The Initial Domestication of Goats ( Capra hircus ) in the Zagros Mountains 10,000 Years Ago

2000/03/24 by Melinda A. Zeder, Brian Hesse · 11 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

paper · doi:10.1126/science.287.5461.2254

openalex publication_date 2000/03/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Initial goat domestication is documented in the highlands of western Iran at 10,000 calibrated calendar years ago. Metrical analyses of patterns of sexual dimorphism in modern wild goat skeletons (Capra hircus aegagrus) allow sex-specific age curves to be computed for archaeofaunal assemblages. A distinct shift to selective harvesting of subadult males marks initial human management and the transition from hunting to herding of the species. Direct accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates on skeletal elements provide a tight temporal context for the transition.

Citations

• The Slow Birth of Agriculture

Cited by

• Animal Domestication in the Zagros : A Review of Past and Current Research.
• Afghan Hindu Kush: Where Eurasian Sub-Continent Gene Flows Converge
• Pre-Neolithic evidence for dog-assisted hunting strategies in Arabia
• The goat domestication process inferred from large-scale mitochondrial DNA analysis of wild and domestic individuals
• Genetic analyses reveal independent domestication origins of Eurasian reindeer
• So Fair a House
• THE FORMATION OF EARLY NEOLITHIC COMMUNITIES IN THE CENTRAL ZAGROS: AN 11,500 YEAR‐OLD COMMUNAL STRUCTURE AT ASIAB
• The genetics of an early Neolithic pastoralist from the Zagros, Iran
• Paleogenomics of Animal Domestication
• Early Neolithic genomes from the eastern Fertile Crescent
• 9th millennium BC [wikipedia]
• Goat [wikipedia]