»Triftigkeiten«? Überlegungen zu prähistorischer Viehwirtschaft als traditionellem Element wirtschaftlicher Subsistenz und Prosperität während der Bronze- und Eisenzeit Südwestdeutschlands

Abstract

This article concentrates on animal husbandry of the Bronze and Iron Age. It is understood as the motor of economic prosperity and social standing and – in the form of mobile pasture feeding – resulted in networks exceeding the local context. Alongside data from bioarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses, archaeological evidence for places of herdsmen and sacrificial sites indicate an accompanying economic topography. Some Younger Iron Age market and meeting places demonstrate that cattle was taken to these locations, sold, slaughtered there or consumed at certain occasions. Bronze Age and Early Iron Age finds of balances reveal that the technical and most of all social conditions for holding markets were already existent in pre-Celtic times. Therefore, it was possible to trade animals, their meat as well as milk, cheese or leather in appropriate distribution centres or Bronze and Iron Age markets. The economic importance of animal husbandry was accompanied by political processes and resulted in the accumulation of social prestige.