The various geographical features had a major impact on the behaviour of prehistoric communities, which can be determined by identifying a series of characteristics and preferences regarding the geographical location of the settlement and the resources exploited. In a well-defined space, the population, as well as the development of human groups, is determined by the micro- and macro-regional geographical characteristics. The use of this type of analysis in the study of Cracău-Bistrița Depression, between the late Chalcolithic and the early Hallstatt, will contribute to a better knowledge of this segment of archaeological research in Romania. The present approach, combined with a high number of thorough field researches, can generate predictive models, thus contributing to a more complex overview of the archaeological characteristics, but also of geographical, geological conditions, etc. preferred by prehistoric communities in this area and beyond.
Early Iron Age
A Faunal Assemblage from the Iron-Age Site of Niculițel (Babadag Culture): Archaeozoologic and Archaeogenetic Data
The faunal remains were collected during the archaeological researches carried out in 1988 and 2000. The analysed assemblage consists of 902 remains, out of which four are human (Homo sapiens). The remains originate from fish, birds and mammals. The mammalian bones number 615 remains, out of which 397 were identified by species. The list of identified domestic mammal comprise cattle (Bos taurus), sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus), horse (Equus caballus), and pig (Sus domesticus), with domestic cattle prevailing. Only three species of wild mammals were identified: red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild boar (Sus scrofa) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus); the largest number of remains belongs to red deer. There is a single fragment coming from birds and six fragments from reptiles (Testudo graeca and Emys orbicularis). Fish bones are numerous (276), and the identified species are pike (Esox lucius), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), tench (Tinca tinca), wels catfish (Silurus glanis), and zander (Sander lucioperca); the highest share is represented by the common carp. Archaeogenetic analyses were carried out for some swine remains from Romanian territory, dating from the Iron Age, in order to identify their genetic profile. The analysed samples presented two different ancient haplotypes, previously described in the literature, haplotypes that sustained the pattern of spread for the domestic pigs on the European continent.