Sheep and goat management in the Early Neolithic in the Zagros region (8000–5000 BC): New zooarchaeological and isotopic evidence from Ganj Dareh, Bestansur and Jarmo

Abstract

The transition from hunter gathering to farming is one of the most important episodes in the history of humankind. Considerable evidence indicates that this shift was a slow, complex, highly localized process, which took place in multiple places in Southwest Asia independently, from around 9500 BC. Caprines were arguably the first domesticated livestock, brought under human control during a process that began in the 9th millennium BC in a region extending from south-eastern Turkey to north-western Iran. In this research we integrate zooarchaeological analysis with stable isotopic data of faunal remains from three key Early Neolithic sites in the Eastern Fertile Crescent: Ganj Dareh (ca. 8000 BC), Bestansur (ca. 7800–7000 BC) and Jarmo (ca. 7000–5000 BC).While some form of goat management seemed to have been practiced at Bestansur, based on spherulites, dung and shed deciduous teeth, no evidence has been found for winter foddering or transhumance practices. At Ganj Dareh goat were managed, and might have been foddered during the winter or vertical transhumance might have taken place. At Pottery Neolithic Jarmo both sheep and goat were managed and they were possibly brought to higher elevations during the summer months or foddered during winter. This research has supported the idea that already during early stages of goat management, humans kept a high degree of control over the population.