Rethinking ruralization in terms of resilience: Subsistence strategies in sixth-century Caricin Grad in the light of plant and animal bone finds

Abstract

The modes of subsistence of the early Byzantine inhabitants of the Balkans are subject to intense discussion. The core of the problem is the lack of sites of a clearly discernible agricultural character after the collapse of the villa system in late Antiquity and the question of how to interpret certain changes in the architecture and layout of fortified sites that indicate ruralization. Even though animal bones and plant remains are strong indicators for economical strategies, only few sites of the region have so far been put to bioarchaeological analysis. Recent research in the early Byzantine city of Caricin Grad in Illyricum has produced new evidence for subsistence economies that sheds some light on the "rural" side of this splendid city, which was newly built in the foothills of southern Serbia in the fourth decade of the sixth century. The city comprises many features of classical urbanity and a large number of churches. Yet very modest dwellings were also found, as were several agricultural implements. In this paper, preliminary results from the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses carried out in Caricin Grad are presented and situated in the context of published assemblages from other contemporaneous sites in the Danube provinces. Whereas the "ruralization" of early Byzantine cities is commonly seen as a symptom of the decline of classical urbanity, this discussion of the findings aims for a positive interpretation, in which the ruralization of urban life can instead be seen as a clever strategy to enhance urban food security.