Publications of Choyke, A.M.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs

The extinct aurochs (Bos primigenius primigenius) was a large type of cattle that ranged over almost the whole Eurasian continent. The aurochs is the wild progenitor of modern cattle, but it is unclear whether European aurochs contributed to this process. To provide new insights into the demographic history of aurochs and domestic cattle, we have generated high-confidence mitochondrial DNA sequences from 59 archaeological skeletal finds, which were attributed to wild European cattle populations based on their chronological date and/or morphology. All pre-Neolithic aurochs belonged to the previously designated P haplogroup, indicating that this represents the Late Glacial Central European signature. We also report one new and highly divergent haplotype in a Neolithic aurochs sample from Germany, which points to greater variability during the Pleistocene. Furthermore, the Neolithic and Bronze Age samples that were classified with confidence as European aurochs using morphological criteria all carry P haplotype mitochondrial DNA, suggesting continuity of Late Glacial and Early Holocene aurochs populations in Europe. Bayesian analysis indicates that recent population growth gives a significantly better fit to our data than a constant-sized population, an observation consistent with a postglacial expansion scenario, possibly from a single European refugial population. Previous work has shown that most ancient and modern European domestic cattle carry haplotypes previously designated T. This, in combination with our new finding of a T haplotype in a very Early Neolithic site in Syria, lends persuasive support to a scenario whereby gracile Near Eastern domestic populations, carrying predominantly T haplotypes, replaced P haplotype-carrying robust autochthonous aurochs populations in Europe, from the Early Neolithic onward. During the period of coexistence, it appears that domestic cattle were kept separate from wild aurochs and introgression was extremely rare.

Skating with Horses: continuity and parallelism in prehistoric Hungary

The prehistory and history of the Carpathian Basin have long been treated as a series of moszly discontinuous cultural events triggered by population movements largely from the East and South of an ambiguous nature. Twenty years of research into the nature of prehistoric bone working in Hungary, which lies at the center of this geographic region, has begun to reveal spatial and temporal continuities in bone tool. Some of these continuities, cross-cutting modern precepts of archaeological cultures, are found over very wide areas, some are limited to regions within the Carpathian Basin, while others clearly reflect continuous manufacturing traditions within a limited territory.The very special case of bone skates will be examined here. On the one hand, there are skates from the Early and Middle Bronze Age in northwest Hungary that seem to mark continuity in their manufacturing tradition lasting over 1000 years. On the other hand, there are bone skates from the Late Bronze Age, Roman Period Sarmatian and later, Medieval contexts which display a similar use of horse bone to make skates but which represent less social continuity reflected in manufacturing traditions than parallel responses of disparate cultural groups to identical environmental and cultural pressures. This paper seeks to explore the question of both continuity in manufacturing traditions of bone skates in the Bronze Age of western Hungary and the broader relationship between the exploitation of horse in humid plain environments, apparently a necessary but not sufficient variable effecting the use of bone skates in both prehistoric and historic periods.

Animal exploitation and its relationships to bone deposition at Lovasberény – Mihályvár

Analyse archéozoologique des restes osseux de ce site du Bronze moyen type Vatya de Hongrie : évaluation des espèces, sériation numérique, répartition spatiale, interprétation archéologique.

Faunal information offered by worked bone assemblages

Tentative d'évaluation de la répartition, par espèce, des déchets osseux, à partir de l'analyse de l'industrie osseuse de plusieurs sites de l'Age du Bronze de trois régions hongroises. L'établissement de rapports statistiquement signifiants entre les ossements travaillés (outils préconçus et accidentels), et les déchets, s'avère possible seulement pour le cerf, et seulement pour l'échantillon examiné. On souligne qu'outre les os, cette espèce fournit surtout les bois avec lesquels sont fabriqués la plupart des outils préconçus. Ceci pose le problème de la proportion de bois récoltés en dehors de la chasse. De même il reste à évaluer dans quelle mesure la chasse au cerf servait les buts alimentaires.