Payne, S. (1968). The origins of domestic sheep and goats: a reconsideration in the light of the fossil evidence. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 34. Vol 34, pp. 368-384.
 Title The title of the publication or report |
The origins of domestic sheep and goats: a reconsideration in the light of the fossil evidence | ||
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Issue The name of the volume or issue |
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 34 | ||
Series The series the publication or report is included in |
The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society | ||
Volume Volume number and part |
34 | ||
Page Start/End The start and end page numbers. |
368 - 384 | ||
Biblio Note This is a Bibliographic record only. |
Please note that this is a bibliographic record only, as originally entered into the BIAB database. The ADS have no files for download, and unfortunately cannot advise further on where to access hard copy or digital versions. | ||
Publication Type The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book |
Journal | ||
Abstract The abstract describing the content of the publication or report |
Problems of the origins of domestication are best attacked, not via present distributions of wild forms, but through the admittedly imperfect record of the past. Derivation of the sheep from Ovis orientalis, the Urial, and the goat from Capra hircus, the Bezoar, was based on the very shaky assumption that present distributions and characteristics reflected Pleistocene conditions. Direct evidence does have its limitations: the literary/pictorial record is incomplete and unreliable, and bones offer problems of stratigraphy and identification. Nonetheless, ancient forms are best distinguished in (necessarily large) archaeological samples before attempting comparisons with modern data representing forms not necessarily separate in ancient times. On previous assumptions, the five caprine genera should be geographically separate in the Pleistocene fossil record; but the available evidence does not support this view. Experimental taxonomy may be more helpful than classical; interbreeding experiments show that, although intergeneric fertility is low, gene-flow can occur between sheep and goat, which are thus still closely related. Alternative theories for the origins of sheep are- 1) evolution in the isolated Aralo-Caspian basin, or 2) mutation preserved by human intervention (see also 69/437). | ||
Year of Publication The year the book, article or report was published |
1968 | ||
Locations Any locations covered by the publication or report. This is not the place the book or report was published. |
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Source Where the record has come from or which dataset it was orginally included in. |
BIAB
(British Archaeological Abstracts (BAA))
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Created Date The date the record of the pubication was first entered |
05 Dec 2008 |
