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

Abstract

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.

Geographical contrasts of Y‐chromosomal haplogroups from wild and domestic goats reveal ancient migrations and recent introgressions

“…This suggests an absence of male gene flow between the bezoar populations and between the bezoar and domestic goats from the same region. Thus, domestic goats, which possibly were derived from bezoar populations not sampled in this study, maintained their paternal lineages during migration from the Fertile Crescent via Anatolia to Europe, despite indications of management of wild goats in central Anatolia (Stiner et al, 2022).…”

“…Goat ( Capra hircus ), sheep ( Ovis aries ), cattle ( Bos taurus ) and pigs ( Sus scrofa ) are four major livestock species, which after their domestication in southwest Asia about 10,000 years ago (Larson & Fuller, 2014; Stiner et al, 2022) spread to all inhabited continents. Because of their relatively small size, sheep and goats were the earliest domesticates, but have become less important than cattle and pigs as suppliers of food.…”

A Time to Sow, a Time to Reap: Modifications to Biological and Economic Rhythms in Southwest Asian Plant and Animal Domestication

“…Although such a system might be challenging to reconstruct exclusively from bone remains, archaeozoological mortality profiles can nonetheless indicate cultural differences in slaughter practices [225]. Furthermore, while some herding and hunting profiles are indistinguishable, altered age and sex profiles in the archaeozoological record provide a key diagnostic for early herd management and domestication [226][227][228][229].…”

Epipalaeolithic animal tending to Neolithic herding at Abu Hureyra, Syria (12,800–7,800 calBP): Deciphering dung spherulites

“…No structural evidence for penning was documented outside of the phase 1B structure where the dung was found at Abu Hureyra, paralleling finds from Neolithic Pinarbaşı, C ¸atalho ¨yu ¨k, Boncuklu, and Aşıklı Ho ¨yu ¨k, where phytoliths and micromorphology mark the earliest examples of on-site animal keeping in open areas recorded to date [27][28][29]39]. Using multiple lines of evidence from the Level 5 occupation at Aşıklı Ho ¨yu ¨k, Stiner et al argue that wild lambs and kids were captured and raised for several months prior to slaughter, as a form of small-scale live "catch-and-grow" meat storage that provided quick returns for low investment, between 10,450 and 9450 calBP [42]. Over a span of 1000 years, the relationship between people and caprids intensified at Aşıklı Ho ¨yu ¨k, culminating in large-scale herding, much as it did at Abu Hureyra.…”

“…While the beginnings of these behaviors are thought to be largely embedded in the Neolithic, in 1998, Rosenberg et al [ 40 ] argued for an even deeper reach at Hallan Çemi in southeastern Anatolia; survivorship and sex ratio data recorded from Sus scrofa (wild boar) remains, while morphologically wild [ 41 ], hint at mixed pig-rearing and pig hunting, including the capture and tending of young animals and a strong male culling bias during the terminal Epipalaeolithic. A similar practice of capturing wild lambs and kids for short term live meat storage was recently documented using multiple lines of evidence at the earliest Neolithic Level 5 at Aşıklı Höyük, dating to around 10,400 years ago [ 42 ].…”