I Cambiamenti delle faune oloceniche legati all'attività antropica: nuove introduzioni, evoluzioni interne, cambiamenti climatici: il caso della Sardegna e di Creta

The archaeozoological research has become an essential aspect in the archaeological investigation. The faunal remains recovered in archaeological sediments help and in some cases are essential to understand and reconstruct the history and behavior of human communities. Animals have always played an important role in all aspects of culture, especially in prehistoric communities, as providers of food, raw materials, labor force, and at the same time of socio-economic and symbolic resources.Changes in the human communities over time will inevitably have an impact on their animals (and in this case their rests). The study of animal remains may be helpful to understand and recognize these changes, whether due to technological changes in herd management, dietary changes, requirements in ritual, environmental causes, and so on.The present study considers a series of faunal deposits unearthed in some sites of Crete (Phaistos, Gortyn, Mitropolis and Prinias) and Sardinia (Sant'Imbenia nuragic village, Nuraghe Santu Antine and Nuraghe Flumenelongu) cultural contexts covering a time ranging from the Neolithic to the Byzantine era, with the aim to understand and analyze some aspects of the prehistory of these two islands with respect to the change of faunas over time.Insularity is the characteristic more responsible of the changes that took place in Crete and Sardinia since their first human colonization and still today in the fauna of both islands, can be traced choices and selections made by the first settlers.