This article was downloaded by: [University of Sussex Library]

On: 08 February 2015, At: 21:34

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

World Archaeology
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription
information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rwar20

The secondary exploitation of animals in

the Old World
a
Andrew Sherratt
a
Ashmolean Museum , University of Oxford
Published online: 15 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Andrew Sherratt (1983) The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World,
World Archaeology, 15:1, 90-104, DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1983.9979887

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1983.9979887

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the
“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our
agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the
accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and
views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not
the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be
relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor
and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs,
expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or
indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial
or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply,
or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access
and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the
Old World

Andrew Sherratt
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

Introduction

In the historical and ethnographic record, western Eurasia appears as a mosaic of pastoral and
mixed-farming groups in which domestic livestock has played a major role. Specialised forms of
animal husbandry have been adapted to a wide range of geographical and economic conditions,
from steppe nomadism to large-scale commercial livestock rearing. In the perspective of pre-
history, however, this picture is a relatively recent one. Many of the features which now appear
basic to the Old World economic pattern only became widespread three or four millennia after
the beginning of farming.
In a recent paper (Sherratt 1981), I drew together archaeological and archaeozoological
evidence for the early use of the secondary products and applications of domestic animals in
the Old World. The hypothesis presented was that domesticated livestock was first used largely
for meat, and only some millennia later for milk, wool, riding, traction and pack transport. The
evidence for each of these elements was varied in character and nowhere conclusive, but seemed
to converge on a critical phase of change in the fourth millennium BC, which I labelled the
'secondary products revolution'.
The purpose of this article is to present some additional information which modifies and
confirms these conclusions, and also to sketch the outlines of a general model of the develop-
ment of animal husbandry from c.6000 to 2000 BC. Many of the innovations considered here
seem to have emerged in restricted parts of the Near East, and to have been exchanged and
disseminated as part of the process leading to urbanisation. Important interactions also
occurred with the steppe belt, where new ways of life appeared at this time, and the new
features which were introduced to temperate Europe caused a revolutionary change in the
character of agriculture and social systems there. Despite the fragmentary nature of present
evidence, therefore, it is useful to consider this phenomenon as a whole, since its elements are
clearly interconnected. The dating of these features will first be discussed in a European
context, and then considered as part of the pattern of development in the Near East.

World Archaeology Volume 15 No. 1 Transhumance and pastoralism

© R.K.P. 1983 043-8243/83/1501-90 $1.50/1
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World 91

Use of the scratch-plough (ard)

The best evidence so far for the regular use of the plough in agriculture comes from the
discovery of actual plough-marks on old land surfaces, and the recent multiplication of such
discoveries offers the hope that this will lead to a more precise definition of the date at which
animal traction was first applied to cultivation. Themostimpressivecorpusof early plough-marks
comes from Denmark, where they have recently been comprehensively reviewed by Henrik
Thrane (1982). A dozen of these examples belong to the Corded Ware period of the third
millennium BC, but nineteen can be dated to the Early or Middle Neolithic-the TRB culture
of the fourth millennium. Of these, the earliest are the four which belong to the Early Neolithic
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

