Towards the identification of the exploitation of cattle labour from distal metapodials

Abstract

The exploitation of cattle labour in agriculture and transport, prior to large-scale mechanisation, has significantly helped shape the development course of human societies. This paper addresses the question of how to recognise cattle traction using refined techniques derived from control bone samples. We propose a detailed examination of morphometrics from distal metapodials for this purpose. Our results show that metric datasets from specific parts of these elements demonstrate a separation between traction and non-traction groups. Statistical analyses support such separation, encouraging the application of this model to shed light on ancient animal labour exploitation. This model is additionally well suited to fragmentary materials – distal metapodials rather than the whole elements – enabling its wide potential application in zooarchaeological research.