This book addresses the issue of the temporal origins of transhumant pastoralism in temperate southeastern Europe (northern half of the Balkan Peninsula). Existing hypotheses are tested by examining the tooth remains from three domestic animal taxa (Ovis/Capra, Bos taurus and Sus scrofa) from archaeological sites in the central part of the northern Balkans.

Subtitled: The Zooarchaeological Remains from Megalo Nisi Galanis, a Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age Site in Greek Macedonia, this study also contains contributions by Michael Fotiadis and Elizabeth Arnold.

Sixteen perspectives from archaeology, history and ethnology bring together recent research on the origins, development and eventual demise of transhumant pastoralism. All the papers except one were presented at a symposium during the 12th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences at Zagreb, July 1988, and one of the ultimate aims of the collection is to present a series of testable models that can be used to help identify the signs of transhumant pastoral adaptation in the archaeological record, given the difficulty of establishing its presence and significance in the study of prehistoric cultural systems. Contributors: Anne-Marie Brisebarre; Frederick Baker; Laszlo Bartosiewicz; Tone Cevc; Ekaterini Chalkea; Claudia Chang; Eugen Comsa; Nikos Efstratiou; Herbert Grassl; Haskel J. Greenfield; Joel Martin Halpern; Marta Moreno Garcia; John G. Nandris; Michael L. Ryder; Jurij Senegacnik and Inja Smerdel.