Bones and Seeds: An Integrated Approach to Understanding the Spread of Farming across the Western Balkans

Animals and plants, both farmed and hunted/collected, were an integrated part of the Neolithic food economy. When jointly analysed these can provide a holistic view of early food production systems which goes beyond individual descriptions of herd management and crop cultivation. Exhaustive surveys of both Neolithic zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data were collected from the western Balkans and neighbouring regions (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, southern Hungary, western Romania and eastern Italy). Here we combine both sets of data to explore the Neolithic food economy along the maritime and inland streams of Neolithisation. We demonstrate that, notwithstanding significant limitations, it is possible to compare and combine the datasets and present an integrated approach to the spread and development of farming within the western Balkans. Our research also evinces diachronic and spatial differences within the exploitation of domesticated and wild species, and the factors that may have influenced such practices.