Early Animal Domestication

Locations for Initial Domestication

Animals have been domesticated on every continent that has developed a food producing economy. Locations for initial domestication have been pinpointed by a combination of archaeology and genetics. Examples:

Chicken: Vietnam; progenitor: red junglefowl

Dog: Middle East; progenitor: wolf.Horse: Kazakhstan; progenitor: Tarpan 5,500 BPTurkey: Mexico and the American Southwest (1100 AD).

Distinguishing Wild from Domesticated Animals

• All domesticated species started out as wild animals hunted for food (except wolf?).

• Physical evidence for the transition to domestication is slight; some examples:

Horse: effect of use of the bit on horse’s teeth, more physical variability, lower leg bones are robust, vessels with milk fat residue

Chicken: larger eggs.

Survival of Early Domesticates

• Surviving examples of early domesticated versions of animals have been found on some islands, e.g. Soay in Scotland, Sardinia in Italy, and in the remote west of Ireland in Co. Kerry.

Bones of domesticated animals may be less dense overall, and exhibit more pathologies

From Aurochs to Cow

• The last Aurochs died in Poland in 1627. They were highly aggressive.

Soay Sheep at Cragganowen, Co. Clare, Ireland.

• Sheep were domesticated from the mouflon c. 8,000 – 7500 BCE in Eastern Anatolia/ Western Iran.

• The Mouflon develops a woolly undercoat only in winter. It drops out on its own accord, and cannot be spun into thread.

• A mutation occurred c. 3500 BC, possibly in the Caucuses or Europe, where the wooly undercoat became longer.

• It is assumed that sheep were being raised for wool when they became more numerous than goats, and when the faunal samples become skewed towards older individuals.

• Pigs were domesticated from the Eurasian wild boar.

Boar sow with offspring at Cragganowen, Co. Clare Ireland

From horticulture to agriculture

• Horticulture is less labor and land intensive than agriculture. The tools most frequently involved are the axe and the digging stick.

• Agriculture often involves working heavier types of soils and putting more work into soil preparation. Accompanying this shift is the use of the hoe and the ard.

• Ards have been recovered from bogs.

Ard