How ‘Shaun the sheep’ looked like in the past? Evolution and archaeological diversity of sheep morphotypes in Southwest Asia

Sheep husbandry has played a leading role in the economy of human societies over the last 10 millennia. While archaeological research focused on the study of early husbandry practices, little is known about the emergence and morphological evolution of sheep breeds. To what extent ancient sheep bones could help to understand this change and identifying the factors behind it? To answer these questions, we used 3D geometric morphometrics methods on 260 astragalus of modern and archaeological sheep from Southwest Asia and East Africa. Ancient sheep bones have been recovered from forty-two archaeological sites covering seven millennia of economic and cultural transformations, between the 8th and the 1st millennium BC. We have explored morphometric diversity of sheep bones, first according to biotic and abiotic factors on well-documented modern osteological collections and second, according to environmental, chronological and socio-economical contexts on modern and ancient bones. Our first results indicate significant differences in the variation of astragalus shape between modern and archaeological sheep in correlation with ecological and chronocultural factors.

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