A non-linear prediction model for ageing foetal and neonatal sheep reveals basic issues in early neolithic husbandry

Pöllath, Nadja; García‐González, Ricardo; Kevork, Sevag; Mutze, Ursula R.; M, Zimmermann; Özbaşaran, Mihriban; Peters, Joris

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2021.105344

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The immature bones were separated into preterm and neonate cohorts using photographs of modern newborn skeletons as the central standard (see also ref. 41 ) but excluding individuals that appeared to straddle the boundary between the two developmental states. The high proportion of fetal remains (12 to 35%) clearly sets the caprines apart from the other (wild) ungulate species, and the differences are statistically significant ( 17 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An endemic pathway to sheep and goat domestication at Aşıklı Höyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey)

Stiner

Munro

Buitenhuis

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Sheep and goats (caprines) were domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but how and in how many places remain open questions. This study investigates the initial conditions and trajectory of caprine domestication at Aşıklı Höyük, which preserves an unusually high-resolution record of the first 1,000 y of Neolithic existence in Central Anatolia. Our comparative analysis of caprine age and sex structures and related evidence reveals a local domestication process that began around 8400 cal BC. Caprine management at Aşıklı segued through three viable systems. The earliest mode was embedded within a broad-spectrum foraging economy and directed to live meat storage on a small scale. This was essentially a “catch-and-grow” strategy that involved seasonal capture of wild lambs and kids from the surrounding highlands and raising them several months prior to slaughter within the settlement. The second mode paired modest levels of caprine reproduction on site with continued recruitment of wild infants. The third mode shows the hallmarks of a large-scale herding economy based on a large, reproductively viable captive population but oddly directed to harvesting adult animals, contra to most later Neolithic practices. Wild infant capture likely continued at a low level. The transitions were gradual but, with time, gave rise to early domesticated forms and monumental differences in human labor organization, settlement layout, and waste accumulation. Aşıklı was an independent center of caprine domestication and thus supports the multiple origins evolutionary model.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An endemic pathway to sheep and goat domestication at Aşıklı Höyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey)

Stiner

Munro

Buitenhuis

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The simultaneous presence of presumably wild and managed individuals in Aşıklı Höyük brings up an obvious question: Why? Although speculative, the presence of wild individuals may be explained by re-stocking that was used to compensate for losses caused by abortions and lamb mortality ( 54 ). It is also possible that some individuals at Aşıklı Höyük were exchanged with other communities of sheep keepers or that the founder herd of managed individuals was relatively large and diverse in geographic origin, possibly coming from somewhere else.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient mitogenomes from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Central Anatolia and the effects of a Late Neolithic bottleneck in sheep ( Ovis aries )

Sandoval-Castellanos,

Hare,

Lin

et al. 2024

Sci. Adv.

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Occupied between ~10,300 and 9300 years ago, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Aşıklı Höyük in Central Anatolia went through early phases of sheep domestication. Analysis of 629 mitochondrial genomes from this and numerous sites in Anatolia, southwest Asia, Europe, and Africa produced a phylogenetic tree with excessive coalescences (nodes) around the Neolithic, a potential signature of a domestication bottleneck. This is consistent with archeological evidence of sheep management at Aşıklı Höyük which transitioned from residential stabling to open pasturing over a millennium of site occupation. However, unexpectedly, we detected high genetic diversity throughout Aşıklı Höyük’s occupation rather than a bottleneck. Instead, we detected a tenfold demographic bottleneck later in the Neolithic, which caused the fixation of mitochondrial haplogroup B in southwestern Anatolia. The mitochondrial genetic makeup that emerged was carried from the core region of early Neolithic sheep management into Europe and dominates the matrilineal diversity of both its ancient and the billion-strong modern sheep populations.

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“…At Aceramic Neolithic Aşıklı Höyük (central Anatolia), dung concentrations reveal that sheep and goats were penned between houses by c. 8300 BC (Stiner et al 2014). However, restrictions on mobility and dense corralling of caprines caused lasting joint damage (Zimmermann et al 2018), likely increasing the abortion and neonate death rates (Pöllath et al 2021). Waste products from caprine penning were subsequently integrated in small-scale intensive cultivation, indicated by stable isotope values derived from Neolithic grains (Styring et al 2017) and weed assemblages at Catalhöyuk from c. 6700 BC (Green, Charles, and Bogaard 2018), where the evolution of nonshattering continued in the 'new glume wheat' (Triticum timopheevii group) (Charles et al 2021).…”

Section: Domestication As a Dynamic Ongoing Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering domestication from a process archaeology perspective

et al. 2021

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Process philosophy offers a metaphysical foundation for domestication studies. This grounding is especially important given the European colonialist origin of 'domestication' as a term and 19th century cultural project. We explore the potential of process archaeology for deep-time investigation of domestication relationships, drawing attention to the variable pace of domestication as an ongoing process within and across taxa; the nature of domestication 'syndromes' and 'pathways' as general hypotheses about process; the importance of cooperation as well as competition among humans and other organisms; the significance of non-human agency; and the ubiquity of hybrid communities that resist the simple wild/domestic dichotomy.

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A non-linear prediction model for ageing foetal and neonatal sheep reveals basic issues in early neolithic husbandry

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

An endemic pathway to sheep and goat domestication at Aşıklı Höyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey)

An endemic pathway to sheep and goat domestication at Aşıklı Höyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey)

Ancient mitogenomes from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Central Anatolia and the effects of a Late Neolithic bottleneck in sheep ( Ovis aries )

Reconsidering domestication from a process archaeology perspective

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