Evidence of cultural transformation in the upper Adige basin between the Late iron Age and the Roman period : A Zooarchaeological perspective

This paper considers zooarchaeological data as evidence of cultural change between pre-Roman and Roman times in the upper Adige Valley. Since there are not many sites with animal remains from the Late Iron Age, it was also necessary to look at older sites documented in the geographical areas studied. These are the upper Venosta Valley, the area of Bressanone and its surroundings, the lower Isarco Valley with the Gardena Valley, the Oltradige and the lower Adige Valley, the Rotaliana Plain and the Vallagarina, and the area immediately east of Lake Garda. The signifcant differences in the composition of animal remains in the different areas depend partly on the diversity of natural habitats and partly on the different reliability of the samples studied. Despite these differences, one can state that there is a clear continuity in the human-animal relationship between prehistory and the Roman era, especially in the Venosta Valley. In other sectors, such as Bressanone and its surroundings, diachronic variations in the composition of animal remains assemblages can be traced back to the dialectic relationship between production centres and centres for trade and administrative functions founded in Roman times. The Roman conquest of the Alpine region is refected on the one hand in a partly different land use, but on the other hand also in the introduction of new domestic breeds in which cattle and sheep are signifcantly larger than in prehistoric times. Poultry, which was little known in the local Iron Age, did not increase signifcantly until Roman times. In this age the disinterest in hunting already observed in prehistory continues. Domestic prehistoric breeds continue to be bred and crossbred with imported breeds.