C phase, with another five dated to this time or the opening phase of the Middle Neolithic.
Among the latter is the splendid example from Snave near Dreslette, where 175 square metres
of criss-cross furrows have been exposed under a long dolmen-mound. These examples can be
dated by a series of radiocarbon determinations on material of these phases to c. 3700-3300 BC
(see e.g. Bakker 1979: 141-5). These fit well with the date of c.3500 BC for furrows in the
surface below the South Street longbarrow (Avebury) and other evidence (Sherratt 1981:
Fig. 10.8).
Further welcome evidence comes from the circum-Alpine region. In the Valle d'Aosta, from
phase II of the site of Saint-Martin-de-Corleans in the suburbs of Aosta in northern Italy, an
area of plough-marks has been exposed on a ritual site beneath Neolithic cist-graves (Mezzena
1981). The furrows are bracketed by radiocarbon dates of c. 2900 be and 2400 be (averages of
seven dates: Mezzena 1981: 32-3), giving a calibrated range of 3600-3000 BC. These show an
impressive congruence with the Scandinavian dates. Slightly later, with a radiocarbon determin-
ation of 2400 be (= 3000 BC), is the site of Castaneda at the mouth of the Calanca valley in
Graubünden, Switzerland, where another large area of criss-cross furrows has been exposed
beneath an Iron Age cemetery (Zindel and Deluns 1980). Another Swiss site, Chur-Welshdörfli,
yielded furrows sandwiched between Lutzengiietle (late Neolithic) and Early Bronze layers, and
so dating to the later fourth or third millennium BC (ibid.: 44).
Although the occurrence of such finds is naturally dependent on the preservation of old
land surfaces, the existence of such conditions under monuments dating to before 3500 BC
(e.g. earthen longbarrows) offers some control on this type of evidence: and the emerging
pattern of dates both for plough-marks and figurines from several parts of Europe seems to be a
convincing one.
As well as the contemporary iconographie evidence for paired draught in the form of pottery
cart- and yoke-models (listed in Sherratt 1981: 264-5), the copper models of yoked oxen from
Bytyn near Poznan in Poland (Piggott 1968: Plate 25) also date to around 3500 BC on the
evidence of the associated flat copper axes. Since the ox-figures were made by a more sophisti-
cated method of casting (probably lost-wax) than was practised in Europe at that time, it is
possible that they were imports from a more advanced area such as Anatolia. The possibility of
such contacts is suggested by a remarkable pottery vessel from Oldenburg, north-west Germany,
which was clearly based on a metal prototype (Bakker 1979: 123). This.evidence of long-
distance contacts is important for the apparently rapid spread of yoked traction at this time.
One more type of evidence should be noted, since it has sometimes been used to argue for an
earlier use of ox-traction for ploughing. This is the morphology of cattle bones from the early
fifth millennium BC site of Vädastra on the lower Danube in Romania (Ghejie and Mateesco
 92 Andrew Sherratt

1973; Mateesco 1975). On the basis of deformation in the epiphyses of the humérus and femur
it was suggested that the forelimbs of subadult animals had been subjected to vertical
compression as the result of carrying loads. While this phenomenon deserves further study, it
cannot by itself be taken as evidence of the use of bovines for traction. There is thus no reason
to suppose that the plough was in use in Europe before the mid-fourth millennium BC. There
is thus good agreement among the various lines of evidence for paired draught (plough-marks,
models or drawings of oxen and carts, paired-ox burials) to date its introduction to c.3500 BC,
coinciding with a major horizon of change in European settlement patterns.
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

