New scholarly inquiry indicates that Europe’s earliest urban centers were underpinned by a predominantly plant-based nutritional regimen. These revelations suggest that despite the advent of agriculture and the establishment of extensive, deliberately designed communities, the consumption of meat was a rare indulgence.
The colossal, circular metropolises attributed to the Trypillia culture materialized approximately six millennia ago in regions now encompassing Ukraine and Moldova.
The most expansive of these monumental settlements occupied a territory comparable to hundreds of football fields and once accommodated as many as 15,000 inhabitants. These were unparalleled in scale globally at the time, rivaling even the urban centers of ancient Mesopotamia that would subsequently flourish in the Fertile Crescent.
“Extremely sophisticated food and pasture management” was necessitated to provision every individual within Trypillia society, according to paleoecologist Frank Schlütz, who spearheaded the research at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Germany. He states.
However, despite the integral role of cattle in their system, beef was not a primary dietary component.
From 4200 to 3650 BCE, livestock domesticated by Trypillia communities were primarily valued for their excrement rather than their meat, as reported by Schlütz and his investigative team.
An examination of nitrogen isotope concentrations within skeletal remains, teeth, and soil samples from Trypillia societal remnants points to early European cultivators subsisting largely on legumes, lentils, and cereal grains, such as barley.
Bovines, ovines, and caprines, confined within fenced enclosures, were predominantly utilized to enrich agricultural land. These animals also consumed pulses and grains, and their waste significantly enhanced subsequent crop yields.
The culling of these herds for sustenance would have diminished a critical resource following considerable effort invested in their husbandry, thereby precipitating the collapse of the entire system.
Previously, certain academics had posited the existence of intensive meat production within Trypillia societies, based on estimations of herd sizes. Nevertheless, this presumption may not be accurate.
Animal-derived products accounted for a mere 8 to 10 percent of the typical Trypillia dietary intake, according to Schlütz and his collaborators.
“We theorize that there might have been occasions where only meat was consumed,” the authors articulate, alongside the possibility of “some incidental meat consumption, preferentially from smaller fauna”.
When agricultural lands and soil are enriched through the application of manure, biological decomposition accelerates, consequently leading to elevated overall nitrogen isotope levels.
This analytical method enabled researchers to ascertain that the productivity of pea seeds and fava beans, unearthed within the soil of Trypillia sites, was likely augmented by “substantial manuring, over extended durations, on diminutive plots situated proximate to dwellings and livestock enclosures.”
During its zenith, the Trypillia culture stood as a unique phenomenon. Its settlements, discernible across Ukraine and Moldova to this day, were characterized by concentric layouts, featuring rows of dwellings arranged along ‘ring corridors’ that encircled an open central plaza.
The largest Trypillia mega-sites exhibit notably elevated nitrogen isotope values in comparison to smaller sites, signifying “sophisticated dung management.”
Bovine manure appears to have been the primary source of fertilization. The research team projects that hundreds of cattle were “extensively grazed” in proximity to the mega-sites, at times situated at considerable distances from the settlement itself.
Ovine and caprine grazing also occurred, though to a lesser extent.
The entire agricultural framework was self-sustaining. Certain mega-sites remained inhabited for over 150 years, providing a stable dwelling for multiple generations of agriculturalists.
The “judicious management of nutrients” ensured that Trypillia societies avoided the unsustainable depletion of their natural resources, according to the researchers.
The precise reasons for the Trypillia culture’s gradual dissolution around 3000 BCE remain elusive. Some scholars postulate that it was eradicated through conflict or as a consequence of political discord. Others hypothesize that a more severe climatic period, characterized by colder and drier conditions, contributed to the demise of these once-thriving civilizations.
The emergence of such an advanced agricultural methodology, which did not lead to ecological exploitation, lends greater credence to the notion that Trypillia’s decline was not economically driven but rather stemmed from societal or political transformations.
It appears that even a sustainable and nutrient-rich plant-based diet offers no immunity against the inherent complexities of human societal structures.
“As prior investigations have indicated, social discord arose from escalating disparities in wealth and status,” observes archaeologist Robert Hofmann, also affiliated with the Christian-Albrechts-University in Germany.
“Individuals opted to abandon large population centers in favor of residing once more in more diminutive communities.”
The findings of this study have been disseminated in the journal PNAS.
