Abstract
Wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) bones recovered from the Natufian site of Shubayqa 1 demonstrate a wider distribution of mouflon in the Late Pleistocene of the Southern Levant than previously known. Early Epipalaeolithic sites are common in the limestone steppe region of eastern Jordan but have yielded only a handful of caprine bones that cannot be identified to species level and few faunal remains from excavated Late Epipalaeolithic sites have been reported. Analysis of animal bone from Shubayqa 1 suggests a significant population of wild sheep could be found concentrated in the basalt desert environment of eastern Jordan during the Late Pleistocene, especially where higher rainfall over the Jebel Druze provided more water. A population of wild sheep was still present in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A when the nearby site of Shubayqa 6 was occupied. Hunting of diverse, locally available resources including wild sheep at the end of the Pleistocene illustrates the flexible and adaptive exploitation strategies that hunter-forager groups engaged in. This provides further evidence to the increasing body of data showing the creative and opportunistic approach of terminal Pleistocene groups allowing continued occupation even in more marginal environments in a period of environmental change.
Highlights
The evolution of the genus Ovis is complex but the currently accepted view of Old World sheep is that European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon) and Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) are two distinct subspecies [2,3]
This paper focuses on the Late Pleistocene distribution of Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis), hereafter referred to as mouflon or wild sheep
A number of Early Epipalaeolithic sites excavated in the dry steppe and desert environments around the Azraq Basin yielded very occasional caprine bones hinting at a wider distribution of either wild sheep or goat in an area beyond the known range of these species in the Late Pleistocene
Summary
The evolution of the genus Ovis is complex but the currently accepted view of Old World sheep is that European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon) and Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) are two distinct subspecies [2,3]. In the southern Levant sheep remains, possibly representing a separate population of Late Pleistocene mouflon, have been identified in the Negev and southern Jordan (table 1) at Rosh Horesha, Abu Salem, Ramat Harif, Wadi Judayid and Wadi Mataha [18,19,23,24] Wild sheep in these locations may have been part of a refugia group surviving from an earlier wider distribution of the species. A number of Early Epipalaeolithic (ca 22 000–17 500 cal BP) sites excavated in the dry steppe and desert environments around the Azraq Basin yielded very occasional caprine bones (see below for more detail) hinting at a wider distribution of either wild sheep or goat in an area beyond the known range of these species in the Late Pleistocene. There has been a dearth of sites excavated in moister environments towards the foothills of the Jebel Druze and the excavation of sites at Shubayqa provide the first large and well-dated faunal assemblages in this region [31,32,33,34] creating a new window into past faunal distributions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
