Imagine you could take a tiny sample from a sheep's tooth and learn how people fed themselves a thousand years ago. That's exactly what researchers did in the arid lands of southern Kazakhstan, and what they discovered is changing how we think about medieval city life.
Scientists from the University of Michigan and their international partners examined isotopes — tiny chemical signatures — embedded in the molars of 16 sheep that lived in the town of Dzhankent during the 9th and 10th centuries. By looking at these chemical clues, the researchers could tell what the sheep ate, when they gave birth, and how they were cared for during hard times.
What they found was impressive: the people of Dzhankent were incredibly flexible farmers. Located in a dry, semidesert region with freezing winters reaching -14°F (-26°C) and only about 4 to 5.5 inches of rain each year, the town needed smart strategies to survive. The researchers discovered that people here fed their sheep dried grass during lean times, brought in animals from other regions for meat, and planned sheep births throughout the year — not just in spring.
"Dzhankent was particularly resilient in that they were flexible in their herd management strategies to keep the population fed year-round," said Kara Larson, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study published in the journal Archaeometry.
This constant breeding meant sheep kept producing milk even during winter. The milk was then turned into dried, salted cheese curds — similar to the Kazakh cheese called qurt that people still eat today — that could be stored and eaten during times when fresh food was scarce.
Dzhankent wasn't always a big town. From the 7th to 11th centuries CE, it grew from a small fishing and farming village into an important stop along the northern Silk Roads, the ancient trade network connecting Asia with Europe. But historians knew little about how such a settlement managed to feed its growing population in such a harsh environment.
"So often we see narratives of urban populations being solely reliant on one method of herd management, so it is exciting to see how adaptive Dzhankent was," Larson said. The town's approach — combining local herding with animals sourced from other regions and carefully timed breeding — let it thrive as a trading hub for more than 400 years.
The study shows that ancient city planners weren't stuck using just one method. When conditions were tough, they got creative. And in a time when many communities struggled with food shortages, Dzhankent figured out how to keep its people fed.