Changes in livestock management between the Late Roman and Early Medieval periods in the Balkans Danube region: evidence from Serbia

Abstract

The weakening of the Roman Danube limes in the course of the 4th and 5th centuries AD, caused by the invasions of Germanic tribes and of the Huns, brought about the destruction of the once-powerful Roman fortifications and towns within the borders of the Balkan provinces of the Empire. According to historical and archaeological research, it is well known that a significant ruralisation of former Roman cities and fortifications took place. Although it is plausible to suspect that such developments impacted greatly on livestock management practices, direct evidence on changes in animal exploitation is missing due to the absence of faunal assemblages from the transition period between Late Roman and Early Medieval times. This paper aims to explore this topic, by integrating the scarce archaeozoological data from the periods in question from the Danube region in Serbia. We will analyse and compare species frequencies and biometrical data of the most common domesticates from two temporally distant (but so far the only available) faunal assemblages, i.e. the one from the Late Roman layers of the city of Viminacium (4th century AD; analysed by the authors), and that from the Early Medieval features of the fort of Pontes (9th/10th century AD; published by L. Bartosiewicz in 1996). In order to bridge the significant chronological gap between these two sites, we will also discuss specific archaeological finds from the fortifications, which might be considered as indirect evidence of animal husbandry strategies, as well as published archaeozoological data from sites located in the hinterland of the Central Balkans. This will allow to characterize changes in livestock management from the Late Roman to the Early Medieval periods in the Danube region of present-day Serbia