prevent overgrazing and consequent soil erosion in the immediate hinterland of settlements. Furthermore, isotopic evidence indicates the integration of cultivated C4 plants (likely broomcorn millet) into animal diets, and documents mobility of livestock individuals at both local and long-distance scales.