Emily Zavodny

The Bronze-Iron Age transition in Lika, Croatia is characterized by a seemingly rapid and significant transformation in sociopolitical organization. New hillfort centers were presumably supported by the intensification and specialization of economic activities to a larger degree than in previous periods, though Lika's challenging environment and topography likely made large-scale agriculture and livestock keeping difficult. We present new stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values for domesticated and wild fauna from hillforts and caves dating from the Middle Bronze to Early Iron Ages to examine changing sociopolitical and economic organization during this time. Our results suggest animal husbandry was carried out across multiple spatial and organizational scales to take advantage of finite resources, from the centralized movement of cattle and ovicaprid herds across greater swaths of the landscape to the continued management of pigs by individual households.

We synthesise reported stable isotope values for domesticates and wild herbivores from sites spanning the Neolithic in coastal Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy (6000–3500 calBC). Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values are analyzed as proxies of diet and environment, with differences between species possibly indicating anthropogenic influence. Results are used to characterise diets and address questions of the origin and development of husbandry strategies, especially transhumance, in early farming communities. Changes in pig carbon and nitrogen isotope values through time suggest alterations in practices, whereas values remain relatively constant for cattle and ovicaprids during most of the Neolithic, despite assumptions of seasonal mobility.

As recently as the 1980s, archeologists focusing on prehistoric eastern North America paid little attention to intergroup conflict. Today the situation is quite different, as indicated by this Special Issue. Archeologists now face three principal challenges: to document the temporal and spatial distribution of evidence of conflict; to identify the cultural and environmental conditions associated with variation in the nature and frequency of warfare over long periods of time and large geographical areas; and to determine the extent to which intergroup tensions contributed to or resulted from changes in sociopolitical complexity, economic systems, and population size and distribution. We present data from habitation and mortuary sites in the Eastern Woodlands, notably the mid-continent, that touch on all three issues. Palisaded sites and victims of attacks indicate the intensity of conflicts varied over time and space. Centuries-long intervals of either high or low intergroup tensions can be attributed to an intensification or relaxation of pressure on resources that arose in several ways, such as changes in local population density; technological innovations, including subsistence practices; and the natural environment.

We examine bone samples of known domesticates (sheep, goat, cattle and pig) from five open-air village sites spanning most of the Neolithic period in Dalmatia, Croatia (cal 6000–4700 BC) to characterise diets of domestic animals and address questions of the origin and development of animal husbandry strategies in early farming communities. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values are analysed as proxies of diet and local environment that may indicate differences in herding and management practices between domesticated species. Results are compared to those reported for faunal remains found at other Neolithic sites from coastal Croatia and the wider Adriatic region. We find that isotopic values remain stable for cattle and ovicaprids during most of the Neolithic, suggesting that husbandry of these species remained fundamentally the same throughout the period in much of the Adriatic. However, temporal differences identified among pigs indicate changes in associated management practices through time, and may be a result of different foddering practices.


How did a small Bronze Age settlement, founded at the end of the second millennium BC and later recorded in ancient written sources as Segestica and Siscia, transform into one of the most important Iron Age centers in the Sava and Drava River interfluve?

The Segestica and Siscia – a settlement from the beginning of history exhibition and catalogue try to provide an answer to this question. They present the founding, development, and the cultural dynamics of this exceptional settlement, the everyday lives of its inhabitants, their attire and warrior equipment, their diet, their economic and trading activities, and their spiritual life.

Finds that are kept in the collections of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, the Sisak Municipal Museum, and the Hungarian National Museum (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum), accompanied by the results of contemporary archaeological research, have allowed  the study of the continual development of the prehistoric settlement in Sisak throughout the first millennium BC, up until 35 BC, when this settlement, situated at the key strategic position for taking over Pannonia, was conquered by Roman legions led by Octavian, the future emperor Augustus. That is when the settlement became an important military stronghold that later developed into the famous Roman city of Siscia.