2009/08/19 by Jean‐Denis Vigne, Antoine Zazzo, Jean‐François Saliège +3 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Animal Diversity and Health Studies #Wild boar #Domestication #Pleistocene #Holocene #Radiocarbon dating #Geography #Archaeology #Mediterranean climate #Period (music) #Mediterranean Islands #Ancient DNA #Mainland #Biology #Ecology #Demography #Population
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.0905015106
openalex publication_date 2009/08/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
The beginnings of pig domestication in Southwest Asia are controversial. In some areas, it seems to have occurred abruptly ca. 10,500 years ago, whereas in nearby locations, it appears to have resulted from a long period of management of wild boar starting at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Here, we present analyses of suid bones from Akrotiri Aetokremnos, Cyprus. This site has provided the earliest evidence for human occupation of the Mediterranean islands. Morphological analysis and direct radiocarbon dating of both degraded collagen and apatite of these bones reveal that small-sized suids were living on Cyprus 11,400-11,700 years ago. We demonstrate that these suids were introduced by humans and that, at this early date, their small size must result from island isolation. This sheds light on the early Holocene colonization of Cyprus and on pre-Neolithic Mediterranean seafaring. We further argue that wild boar were managed on the mainland before their introduction to Cyprus (i.e., before the beginning of the Neolithic and at least 1 millennium before the earliest known morphological modifications attributable to domestication). This adds weight to the theory that pig domestication involved a long period of wild boar management that started about the time of the Pleistocene/Holocene transition.