Morphometric Variation in Ancient and Modern Sus scrofa (Joseph Owen, Una Strand-Vidarsdottir, Peter Rowley-Conwy, Keith Dobney)

Morphometric Variation in Ancient and Modern Sus scrofa (Joseph Owen, Una Strand-Vidarsdottir, Peter Rowley-Conwy, Keith Dobney)

Traditional Morphometrics have been used extensively to investigate the spread and adoption of the Neolithic revolution throughout Europe, based on the morphological distinctions between wild and domestic animals and their interaction with humans. However, the use of Morphometrics has rarely been far from controversy, with issues resolving effects such as sex, phylogeography, age (ontogeny), size (allometry) have on morphology, all clouding the distinctions between wild and domestic.

In recent years there have been calls for studies to quantify these variables between wild and domestic species. This study aims to utilise a statistical technique called geometric morphometrics (GMM) to investigate these questions. Instead of measurements taken from opposing extremities (as in traditional morphometrics) GMM uses homologous points to build a configuration of landmarks from which shape variables (minus size) can be extracted and tested using a variety of multivariate statistics. This builds on, and is part of, a larger project investigating the spread of the Neolithic and its subsequent integration with indigenous European populations through the utilisation of aDNA and geometric morphometrics (Larson et al 2007).

This presentation will outline the wider project within which it takes part, the issues associated with Morphometrics today, a description of the theory and techniques of geometric morphometrics and the aims and objects of the project along with some (very) preliminary results. The intention being to create a modern baseline from which inferences about variation in archaeological populations maybe drawn.


Larson, G., Albarella, U., Dobney, K., Rowle-Conwy, P., Schibler, J., Tresset, A., Vigne, J-D., Edwards, C., Schlumbaum, A., Dinu, A., Balacsescu, A., Dolman, G., Tagliacozzo, A., Manaseryan, N., Miricle,P., Van Wijngaardem-Bakker, L., Massiti, M., Bradley, D.G., and Cooper, A., 2007. Ancient DNA, pig domestication, and the spread of the Neolithic into Europe. PNAS.15276-15281

Joseph Owen, Durham University
Una Strand-Vidarsdottir, Durham University
Peter Rowley-Conwy, Durham University
Keith Dobney, University of Aberdeen

No