Scaling up: Stable isotope evidence for the intensification of animal husbandry in Bronze-Iron Age Lika, Croatia

The Bronze-Iron Age transition in Lika, Croatia is characterized by a seemingly rapid and significant transformation in sociopolitical organization. New hillfort centers were presumably supported by the intensification and specialization of economic activities to a larger degree than in previous periods, though Lika's challenging environment and topography likely made large-scale agriculture and livestock keeping difficult. We present new stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values for domesticated and wild fauna from hillforts and caves dating from the Middle Bronze to Early Iron Ages to examine changing sociopolitical and economic organization during this time. Our results suggest animal husbandry was carried out across multiple spatial and organizational scales to take advantage of finite resources, from the centralized movement of cattle and ovicaprid herds across greater swaths of the landscape to the continued management of pigs by individual households.