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The Late Neolithic settlement of Latsch, Vinschgau, northern Italy: subsistence of a settlement contemporary with the Alpine Iceman, and located in his valley of origin

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Abstract

Archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses conducted on Late Neolithic settlement layers at Latsch provide the first data on the subsistence strategy, diet and environmental conditions in the valley of origin of the Alpine Iceman. The results prove that during the Late Neolithic, the valley was occupied by an agro-pastoral society based on the cultivation of Hordeum vulgare (hulled barley), Triticum monococcum (einkorn), T. dicoccum (emmer) and Pisum sativum (pea), as well as on the rearing of Ovis vel Capra, Ovis orientalis f. aries (sheep), Capra aegagrus f. hircus (goat) and Bos primigenius f. taurus (cattle). The settlement was located on a river terrace of the valley floor close to a river and was surrounded by mixed pine and oak woods beside alluvial woodland.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (grant n. 21129-G19) and by the Amt für Bodendenkmäler der Autonomen Provinz Bozen (Italy). We would like to thank Stefan Schwarz for collecting the archaeobotanical samples. We are also grateful to Stefanie Jacomet and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Botanik der Universität Innsbruck, Sternwartestraße 15, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Daniela Festi & Klaus Oeggl

  2. Autonome Provinz Bozen, Denkmalpflege, Armando Diaz Straße 8, 39100, Bozen, Italy

    Umberto Tecchiati & Hubert Steiner

Authors
  1. Daniela Festi
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  2. Umberto Tecchiati
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  4. Klaus Oeggl
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Correspondence to Daniela Festi.

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Communicated by S. Jacomet.

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ESM Charcoal recovered at Latsch (raw data) (XLS 17 kb)

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Festi, D., Tecchiati, U., Steiner, H. et al. The Late Neolithic settlement of Latsch, Vinschgau, northern Italy: subsistence of a settlement contemporary with the Alpine Iceman, and located in his valley of origin. Veget Hist Archaeobot 20, 367–379 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-011-0308-0

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