Unravelling the complexity of domestication: a case study using morphometrics and ancient DNA analyses of archaeological pigs from Romania
Résumé
Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern
Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe
with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium.
Recent ancientDNA (aDNA) research also indicates the incorporation of European
wild boar into domestic stock during the Neolithization process. In order
to establish the timing of the arrival of domestic pigs into Europe, and to test
hypotheses regarding the role European wild boar played in the domestication
process, we combined a geometric morphometric analysis (allowing us to
combine tooth size and shape) of 449 Romanian ancient teeth with aDNA
analysis. Our results firstly substantiate claims that the first domestic pigs in
Romania possessed the same mtDNA signatures found in Neolithic pigs in
west and central Anatolia. Second, we identified a significant proportion of
individuals with large molars whose tooth shape matched that of archaeological
(likely) domestic pigs. These large ‘domestic shape’ specimenswere present
from the outset of the Romanian Neolithic (6100–5500 cal BC) through to later
prehistory, suggesting a long history of admixture between introduced domestic
pigs and local wild boar. Finally, we confirmed a turnover in
mitochondrial lineages found in domestic pigs, possibly coincident with
human migration into Anatolia and the Levant that occurred in later
prehistory.