The medieval wall and trench system of China and Mongolia covers ∼4000 km and consists of a series of rammed-earth walls, ditches, and hundreds of associated structures. This was not a unified system but rather different sections that were built by different political entities and perhaps for different purposes between ca. 1000 to 1220 CE. Among those lines, the earliest is the northernmost section dated to the period of the Liao empire (916–1125 CE). It is located deep in the sparsely populated steppe of today's northeastern Mongolia (Dornod Province) as well as in parts of China and Russia. Recent excavations at Site 23 along the northern line revealed a rich and well-preserved faunal assemblage from a midden pit dated towards the end of the Liao empire (ca. 1050 CE). Common Mongolian domesticates sheep, goat, horse, cow, and dog were identified, as well as wild species: gazelle, rabbit, mustelids, large raptors, and fish, including Amur catfish. Based on bone fusion, size, and teeth eruption, many of the sheep/goat bones and dogs belong to very young animals under six months. Historical texts, such as the Liaoshi (Liao history) and Qidan guozhi (Records of the Kitan empire), were the only source of knowledge available regarding human-animal relations, as very little is known of subsistence practices during the Liao period from faunal analysis in itself. The historical record documents aspects of Liao-era animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, and imperial diplomatic/tributary animal exchange between the Liao governors and local tribes. Through integration of textual evidence and the excavated faunal material, we can interpret the subsistence activities of a distinct Liao frontier garrison for the first time, going beyond the often-generic descriptions of the historical record which pertain more to the elite than the common people. This analysis allows us a glimpse behind the texts at the varied and flexible economic practices taking place deep in the Mongolian steppe.

The earliest appearance of permanent architecture in the Levant coincided with intensified diets, starting at ca. 15,000 years ago, with the Natufian Culture. High-resolution studies of intra-Natufian change are needed for testing the intertwined effects of the novel built environment, subsistence patterns, and population dynamics. The deep Early Natufian sequence of el-Wad Terrace (Mount Carmel, Israel), provides a high-resolution record (ca. 14.8–13.1 ka) that includes an initial phase with little architecture, followed by the intensive architectural phase with ten stratified building levels, in turn capped by more ephemeral habitation levels. Using the rich zooarchaeological samples from each stage, as well as the Late Natufian layer, we test how hunting patterns and bone depositional histories changed with the mode of habitation. All of the 20 stratified samples we studied likely attest to domestic activities, differing in scale but not in type. The initial habitation at the pre-architectural stage appears as very diversified, but with weaker evidence for resource depletion. The subsequent architectural stage presents the most intensive butchery patterns and sediment build-up, together with some shifts in hunting patterns, and large gazelle body-size that may signal some overhunting. The post-architectural stage displays more specialized or seasonal hunting patterns, alongside taphonomic evidence of more frequent abandonments. We suggest that these developments correspond to at least one full demographic cycle, whereby population growth had been mediated for several generations by flexible subsistence strategies, but eventually led to a Malthusian phase and settlement reorganization. Natufian hamlets were dynamic, at times not incorporating permanent architecture. The built spaces—and the habitation dynamics they reflect—are more clearly understood when compared with the non-architectural phases.