The spread of the horse in Europe

The pattern in which domestic horses spread through Europe from their origin on the Pontic
steppes (Sherratt 1981: 272-3) is proving to be a complex one. The first horses appeared in
small numbers in temperate Europe towards the end of the fifth millennium BC, and are found
in graves of the Tiszapolgâr culture in eastern Hungary (Bökönyi 1978: 25). Their occurrence
here at this time is significant, for it coincides with other evidence for trans-Carpathian links
such as imported types of flint and status items (Kaczanowska 1980). As Bökönyi (1978: 25)
notes, these early horses were probably 'regarded as novelties or status symbols' and did not form
the basis of a local breeding population, since they do not reappear in Hungary until the Baden
period and only in any numbers in the Early Bronze Age (Beaker) period around 2500 BC.
During the intervening period, in the later fourth and early third millennia, horses seem to
have spread among elite groups in the North European Plain through contacts between later
TRB and Baden cultures. Horse bones are known from the TRB and related contexts in central
Germany (Müller 1978: 204), Czechoslovakia (Peske 1982) and Bavaria (Driehaus 1960: 88-9);
but the most convincing evidence of their domestic status is the series of antler objects recently
interpreted by Lichardus (1980) as the cheek-pieces of bits. These occur as grave-finds on three
late TRB (Elb-Havel) sites in the north of the DDR, on a TRB (Tiefstich) settlement in Lower
Saxony, and as stray finds in northern France (probably S.O.M.). Two more examples, from
Bernburg graves at Barby near Schönebeck in central Germany, are illustrated by Behrens
(1981: 13). The objects are crescentic in section and about 20 cm in length, with a single hole
through their thickened mid-section. They resemble the finds from Sredni Stog sites like
Dereivka near Kiev, where the first evidence of horse domestication occurs, and have parallels
in some later, Bronze Age types from a period in which more complex types of antler cheek-
pieces are known. Experimental use has demonstrated their effectiveness as bits (Lichardus
1980: 16-19). At the type-site of Ostorf (Kr. Schwerin, DDR) they occur in two graves of
mature males, in one of which a pair of such cheek-pieces was associated with rich grave-goods
including twenty-two arrowheads, a stone axe, flints, organic and amber beads, and a miniature
amber double-axe. (No bones of horses were found in the burials.) This evidence suggests that
by 3000 BC small numbers of horses were being kept for riding by certain elements of the TRB
population in northern and central Europe, shortly after the time at which the plough first
came into use in these areas.
This initial spread of horses in temperate Europe thus coincides with the increasing opening-
up of the east/west corridor of the North European Plain, which in the following Corded Ware
and Beaker periods was to transmit important innovations to other areas of Europe. It is at this
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World 93

time that horses appeared more widely in Europe (e.g. Ireland: van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974:
345-7), that the first horse-burials are found (e.g. Grosshöflein-Föllik in the Austrian Burgen-
land: Pittioni 1954: 247), and that horse bones reach substantial proportions on certain sites
(e.g. Csepel-Haros near Budapest: Bökönyi 1978). By 2000 BC horses occurred regularly on
Bronze Age domestic sites in central Europe, and were probably available to a larger part of the
population.

The spread of wool-sheep in Europe

The basic problem in assessing the change from textiles based on plant fibres (linen and bast) to
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

those made of wool is one of differential preservation. Vegetable fibres survive only in alkaline
contexts such as the calcareous muds of Neolithic Switzerland, while woollen fibres survive
only in acid contexts such as the oligotrophic peat-bogs of northern Europe (although carbon-
isation may preserve exceptional examples).
The great abundance of textile finds from Switzerland in the period from 4000 to 3000 BC
(Vogt 1937) shows that linen was widely used in the Neolithic. After this time, in the Corded
Ware and Early Bronze Age periods, the sharp decline in textile remains suggests that it had
been largely replaced by wool, which would not be preserved in such environments. On the
other hand, there is abundant evidence from northern Europe (especially in Denmark and
adjacent areas: Hald 1950) that woollen cloth was the major textile in use during the Bronze
Age, from 2000 onwards. The problem is thus to identify the point in the third millennium at
which the change-over occurred.
An important find in this context is the 'Spitzes Hoch' tumulus at Latdorf near Bernburg in
central Germany (DDR), excavatated by Klopfleisch in 1880. This contained a collective burial
with Bernburg (TRB) pots and copper beads, within a circular stone setting covered by oak
planks. The burning of this wooden covering had carbonised nearly sixty textile fragments,
which have been examined by Schlabow (1959). These he described as being of'erstaunlicher
Feinheit', and consisting of 'feine, langhaarige Schafwolle' —finer than wool from the Bronze
Age. However, Dr M. L. Ryder (in litt. April 1981) informs me that he examined this
supposedly Neolithic 'wool' in 1964, and is of the opinion that it is flax; and carbonised flax-
seeds occurred in the grave (Vogt 1937: 43). It seems most likely, therefore, that this late-
fourth-millennium sample is linen, like contemporary Swiss textiles.
The earliest European find of woollen fibres is the wrapping from the handle of a flint
dagger, found in its leather sheath in a peat-bog at Wiepenkathen, in northern Germany (Cassau
1935). This fabric is particularly interesting, since it consisted of woollen threads that had
originally been interwoven with others, presumably linen, that had not survived the acid
conditions. This is neatly paralleled by a contemporary Swiss find (Ruoff 1981), in which the
converse obtained: linen fibres interwoven with now vanished ones, presumably of wool. The
Wiepenkathen dagger can be dated typologically (Lomborg 1973) to the earliest phase of the
late Neolithic 'Dagger Period', beginning around 2400 BC. Moreover a recent unpublished find
ofcarbonised wool from Switzerland can be dated to c.2900 BC (P. Petrequin, pers. comm.).
It seems reasonable, therefore, to suggest that wool was introduced to north-central Europe
some time in the early to mid-third millennium (probably in a Corded Ware context), and was
used in conjunction with linen until it became the dominant textile fibre in the second
millennium.
 94 Andrew Sherratt

