Zooarchaeology & Domestication Flashcards
Why is domestication important
- Fundamental change in our relationship with nature
- Development of agriculture: huge repercussions for human ecology, demography, and society
- Production of surplus food and other products
- Permitted dramatic global and human population growth
- Changes in health and disease
What is domestication (from a biological perspective)
- Domestication involves the reproductive isolation of domestic animals from the wild population
- Controlled breeding
- Lead to the domesticates no longer being able to live or reproduce in the wild
- Change from shared ownership of wild resources to private property
Zeder (2012): 3 domestication pathways
- Commensal
- Prey
- Directed
Zeder’s (2012) commensal pathway to domestication and examples of animals on this pathway
Wild - Anthropophily - Habituation - Commensalism and partnership - Captive animal control and intensive breeding - Commerical breeds and pets
- Dogs, cats, rats, mice, guinea pigs, chickens, pigeons, ducks, turkeys
Zeder’s (2012) prey pathway to domestication and examples of animals on this pathway
- Wild - Prey - Game management - Herd management and extensive breeding - Captive animal control and intensive breeding - commerical breeds and pets
- Sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, reindeer, cattle, yaks, water buffalo
Zeder’s (2012) directed pathway to domestication and examples of animals on this pathway
Wild - captive animal control and intensive breeding - commercial breeds and pets
- Horses, donkeys, camels, buffalo, ferrets, hamsters, rabbits, turtles, mink, chinchillas, gerbils, ostriches, emu, parrots, goldfish
Hunting regulation
- Protects females with dependant young
- Provides a survival benefit to females providing longer maternal care
- Indirectly promoted slower life histories by modulating the fitness of maternal care tact
- Hunting regulation included artificial selection on female life history traits and affected demographic processes
Research challenges in the study of animal domestication
- Identifying gradual changes in human-animal relationships
- Some indicators of domestication not visible in the skeleton
- Biological changes may have a delayed response
David’s (1987) 6 criteria for recognising domestication
- Import of a foreign species
- Species specturm change
- Cultural signs
- Morphological change
- Size differences
- Age and sex policies
Why might we see changes in the size and shape of the skeleton
- Removal of natural selective processes
- Removal of male competition
- Deliberate selective breeding by humans
- Isolated domestic herds breeding in a limited gene pool
- Controlled husbandry
- Climatic changes (warmer climates can reduce average animal size, selective pressures relating to body ma to skin area ratios and animal’s ability to dissipate heat)
Case study: identifying early domestic horses in Eurasia
Wild horses:
- Adapted to steppe conditions
- Common acros late Pleistocene Eurasia
- Avoid forested environments
- Rare in early and middle Holocene
Domestic horses:
- In use throughout Bronze age Eurasia
- Remarkably high profile position by first millennium BC
Origins and spread:
- Discuss some early evidence, focus on the steppe and Europe
Arrival of the first farmers in Northern Europe
- Linear Bandkeramik (LBK)
- c. 5650 - 4900 BC
- Opening up of forests: changing Europe’s ecology
- Beneficial to horse population
Identifying early domestic horses
- Changes in body size and shape
- Changes in relative numbers of horse remains
- Biogeography
- Skeletal pathologies
- Demography
- Artistic representation
- Artefacts
- Biomolecular evidence
Horse domestication on the Eurasian steppe
- Eneolithic botai culture, northern Kazakhstan
- Evidence for domestic horses radiocarbon dated to mid-4th millenium BC
- bit wear on horse teeth
- Horse milk (lipid) residue in pots
- Proportions of horse bones match domestic animals
Metrical comparison of horse bone measurements + alternative interpretation
- Decrease in size
- Increase in variablility
- Horse domesticated early 3rd Mill BC (Bell Beaker culture)
Alternative
- Size increase due to improved nutritional state of wild horses as a result of ecological changes due to introduction/intensification of agriculture
Horse domestication: harness fittings and bits
- Late Bronze Age: organic harnesses
- Iron Age: Metal bits
- Bit wear: early 1st mill.BC, common in Iron age
- Led to mandibular diastema
- Iron residue on second premolar
Genetic perspectives of ancient horse DNA vs Modern Horse DNA
Ancient:
- Targeting nuclear genes responsible for coat colour variation
- Rapid and substantial increase in the Euraian steppe region (pre-3000 BC)
- Best explained by selective breeding after domestication
Modern:
- Modelling of data suggests origins in Western Steppe
- Considerable mitochondrial DNA variablility
- Extremely low nucleotide diverity on the Y-chromosome
Genetic variation in traditional horses
- Higher levels of genetic diversity in breeds from Iberia and Caspian Sea region
- High genetic contribution of wild horses to local domestic stock
- Correlation of DNA evidence with the existance of predominantly open landscapes in mid-Holocene
Russel 2011: When were animals domesticated in central Asia
5500 BP (approx)
Russell 2011: process of horse domestication
- Likely began as being tamed for the purpose of hunting other horses for meat
- Ridden without saddle or bit
- Gradually led to domestication as ppl realised how useful they were
- Labour, battle, utilisation of the Steppe, milk
Levine (1999) in Olsen (2006) Skeletal Pathologies
- Pathologies from riding would have been rare before the invention of wooden framed saddles
- Aren’t known before the Iron Age and Roman Periods
- Also bit wear from Iron bits
- SEM to see iron residue on second premolars
Forsten (1998) Progenitor
- Argued that only one wild species from the Pleistocene survived into the Holocene
- Equus Ferus
Olsen (2006): Equus Ferus
- Equus Ferus would have been useful for cranial comparisions/materials
- However very few complete specemins remain
Olsen (2006) Livestock
- Domestic livestock transition can be tracked by culling patterns
- But horse sexual dimorphism size differences is much less identifiable than in other animals
- Horse sexual dimorphism is shown through the presence of large canines in males
Olsen (2006) Horseback riding
Horseback riding may indicate taming rather than domestication. May have been broken and ridden by nomadic hunters but not domesticated
Olsen size changes
Discusses two different scholars investigating different regions. One argued that an increase in size variation was a size of domestication, other argued that it was a sign of a wild population
Olsen (2006) Bokonyi (1947) temporal shifts
Size changes can be a result of climate, temperature change, precipitation.
Bokonyi found that horses in Bronze Age Hungary shifted from horses with narrow hooves to stockier horses with broad hooves as the climate became colder and wetter
Bokonyi cranial changes
Listed domestic cranium changes: decrease in cranial capacity, facial foreshortening, narrowing of muzzle, decrease in tooth dimensions
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