Draw me a sheep: a morphological investigation on appendicular. Bones of modern and ancient populations from SouthWest Asia. (Evosheep project). 28th European Association of Archaeologists. EAA Annual Meeting Budapest, Hungary
Résumé
This paper is prepared by the following authors some of which could not be listed in the
author's list because of the software limitations:
Manon Vuillien, Emmanuelle Vila, Jwana Chahoud, Hossein Davoudi, Bea de Cupere,
Daniel Helmer, Moussab Albesso2, Agraw Amane7&8, Rémi Berthon1, Sofiane Bouzid2,
Homa Fathi4, Joséphine Lesur1, Azadeh Mohaseb1, Lionel Gourichon, Marjan Mashkour,
Thomas Cucchi.
Not listed affiliations above:
7 Department of Microbial, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Addis Ababa University,
Ethiopia
8 ILRI, Livestock Genetics Program, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Sheep husbandry has played a major role in the economy of human societies in
Southwest Asia over the last 10 millennia. However, if archaeological and
archaeozoological "clues" provide insight into husbandry practices developed by early
human societies, it is still difficult to assess the diversity of first breeds these societies
relied on, such as, anthropogenic selective pressure and ecological conditions. To tackle
this issue, EVOSHEEP project focuses on the complex history of early sheep husbandry in
Southwest Asia between the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age using an integrated
approach including archaeozoology, morphometrics, genetics, iconography, philology.
The objective is to identify the biological and anthropological components underlying the
emergence and development of early sheep breeds. In this paper we present our first
results based on modern breeds from Southwest Asia and East Africa using 3D geometric
morphometrics on isolated elements from forelimb (distal humerus) and hindlimb
(calcaneum and astragalus) as a proof of concept to explore the morphological diversity
of sheep. These bones have proven to be powerful tools to understand both herding
strategies and environmental conditions. The next step is to test the morphological
patterns on ancient populations belonging to forty archaeological sites and covering five
millennia of economic and cultural transformations, between the 6th and the 1st
millennium BC.