Early domesticated pigs were first observed from Kuahuqiao site in northern Zhejiang Province, which is carbon dated to approximately 7000 BC, at the early stage of Neolithic. What happened with the domestication in the following 3000 years? In this paper, we focus on the pig remains from Tianluoshan Site, a significant site of the Hemudu culture, discussing the process of pig domestication, and the subsistence economy of human society.

We studied the material through various methods, including morphology, pathology, age-structure analysis and isotope research. The result is quite dramatic: isotope research shows that the bone samples have a high δ15N level, similar to that of humans, which implies that pigs may have been fed with human’s leftovers. However, the third molars are still large, with an average length of over 40mm. The evidence indicates that pigs from Tianluoshan are in an early period of the domestication process: they are fed, but haven’t changed much morphologically.

We present here the results of a study of the faunal remains from the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) bone assemblage of the Xuchang Man site, Henan Province, China. A series of taphonomic tests and analyses were employed to reconstruct the depositional history of the bone assemblage and to investigate MP hunting and subsistence strategies. We identify the minimum number of skeletal elements, document bone surface modifications, the mode of bone fragmentation, and the demographic structure of the main hunted ungulate species. Aurochs (Bos primigenius) and horse (Equus caballus) are the major prey species in this assemblage. The presence of cut marks from all stages of butchery, the presence of selective transport, and the body part data suggest that processing of carcasses was carried out in the vicinity of the site. Analysis of dental eruption and wear of these two species indicates that prime-age adult individuals dominate the assemblage. A high proportion of fragmented animal bones also characterizes the assemblage, yet taphonomic analysis suggests only minor loss of bone due to various post-depositional processes. High rates of fragmentation and green fractures indicate that most of the bone destruction occurred while the site was occupied, probably as a result of processing bones for marrow. The mild effects of weathering, and the relatively low frequency of carnivore damage reconfirm the hypothesis that much of the bone-density mediated destruction is related to human agency.

One of the most promising examples of the potential for cross-illumination between genetics and archaeozoology are the on-going studies of goat (Capra hircus) domestication in the Eastern Fertile Crescent region of modern day Iran, Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. Archaeozooological studies have detected the evolution of specialized hunting strategies into herd management within the natural habitat of wild goats at least 1000 years before the manifestation of morphological markers traditionally used to detect animal domestication in the archaeozoological record. Recent genetic analysis of modern wild goats (Capra aegagrus) from this same region shows that while this process may not have left any archaeologically detectable morphological markers, it did have a profound and lasting genetic impact. These discoveries, in turn, have helped reshape our general understanding of the process of domestication and the relationship between human/animal interaction, genetic change, and morphological change during domestication. Implications of this work for future studies of animal domestication, in goats and other species, are explored.

Diet breadth models rooted in behavioral ecology predict that a broadening of diet to include resources with lower net energy yield after procurement and processing is a function of pressure on higher ranked resources. Following this model, the dramatic expansion in diet diversity during the late Epipaleolithic hunter/collectors in the Near East is automatically cast within a stress based scenario, the result of resource pressures incurred by demographic packing. This framework, in turn, places the beginnings of plant and animal management and subsequent domestication and agricultural origins as responses to chronic demographically driven resource stress. An alternative view places this “broad-spectrum revolution” in the context of broadening biotic communities during a period of post-Pleistocene climatic amelioration in the Early Holocene. Such an approach sees the increase in diet-breadth and the development of resource management as products of an ongoing process of human niche construction, under conditions of little or no demographic pressure, during this period of biotic rebound and climatic stability. An on-going analysis of the faunal remains from the Late Epipaleolithic site of Hallan Çemi in southeastern Anatolia is used to explore these two differing perspectives of the transformation of hunting, and gathering, strategies in the Early Holocene that ultimately led to domestication and agricultural emergence.

As in other Mediterranean islands, domestic species were imported to Sardinia during different prehistoric and protohistoric Ages. Aimed at evaluating diachronic biodiversity, remains from Sardinian sheep dug out in the last decades have been analyzed. The material consisted in 24 bones and 24 teeth coming from 8 different archaeological sites of various Sardinian regions dating back from late Neolithic to Medieval Age. Ancient DNA was extracted, quantified through spectrometry and separated electrophoretically on agarose gel, and its preservation conditions underwent careful evaluation. Notwithstanding the fact that dental tissues are very poor in cells and mitochondria, DNA amount was about five times higher in teeth than in bones depending on soil pH. Furthermore, ancient DNA from a 176 bp region of the mitochondrial D-loop was PCR-amplified with specific primers and sequenced. The nucleotide sequences obtained were compared against what reported by Genbank and against the sequence obtained from subjects belonging to the modern Sardinian breed.

In all ancient samples a single-base is lacking when compared with the modern sheep. As to the nucleotide differences among ancient sheep, a single-base insertion was detected in the Roman and Medieval sheep in comparison with the Nuragic sheep. Such results, as well as the others in progress will hopefully let us draw the genetic tree of Sardinian sheep breed.

Research financed by P5a grant from Sardinian Region.

