The First Steps of Animal Domestication

Preface (Umberto Albarella, Keith Dobney and Peter Rowley-Conwy); New archaeological approaches to trace the first steps of animal domestication: General presentation, reflections and proposals (Jean-Denis Vigne, Daniel Helmer and Joris Peters); Principles and concepts. Experimental animal domestication and its application to the study of animal exploitation in prehistory (Benjamin S. Arbuckle); The domestication of the wolf - the inevitable first? (Werner Muller); Breaking the mould: A consideration of variation in the evolution of animal domestication (Ricahrd W. Redding); New techniques and their application. Assessing the origin and diffusion of domestic goats using ancient DNA (Helena Fernandez et al); Kernel smoothing and mixture analyses for the determination of the sex ratios at death, at the beginning of domestication of ungulates (Herve Monchot et al); Two novel methods for the study of dental morphological variation in Sus scrofa, in order to identify separate breeding groups within archaeological assemblages (Sylvia Warman); Animal domestication in West Asia. Pig exploitation at Hagoshrim: A prehistoric site in the southern Levant (Annat Haber et al); Identifying early domestic cattle from Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites on the middle Euphrates using sexual dimorphism (Daniel Helmer et al); The upper Euphrates-Tigris basin: Cradle of agro-pastoralism? (Joris Peters et al); A view from the Zagros: New perspectives on livestock domestication in the fertile crescent (Melinda A. Zeder); Animal domestication in East Asia. Wild pig? Or domesticated boar? An archaeological view on the domestication of Sus scrofa in Japan (Akira Matsui et al); Wild boar remains from the Neolithic (Jomon Period) sites on the Izu Islands and in Hokkaido Island, Japan (Yamazaki Kyomi et al).