The evidence set out above thus suggests an extended period of around a thousand years,
from c.3500 to 2500 BC, in which three important innovations reached Europe, in the order:
plough, horse, wool.

The antiquity of dairying

One of the most important questions about prehistoric economies is the origin of milking. It
cannot be assumed that this was practised from the beginning of domestication (Sherratt 1981:
275-82); although it was probably older than the first iconographie evidence for the practice,
which appears only in Uruk contexts of the fourth millennium BC. The answer can only come
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

from a large number of faunal studies using age- and sex-specific mortality estimates; and
although many more such studies are required, some initial results relevant to the early use of
milk in Europe will be noted here.
Sakellaridis (1979) has provided detailed data on faunal assemblages from Neolithic
Switzerland, and although some of the sample sizes are small, some consistent patterns emerge.
In the Pfyn and Cortaillod cultures (3800-3500 BC) 40 to 80 per cent of the cattle survived to
maturity, of which the majority were female. The lack of adult males confirms that they were
not kept as draught animals, and the high proportion of adult females implies the possibility of
milking as well as breeding stock. Although some sites of this period only produced immature
animals, the very high proportions of adult females in certain assemblages make the practice of
milking quite likely. Moreover, this pattern occurs as early as the Roessen levels at Eschen-
Lutzengiietle (c.4000 BC), where over 80 per cent of cattle were more than 2-3 years old. A
similar pattern was also noted for ovicaprids: Cortaillod populations also contain 20-60 per
cent of adult animals, mostly female. This precludes their use for wool, as predicted, but leaves
open the possibility that goats, in particular, were used for milking. (Incidentally, sheep were
regularly used as milk animals in northern Europe until the Industrial Revolution, as in southern
Europe today.) It is thus not improbable that milking was being practised in Europe by
4000 BC, or even earlier, though the use of milk in Neolithic Europe seems to be a local rather
than a general feature.
How does this fit with other indications as to the antiquity of dairying? In an earlier paper
(Sherratt 1981: 276-7) I discussed the relevance of the restricted adult tolerance of lactose
(milk-sugar) in human populations. The ability to digest milk, owing to the persistence of the
enzyme lactase into adulthood, is very low or absent in Mongoloid, New World, Melanesian,
Australoid and Khoisan populations. In the Near East it is generally low, with the exception of
the Bedouin of Saudi Arabia. Likewise in Africa, most Negroid populations except pastoralists
like the Fulani, Hima and Tussi are intolerant to lactose. Roughly half of the inhabitants of the
Mediterranean countries are intolerant, and the only populations in which the majority of
adults can digest milk are those of north-west Europe. Although the practice of milking has
some correspondence with the distribution of lactose-tolerant individuals, it does not depend
on the existence of high levels of lactose tolerance in the population. The use of milk products
such as yoghurt and cheese (in which the lactose is broken down into simpler sugars) is thus
likely to have preceded the ability to drink milk directly.
Two selective factors are thus likely to have been responsible for the present distribution of
lactose tolerance. One is the advantage, under extreme conditions on desert margins with few
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World 95