The topic of the paper concern the preliminary results of the identification of ichthyological materials uncovered in the late Mesolithic site at Dabki, related to the Ertebolle societies and the Funel Beaker Culture. About 100 000 fish bones were discovered during the excavation carried out by the Polish Academy of Sciences and University in Greisfwald in 2004-2007. The archaeoichthyological remains were subjected to a macroscopic analysis. Except of the species and anatomical classification of bone elements, detailed analysis of anatomical distribution, size reconstruction and season of capture were considered. Preliminary research has shown that the material is rich in fish taxa and anatomical elements. In the Polish context there is the first so number fish material. Therefore, research of the fish remains will allow to document the significance of fish and fishing in the subsistence economy and it will support consideration on environmental changes in the micro region of Dabki between 5100 and 3600 B.C.

We provide an overview of animal exploitation during the Chinese Neolithic, emphasizing regional differences in meat procurement strategies. While the peoples of the Yellow River turned from hunting wild animals to the rearing of pigs, dogs, sheep and cattle during the Neolithic, the peoples of the Yangzi continued to rely on an abundant supply of wild animals into their Bronze Age. Their staples were deer, fish, and birds, and there was a special relationship with fish that extended even to the grave.

La intervención de carnívoros en yacimientos arqueológicos y paleontológicos es un fenómeno frecuente a lo largo de todo el Pleistoceno. Muchas de las acumulaciones fósiles conocidas fueron producidas por ellos, lo que ha motivado la realización de diversos estudios analógicos con el fin de analizar su impacto sobre los huesos de los animales que procesan. La mayor parte de los análisis tafonómicos conocidos se han centrado en las hienas, pero también distintos tipos de félidos han sido objeto de trabajos últimamente. El lobo es un carnívoro frecuente en el registro fósil, es un gran depredador y su rango de presas coincide con el documentado en muchos yacimientos arqueológicos europeos. Sin embargo, su comportamiento no ha sido objeto de estudios tafonómicos detallados. Aquí presentamos los primeros resultados de las observaciones efectuadas en el centro de la Dorsal Gallega (Galicia, España). Mostramos tres tipos de consumos distintos y como ello repercute en los huesos. Primero se analizan 4 carcasas consumidas por lobos en un único consumo. Segundo, tratamos 9 carcasas consumidas, trasportadas y dispersadas en varios eventos. Tercero, estudiamos 5 carcasas carroñeadas. Nuestras observaciones reflejan importantes diferencias en cada uno de los casos. En todos ellos hay dispersión de huesos, pero los patrones de fracturación y alteración ósea difieren. Estos datos contribuyen al debate sobre las interpretaciones que pueden hacerse a partir de los estudios con carnívoros.

El análisis de la subsistencia en la transición del Paleolítico Medio-Superior de la Cornisa Cantábrica ha estado focalizado desde los años 80 en los yacimientos de la Cueva del Castillo, Morín, Pendo y Lezetxiki. Las nuevas investigaciones en estos sitios ha puesto de manifiesto la problemática que entrañan algunos de ellos. Del mismo modo, las nuevas intervenciones realizadas en otros lugares han contribuido notoriamente a la renovación del estado de conocimiento que tenemos actualmente sobre el Paleolítico Medio-Superior del cantábrico. Por desgracia las publicaciones sobre la subsistencia del cantábrico en estas cronologías han sido escasas y algo limitadas estos últimos años. Aquí presentamos los datos preliminares de varios yacimientos del Paleolítico Medio-Superior de Cantabria con el fin de contribuir al conocimiento y debate de las estrategias de subsistencia de los últimos neandertales y primeros humanos modernos. Los datos provienen de la Cueva del Esquilleu de cronología Musteriense y Los yacimientos con niveles del Paleolítico medio y superior de Honos de la Peña, Cobalejos, El Ruso y el Otero. Además mostramos datos de otros lugares y, como todo ello contribuye a un novedoso panorama sobre el problema de la subsistencia en el norte de la Península Ibérica en esta cronología. Las primeras valoraciones parecen indicar cierta continuidad en la adquisición de recursos cárnicos entre el final del Paleolítico medio y los comienzos del superior.

Two sets of mid-Holocene mammoth remains have been retrieved from St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Survival of these mammoths in the Pribilof Islands may have been a function of habitat quality and absence of human predators until ~250 years ago. One set of remains, dating to ~6200 C14 yr BP, comprises a portion of a tusk deriving from a relatively small adult male, aged 22+ years, dredged from St. Paul Harbor. The other, dating to ~5700 C14 yr BP, comprises several molar teeth and fragments obtained from Qagnax Cave, a lava tube cave in the island’s interior. Both sets of remains reflect individuals perhaps 75% as large as mainland Pleistocene mammoths. Analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from both sets of remains indicates that these individuals may have been under nutritional stress, forced to consume less desirable resources as island area shrank with rising sea level. Evidence from the mammoth tusk suggests that they may have been undergoing protein catabolism near the time of death. Based on the stable isotope values, we suggest that these mammoths may have been eating seaweed, which became less available during winter after the onset of the Neoglacial period. The Neoglacial probably increased regional sea ice and associated populations of polar bears, whose remains have also been found in Qagnax Cave. If the mammoths were undergoing nutritional stress, they may have been vulnerable to increased predation, perhaps leading to their ultimate demise.