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SUMMARY:The origins of sheep and goats domestication in Western China - Yi
 ru Wang\, Division of Archaeology
DTSTART:20151020T121000Z
DTEND:20151020T130000Z
UID:TALK60741@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Duncan Needham
DESCRIPTION:Situated at the two sides of Eurasia\, Western Asia and China 
 are both important centres for the origins of agriculture and civilization
 . Key suites of domestic crops\, animals\, and technologies were independe
 ntly developed at these two centres. Scholars have been interested in seei
 ng whether there was communication between these ‘nuclear centres’ in 
 prehistory\, and how they were influenced by each other. The domestication
  of sheep and goats\, which first occurred about 10\,000 before present (B
 P) in the region of modern-day Syria\, Turkey\, and Iran\, has long been a
 ssumed as not originated independently in China\, but was introduced from 
 the West\, behind which there were population movements and cultural excha
 nges.\nHowever\, this hypothesis has not yet been systematically studied. 
 This is because in Western China there is such a complex distribution of w
 ild Caprinae and Gazella species\, which all have similar skeletal morphol
 ogy to domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and goats (Capra hircus)\, and are diff
 icult to separate from each other based on fragmentary and eroded archaeol
 ogical remains. This project carries out a detailed and systematic osteomo
 rphology and osteomety study of the Caprinae and gazelle in Western China 
 and different Ovis species in Eurasia by examining large quantity of the m
 odern specimens. Systematic differences in correlating elements between th
 ese species were found to be related to the ecology of the animals. These 
 criteria are applied to the archaeological specimens from five sites in We
 stern China from Epipaleolithic era (ca. 10\,000 BP) to the Bronze Age (35
 00 BP) to trace the domestication and migration process of sheep and goats
 . Together with other zooarchaeological methods\, it was discovered that t
 he origins of sheep and goats domestication in Western China were not simp
 ly a spreading event\, but have incorporated both the local wild Caprinae 
 and domestic ones from the West. It represented a complex continuum of int
 eractions between the animals and humans with various cultural interaction
 s from both the East and West in the unique ecological and social contexts
 .
LOCATION:The Richard King Room\, Darwin College
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