Regional pastoral practice in central and southeastern Kazakhstan in the Final Bronze Age (1300-900Â BCE)

Detailed zooarcheological analysis of three settlements dating to the Final Bronze Age (c. 1300-900 BCE) in central and southeastern Kazakhstan revealed the influence of cultural and environmental factors on pastoral subsistence strategies. The period is marked by consistent exploitation of horse (Equus caballus), cattle (Bos taurus), sheep (Ovis aries), and goat (Capra hircus) while proportions of wild taxa vary in accordance with local availability. In comparison with findings from a broader geographic and diachronic scale, both culture and environment were found to work in tandem to influence pastoral practices, challenging environmentally deterministic continental scale models.