alternative food sources, of being able to consume large amounts of fresh milk. This does not
explain the high levels of tolerance in northern Europe, however, and an ingenious hypothesis
to account for this has recently been put forward by Flatz and Rotthauwe (1977). This relates
lactose to the promotion of calcium absorption where there is a deficiency of vitamin D, when
it is beneficial in preventing rickets. The development of lactose tolerance would thus parallel
the selective advantage for de-pigmentation in areas of low sunlight (since vitamin D is
produced in the body by UV radiation). With a cereal-based diet, and little vitamin D from fish
and liver, agricultural populations in Europe would have been prone to calcium deficiency and
consequent bone deformations. If milk was available, there would be a selective advantage for
the prolongation of lactase activity into adult life which would allow it to be consumed
directly, thus helping to prevent rickets.
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

We may therefore suggest that milking was probably practised in Europe by Neolithic
populations, and that selective pressure in favour of milk-drinking became increasingly
important with the northwards spread of agriculture. The limited opportunities for grazing in
the primary forest would have inhibited the development of large herds, but the ability to keep
small quantities of domestic livestock for milk would have been valuable in small scattered
communities. Enlargement of the pastoral sector, and the development of larger-scale dairying,
would have depended on the progress of forest clearance and in particular the change from
small-scale horticulture (Sherratt 1980: 316) to a larger scale of agriculture. It is in this context
that the arrival of the plough and wool-sheep were important.

Transport and trade in the fourth and third millennia BC

Having surveyed the European evidence for secondary exploitation, we may now turn to the
Near East, and in particular to transport animals which spread only marginally into prehistoric
Europe.

Equids

As with paired draught, the use of pack animals can be illuminated from the evidence of
figurines. A group of terracottas from southern Palestine is the first known indication of the use
of the donkey. The earliest are from the Ghassulian (Late Chalcolithic) period, of the fifth
millennium BC, while others come from EB1 contexts, equivalent to the Egyptian Gerzean and
Protodynastic periods of the fourth millennium BC. From a Ghassulian context in a tomb at
Giv'atoyim is a small donkey figure with two globular containers (pots? baskets?) high on its
back (Kaplan 1969). It is paralleled by other figurines from Ghassulian ritual centres: a bull
carrying 'churns' from En-gedi (Ussishkin 1980: 35), and a woman with a 'churn' on her head,
and a ram with conical vessels on its back, from Gilat (Alon 1976). The best representation of
a pack donkey comes from an EB 1 tomb at Tel Azor (nor far from Tel Aviv) along with a copper
dagger and a predynastic Egyptian palette (Druks and Tsaferis 1970). It carries two tall containers.
A somewhat similar figure of a donkey, broken from the rim of a vessel, comes from Cyprus
and belongs to the EB3 period at the end of the third millennium (Sherratt 1981: Fig. 10.11).
The context of these early figurines from Palestine is interesting: the Late Chalcolithic
Ghassulian culture saw a major expansion in the Negev and Sinai, associated with an expansion
 96 Andrew Sherratt

of trade and metallurgical activity (Rothenberg 1970), and the formation of links across the
arid part of southern Palestine with the cultures of predynastic Egypt, where metal objects
appear in the Gerzean (Naqada II). These routes became increasingly important during the
period of formation of the Egyptian state. Loaded donkeys appear on the rock drawings of
Upper Egypt (Winckler 1939), and in Protodynastic representations of trade or tribute scenes.
Egyptian interest in the Levant is indicated by the occurrence of traded objects (and even the
hieroglyph of Narmer on a sherd from Tel'Erany) and this sphere of influence in southern
Palestine parallels the interaction zone around the early Mesopotamian states, indicated for
example by the occurrence of proto-Elamite tablets on the Iranian plateau. These Egyptian land
routes based on pack transport were superseded from the fifth dynasty onwards by the develop-
ment of effective maritime transport and bulk trade by sea (Marfoe 1981). The scope of these
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

