1. Animal Board Invited Review: Sheep birth distribution in past herds: a review for prehistoric Europe (6th to 3rd millennia BC)
- Author
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Éva Ágnes Nyerges, Mariya Ivanova, Delphine Frémondeau, Marie Balasse, Henri Gandois, Denis Fiorillo, E. Blaise, Adrian Bălăşescu, Eszter Bánffy, Anne Tresset, Carlos Tornero, Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements (AASPE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), MNIR, Musée National d'Histoire de la Roumanie, Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evoluci o Social (IPHES), Trajectoires - UMR 8215, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute of Archaeology [Budapest], Research Centre for The Humanities [Budapest], Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)-Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Center for Archaeological Sciences (CAS), Department of Biology, University of Leuven, Römisch-Germanische Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Institut für Ur-und Frühgeschichte und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Universität Heidelberg, and Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
010506 paleontology ,[SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory ,Present day ,Biology ,Breeding ,Oxygen Isotopes ,01 natural sciences ,SF1-1100 ,Prehistory ,biogeochemistry ,Pregnancy ,zooarchaeology ,medicine ,Seasonal breeder ,Animals ,0601 history and archaeology ,Dental Enamel ,Zooarchaeology ,History, Ancient ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Ancestor ,2. Zero hunger ,Sheep ,060102 archaeology ,Ecology ,breeding seasonality ,Reproduction ,Parturition ,06 humanities and the arts ,Seasonality ,Animal husbandry ,medicine.disease ,Animal culture ,Europe ,tooth enamel ,Period (geology) ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Female ,Seasons ,Animal Distribution ,Tooth - Abstract
In temperate latitudes sheep have a seasonal reproductive behaviour, which imposes strong constraints on husbandry in terms of work organization and availability of animal products. During the last 50 years, researchers have focused on understanding the mechanisms driving small ruminants’ reproduction cycles and finding ways to control them. This characteristic is inherited from their wild ancestor. However, the history of its evolution over the 10 millennia that separates present day European sheep from their Near Eastern ancestors’ remains to be written. This perspective echoes archaeologists’ current attempts at reconstructing ancient pastoral societies’ socio-economical organization. Information related to birth seasonality may be retrieved directly from archaeological sheep teeth. The methodology consists of reconstructing the seasonal cycle record in sheep molars, through sequential analysis of the stable oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of enamel. Because the timing of tooth development is fixed within a species, inter-individual variability in this parameter reflects birth seasonality. A review of the data obtained from 10 European archaeological sites dated from the 6th to the 3rd millennia BC is provided. The results demonstrate a restricted breeding season for sheep: births occurred over a period of 3 to 4 months, from late winter to early summer at latitudes 43°N to 48°N, while a later onset was observed at a higher latitude (59°N). All conclusions concurred with currently held expectations based on present day sheep physiology, which, aside from the historical significance, contributes to the reinforcing of the methodological basis of the approach. Further study in this area will permit regional variability attributable to technical choices, within global schemes, to be fully reported. ispartof: Animal vol:11 issue:12 pages:2229-2236 ispartof: location:England status: published
- Published
- 2017