Work is published in Journal of Archaeological Science. In order to find out, at what age animals were died, scientists measure their bones. In this case, an accurate forecast is important because it allows you to determine including the main cause of death. Traditional methods for estimating the age of dead sheep are based on dental (belonging to the teeth) and epiphyseal (analysis of cartilage plate growth) data. This gives quite wide age intervals - from a newborn age to almost teenage. In order to more accurately determine the prenatal and early mortality of the lambs already emerged in prehistoric communities, more accurate analysis is needed.
Scientists from Munich (Germany) and Istanbul Universities (Turkey) stated that they solved this problem with the help of a generalized additive model developed on the basis of the measurements of the shoulder bone of the yet born or newborn modern rocks, whose age is known exactly (data took From the anatomical atlas of different countries).
The researchers applied a new method when analyzing the bones of pregnant sheep and its fetus found at the Ptolemyevsky-Roman animal cemetery in Siena (Egypt), as well as the remains of the lambs found in the parking lot of Ashikla-Hyuyuk (Turkey) dated early Neolithic. This place was settled from 8350 to 7300 to our era. And the analysis of the bones of the animal skeletons found there shows that the life expectancy of the lambs gradually grew during this period of time. According to scientists, this is due to the fact that early shepherds began to understand the relationship between the survival of young sheep and the conditions of their content and gradually went to this.
Finds indicate that at the early stage of the domestication of sheep, people in the settlement were fed mainly by the fact that they got on the hunt. Later, however, sheep began to give the greatest part of the animal protein. The authors of the study believe that the main causes of high mortality of the lambs in the early neolithic were infections, malnutrition, too crowded animal accommodation and insufficient grazing.
Source: Naked Science