Transport of animals underpinned ritual feasting at the onset of the Neolithic in southwestern Asia

作者：Petra Vaiglova, Horst Kierdorf, Carsten Witzel, Georgina Falster, Renaud Joannes‐Boyau, Yue Wang, Jiade Wu, Ian S. Williams, Brett Knowles, Yang Wu, Pernille Bangsgaard, Lisa Yeomans, Tobias Richter, Hojjat Darabi · 发表于：Communications Earth & Environment · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s43247-025-02501-z · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Archaeology and ancient environmental studies、Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies、Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Feasting played an important role in cementing social bonds between prehistoric communities. At Early Neolithic Asiab, western Iran, ceremonial feasting is evidenced by the butchered skulls of nineteen wild boars (Sus scrofa), an animal that was not commonly hunted in the region at the time. Here we use microscopic dental growth patterns to guide geochemical analyses of five wild boar teeth from Asiab and examine the geographical scope from which the animals derived. Our dataset includes 165 stable oxygen isotope values, 107 strontium isotope ratios, and Barium concentration maps. The findings indicate that despite Asiab’s location in an environment favourable to wild boars, the animals used for ceremonial feasting originated from a wide geographical catchment, with at least some necessitating transport over substantial distance across mountainous terrain. This deepens our understanding of the effort invested by the participating pre-agricultural communities for celebrating social connectivity across the wider landscape. Ceremonial feasting in Early Neolithic Asiab, western Iran, involved transport of animals over substantial distances to celebrate far-flung social networks, according to analysis of microscopic tooth growth patterns and geochemistry.