earlier contacts was clearly dependent on the existence of domestic donkeys used as pack animals.
Faunal evidence shows that the donkey was present in both Palestine and Upper Egypt at
least from the fourth millennium onwards, and the evidence of the figurines suggests that it
came to be important locally among semi-pastoralist groups in southern Palestine, perhaps first
in transporting milk and milk-products, and in carrying rare materials from distant extraction
sites. The growing demand from expanding populations in the Nile valley, however, gave it a
broader significance within the expanding network of trade routes. This spread of innovations
in transport (for example the use of the sail, which also came into wider use during this time:
Sherratt 1982) took features formerly important in local niches and gave them an international
role in the expanding relations between early complex societies and their peripheries.
The donkey was introduced to the Aegean during the third millennium, occurring both at
Lema and in Troy IV (Gejvall 1969,1946), and is thus likely to have spread widely through the
Near East during this period. Tracing this spread is complicated, however, by the difficulty of
distinguishing donkey from the remains of other equids which were present in this region. A
further complicating element is the probability of hybridisation between the various equids.
These complexities have been comprehensively assessed by Juris Zarins (1976) in a work which
is a fundamental source of information on this question. Central to his thesis is the contention
that onagers, although hunted and occasionally tamed, were unlikely to have been domesticated
in the same sense as the donkey. However, onager-like equids such as those shown pulling
battle-cars on the 'standard of Ur' might well represent hybrids, either with donkeys or perhaps
even with horses. The use of the onager, therefore, both as a traction and riding animal, seems
to be secondary to the use of other equids, and may represent local attempts to extend the
stock of a rare and valuable imported species by the developing techniques of hybridisation
with a locally abundant equid.
This raises the further question of the date at which horses spread in the Near East. The
earliest reported specimens are from Anatolia and north-west Iran (Late Chalcolithic and EBA
specimens from Nor§un tepe and Geoy tepe), though these may represent local wild populations
within the natural distribution of the species. Apparently domestic horses appeared at
Korucatepe, Troy VI and Servia only towards the end of the third millennium. There are some
suggestions, however, that domestic horses may perhaps have been present in southern Iran in
the fourth millennium: Zarins (1976) notes identifications from Talilblis, Choga Mish and
perhaps Susa, and the possibility that both the bone plaque from Susa and the famous proto-
Elamite tablet (Scheil 1923: PI. XVII) may represent horses (or their hybrids).
Horses became more widespread in the Near East in the second half of the third millennium,
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World 97

when the earlier forms of solid-wheeled carts were refined by way of the cross-bar and spoked
wheels into the horse-drawn chariot. This seems to have taken place on the northern edge of the
fertile crescent, from Syria and Anatolia to north-west Iran. There are no examples of bits
from this early period, and the animals were controlled by a noseband or ring. The further
development of chariotry took place on the steppes with their longer tradition of horsemanship,
including use of the bit. It was probably from this source that chariots reached Europe around
2000 BC, where their presence is shown by models of spoked wheels in the Otomani culture of
eastern Hungary and Romania. These are associated with a characteristic style of compass-
decorated bonework for cheek-pieces and (?) whip-caps, that has some analogies on the steppe.
Professor Piggott (1983) has recently pointed out that the occurrence of features of this style in
the Mycenae shaft-graves around 1600 BC probably represents the arrival of this technological
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

complex in Greece, thereby reversing the direction of a long-held horizon of 'Mycenean

influence' (Vladar 1973). Such penetration from the steppes of chariotry and horse-rearing
expertise (with its technical vocabulary) probably took place in a wide arc around the older
civilisations of the Near East in the early second millennium, where it is reflected for instance
in the appearance of Indo-European minorities such as the maryannu (Drower 1969).

