Sheep exploitation and husbandry in first farming societies: from production to consumption in Central Pyrenees in the E
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Sheep exploitation and husbandry in first farming societies: from production to consumption in Central Pyrenees in the Early Neolithic Alejandro Sierra 1
&
Stéphanie Bréhard 2 & Lourdes Montes 1 & Pilar Utrilla 1 & María Saña 3
Received: 14 March 2019 / Accepted: 30 July 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Sheep were the most important species in the first domestic flocks in the Early Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula. However, their study has tended to stress their role as a fossil guide of the neolithization process rather than their economic importance. The process of their introduction and the initial sheep management and exploitation practices in the Pyrenean sector of the Ebro river basin are studied here based on two sites in this region (Cueva de Chaves and Espluga de la Puyascada). The age and sex composition of the flocks and comparative biometric analysis are the main variables used, and the data obtained are contextualized within the general panorama in the Iberian Peninsula and the western Mediterranean. The results show that sheep were rapidly introduced and included in subsistence strategies and that they maintained homogenous metrical characteristics during the Early Neolithic. The implications of the data for the debate on the neolithization process in the Iberian Peninsula are then discussed. Keywords Archaeozoology . Mortality profiles . Biometry . Early Neolithic . Iberian Peninsula . Pyrenees
Introduction Domestic sheep were among the first domestic species to be kept by the initial agro-pastoralist societies around the Mediterranean basin. As a species that is adapted to different kinds of environments, it formed an important part of domestic flocks throughout prehistory (Dwyer 2008). In the Early Neolithic, it was one of the most important species to be exploited economically, together with goats (Halstead and Isaakidou 2013; Bonsall et al. 2013; Rowley-Conwy et al.
2013; Saña 2013; Manning et al. 2013). The predominance of this species may be due to its numerous advantages. Sheep possess a series of physiological adaptations that allow it to live in very different areas, from very warm and dry environments to cold climates (Dwyer 2008; Sejian et al. 2017). In addition, domestic sheep is a species with markedly seasonal metabolism and reproductive cycles, which is fundamental for its adaptability (Dwyer 2008) in the face of environmental fluctuations. Sheep could possibly provide a large range of products and services, from meat, milk and fibre to manure
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00907-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Alejandro Sierra [email protected] Stéphanie Bréhard [email protected]
María Saña [email protected] 1
Área de Prehistoria - Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales (IUCA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
2
Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnem
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