Methodology and results of the study of the earliest domesticated animals in the Near East (Palestine)

摘要

The beginning of the domestication of animals established a new relationship between man and animals which, over a certain time, introduced on the one hand changes in domesticated species which took on new morphological characteristics, and on the other hand an evolution of human culture in which new ways of life were adopted as a response to the success in gaining control of a part of the essential meat supply. In order to assess objectively the beginnings of domestication it is necessary to concentrate on this very relationship; it is clear that anatomical features cannot serve to reveal the beginnings of domestication for domesticated species only undergo transformation after a considerable number of generations, while indirect archaeological evidence (equipment, architecture, a sedentary existence) is not sufficient to actually prove primitive domestication.