Craniology of Sheep from the Bronze Age Burials of the Lchashen Necropolis (Armenia)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the study of osteological material from excavations of necropolis – Lchashen. The burials (97 graves) covered a wide chronological spectrum the Bronze and Iron Ages. Almost in all burials were found skulls of sheep, without significant damage, belonging to hornless and horned females older than two years. The result of comparing the morphometric parameters of the studied skulls with those of the domestic sheep (Mazekh) showed their identity. The constancy of craniological parameters for four thousand years allows for the possibility of the existence of Mazekh sheep already in the second millennium BC.