Camels

Returning briefly to the early stages of urbanisation in the fourth millennium, it is possible to
suggest that the domestication of the camel closely paralleled that of the donkey, but in a
complementary area. Two species are involved, the Bactrian and the Arabian camel or
dromedary. Although there is no unambiguous evidence for the domestic status of either animal
before the second millennium, indications of its presence on settlements, together with the long
overland routes which came into use in the fourth millennium on the Iranian plateau, suggest
that it was already in use as a transport animal. Tosi (1974) has suggested an early focus of use
of the Bactrian camel at sites like Shahr-i Sokhta in Seistan, where its bones, dung and hair have
been identified, and this area shows close cultural links with Turkmenia, where figurines
suggest that it may have been used as a traction animal (Sherratt 1981: 275; Masson and
Sarianidi 1972: plate 36; Bulliet 1975). Seistan is linked southwards to the area of Kerman and
the Makrari, where there are further indications of the presence of the Bactrian camel (e.g.
Zeuner 1955: see now also Compagnoni and Tosi 1978).
On the other side of the Gulf, the Oman peninsula was part of the same interaction-sphere
(probably the historical Magan), and there are fourth-millennium camel bones at Hili and Umm
an-Nar, while representations on grave-stones show that the species present was the dromedary
(Ripinski 1975; Zarins 1978). The camel also occurs at Bahrain (Dilmuri). It is thus possible
that domestication of the two species occurred in the developing zone of long-distance trade
contacts on opposite sides of the Gulf, linked to the growing urban area of Mesopotamia. While
the initial focus of camel-domestication may have been in some localised area of Iran, it achieved a
major significance within the expanding network of fourth-millennium trade routes. These trade
routes did not at this time extend to western Arabia, and the relatively slow spread of the
dromedary may reflect the undeveloped nature of this hinterland until the first millennium BC.
The Bactrian camel, however, seems to have undergone a major dispersal as a transport
animal in the third millennium. Camel bones appear on Harappan sites (Ratnagar 1981: 173),
 98 Andrew Sherratt

and somewhat later on Andronovo sites in central Asia, where they may be linked to drawings
of camels pulling carts in the Minusinsk depression (Bulliet 1975: 185). They may even have
penetrated by way of the Pontic steppes into Europe in the third millennium: fabrics identified
as camel-hair have been noted at Maikop in the Caucasus (Gimbutas 1956: 60) and camel bones
in barrows on the Pontic steppes and at Gurbanesti east of Bucharest in Romania (Rosetti
1959: 802). It is clear that the steppes acted as an important secondary axis of dispersal, as
with other secondary forms of animal exploitation.
In summary, therefore, the fourth and third millennia saw the emergence and dispersal of
three major means of transport beginning in three major zones from north to south: riding,
wheeled vehicles and pack transport. These techniques, and the domestic species on which
they were based, spread and interacted both within the Near East and on its steppe hinterland.
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

