Emmanuelle Vila, Jwana Chahoud, Sofiane Bouzid, Moussab Albesso, Agraw Amane, Bea De Cupere, Hossein Davoudi, Homa Fathi, Azadeh Mohaseb, and Marjan Mashkour (2023)
Exploring the Morphometric Characteristics of sheep breeds in the Ancient Near East
In: 14th ICAZ International Conference, 07-12/08/2023, Cairns (Australia).
The multidisciplinary project Evosheep studies the origin and evolution of ancient sheep breeds by means of archaeozoology, geometric morphometrics, genetics, iconography and epigraphy in the ancient Near East from the six millennium BCE. This approach conducted on ancient breeds is completed by work on modern breeds from Near and Middle East and East Africa to provide new biometric and genetic reference records more adequate than European races for further scientific research. This osteological reference offers a measurement baseline for comparison with the archaeological data to explore the diversity patterns of the different domestic sheep populations across the Ancient Near East. This paper compares the diversity of sizes, allometry, and body parts proportions of sheep from archaeological assemblages using the Log Size Index, the Log Shape Ratio, and multivariate analyses. This study will focus on Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites from the Levant, Mesopotamia, Iran, and South Caucasus.
Abstract of an Oral Presentation or a Poster
Document Actions