Mesolithic domestic sheep in West Mediterranean Europe

Geddes, David

doi:10.1016/0305-4403(85)90013-5

Cited by 25 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The Mouflon Ovis ammon musimon Pallas, whose origin from domestic Sheep is now well established on palaeontological and biochemical grounds (for a review, see Geddes, 1985), is observed for the first time in the bone samples at the end of the Neolithic. Mouflon probably originated earlier from Feral Sheep, but it is impossible to distinguish between Wild and Domestic Sheep bones prior to the late Neolithic decrease in size of Domestic Sheep.…”

Section: Neolithic To the Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zooarchaeology and the biogeographical history of the mammals of Corsica and Sardinia since the last ice age

Vigne¹

1992

Mammal Review

151

116

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This paper presents the main results of a 10‐year zooarchaeological study on the origin of the present‐day terrestrial mammals of Corsica. Thousands of teeth and bones from Corsican archaeological sites comprise an almost complete succession from the end of the Pleistocene (c. 10,000 years BP) to the present. Human activities brought about the extinction of the entire autochthonous mammalian fauna and the gradual introduction of more than 25 taxa which constitute the present wild and domestic fauna. Such a complete turnover has also been recorded on other large Mediterranean islands and on some of the smaller ones. Preliminary data indicate how these events may have occurred in Corsica. This article emphasizes the important role which zooarchaeology can play in biogeographical research.

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Section: Neolithic To the Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zooarchaeology and the biogeographical history of the mammals of Corsica and Sardinia since the last ice age

Vigne¹

1992

Mammal Review

151

116

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“…Because the distribution of the wild ancestors of the Goat and Sheep were restricted to western Asia it is relatively easy to trace their introduction, as domestic livestock, into the archaeological record, as they moved west and northwards. The earliest remains of Sheep in western Europe, for example, have been identified from around 8000 BP on the Mediterranean coast of France (Geddes, 1985).…”

Section: Dispersal Of the Earliest Domestic Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The process of domestication

Clutton‐Brock

1992

Mammal Review

113

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Domestication involves both culture and biology. The cultural process of domestication begins when animals are incorporated into the social structure of a human community and become objects of ownership, inheritance, purchase and exchange. The morphological changes that occur in domestic animals come second to this integration into human society. The biological process resembles evolution and begins when a small number of parent animals are separated from the wild species and are habituated to humans. These animals form a founder group, which is changed over successive generations, in response to natural selection under the new regime imposed by the human community and its environment, and also by artificial selection for economic, cultural, or aesthetic reasons. In the wild, the evolution of a subspecies occurs when a segment of a species becomes reproductively isolated by a geographical barrier. With domestic animals, this separation leads to the development of different breeds.

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“…Accordingly, Schüle [35] holds that humans introduced all extant wild ungulate species on the Mediterranean islands during the Neolithic, or later, after the Pleistocene populations had been exterminated following human invasions. For Sardinia, this introduction hypothesis is probably correct for the mouflon (Ovis ammon musimon) and for the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) [10,12,41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Island Populations, Human Introductions and the Limitations of Genetic Analyses: the Case of the Sardinian Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus)

Zachos

Hartl

2006

Human Evolution

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The Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) is endemic to the Tyrrhenian islands of Corsica and Sardinia. It has been regarded as an introduced species and has allegedly been present on the islands since the beginning of the Neolithic culture some 8,000 years ago. In this review, we present the results of relevant genetic analyses and discuss their implications for the origin of C. e. corsicanus. Different genetic studies hypothesize that the most probable ancestral populations for Sardianian red deer were alternatively, the Near East, North Africa, or mainland Italy. These respective scenarios are evaluated and it is concluded that geneticists have not yet been unable to definitively solve the problem. However, a natural colonization of the Tyrrhenian islands from mainland Italy via the Tuscan archipelago is not only in accordance with palaeontological findings but also with at least some of the genetic data.

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Mesolithic domestic sheep in West Mediterranean Europe

Cited by 25 publications

References 19 publications

Zooarchaeology and the biogeographical history of the mammals of Corsica and Sardinia since the last ice age

Zooarchaeology and the biogeographical history of the mammals of Corsica and Sardinia since the last ice age

The process of domestication

Island Populations, Human Introductions and the Limitations of Genetic Analyses: the Case of the Sardinian Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus)

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