The origins of secondary animal exploitation

Previous sections have reviewed evidence for the widespread appearance of secondary uses and
products in the fourth millennium BC. How far back may these innovations be traced, and what
were their areas of origin?
The earliest forms of cereal cultivation in the Near East were closely tied to restricted areas
of seasonally moist soil (Sherratt 1980), requiring minimal soil preparation. Neolithic sites first
proliferated in the scattered environments where such cultivation could take place. Expansion
beyond these limits took place in the Early Chalcolithic (sixth millennium BC), particularly in
two sorts of location. Samarran cultivators on the fans of eastern Iraq (on or beyond the
present 200-mm isohyet) pioneered the use of water-spreading by constructing channels across
braided streams (Oates and Oates 1976). At the same time, Hassuna farmers expanded on the
brown steppe soils of northern Iraq (within the 200-mm isohyet). The latter area offered few
opportunities for irrigation; and while precipitation at that time may have been higher, it is
likely that greater soil preparation would have been necessary for cereal-growing. Since cattle
were at that time becoming widespread on lowland sites, the preconditions for traction
cultivation were present. Although the first representations of ploughs occur in southern
Mesopotamia only in the fourth millennium (Sherratt 1981: 266), it is likely that (as with
irrigation) ploughs were first developed within Greater Mesopotamia in the preceding millennia.
These considerations would point to an origin in northern Iraq in the sixth or fifth millennia BC.
Although this innovation was probably a basic element in the spread of irrigation-cultivation
on the alluvial plain of Mesopotamia, it may not have been widely used outside the lowland
area. At this stage it is likely to have been a localised feature of cultivation systems where
sufficient numbers of cattle were available, and there were sharp contrasts in the type of
animal husbandry in adjacent regions. For instance, faunal assemblages from the Kermanshah
region of western Iran show that down to the mid-fifth millennium BC the animal economy
there was based on meat, principally juvenile goat and gazelle (Davis 1982).
During the Late Chalcolithic (fifth millennium BC), at the same time as major agricultural
expansion was taking place in the alluvial plain in the Ubaid period, there was a further
development of animal economies on the fringes of Mesopotamia. In Kermanshah the economy
diversified, with the appearance of cattle and an increase in sheep, which now became more
important than goats (Davis 1982). Moreover, the sheep were now kept to a greater age, and it
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World 99

is likely that wool and milk were being used for the first time. Wool-sheep may have been
present in this area from an earlier date, since the Sarab figurine (Bökönyi 1974: Fig. 44) seems
to indicate the V-shaped staples of hairy medium wool (M. L. Ryder, pers. comm.). Wool-
bearing sheep probably spread from the Zagros to the lowland steppe and semi-desert margins
where significant changes were also taking place in the fifth millennium. In southern Palestine
and Sinai the colonisation of new areas in the Ghassulian was associated with a similar increase
in the importance of sheep, and the infilling of the area between Palestine and Egypt was
important in linking the Nile valley with developments in western Asia.
The spread of new features within the fertile crescent created some of the preconditions for
the urbanisation which took place in the fourth millennium. The conjunction of expanding
populations on the alluvium using irrigation and plough agriculture, with the opportunities for
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

long-distance trade, resulted in attempts to secure direct supplies of metal, stone and wood.
The growing influence of lowland Mesopotamia and Egypt affected a wide hinterland, as
trading partners and colonies were established in resource-rich areas of Palestine, Syria and Iran,
using both river transport on the Nile and Euphrates and land routes with donkeys (Palestine)
and camels (Iran). The sledge, probably used since the invention of the plough, was transformed
by the Sumerians into the wagon or cart by the addition of wheels, as shown in the Uruk
pictograms (Piggott 1968); and equids were used as traction animals for the first time to pull
battle-cars in the Early Dynastic period.
In the larger-scale economies of lowland Mesopotamia it became possible to support a
specialised pastoral sector in the interstices of the irrigated land. Herds of dairy cattle were
kept in marshy areas (as shown by dairying scenes with reed huts), while wool flocks were
maintained partly by stubble-grazing. Animal-keeping began to move (like the cultivation of
tree crops which also began at this time) from the sphere of subsistence to that of commodity
production, and manufacturing industry based on wool provided textiles for export. Secondary
products had become an essentail part of the urban economy.

Europe and the steppes

The various elements of secondary animal exploitation that had appeared in different parts of
the Near East were dispersed on a large scale by the development of long-distance trade routes
around the primary urban centres. The process opened up a wider hinterland, from Anatolia
through the Caucasus to Iran, in which local communities—Troy, Maikop, Altyn tepe—were
developed by wider contacts. The opening up of this mountain arc made possible further links
with the Mediterranean, temperate Europe and the steppes. The spread of Near Eastern
technologies to this wider periphery is well illustrated by metallurgy. Arsenical alloying and the
two-piece mould appeared in the fourth millennium in Greece, eastern Europe and the Pontic
area, at about the same time as the traction complex, equids and wool-sheep.
Eastern Europe lay open to contacts in two directions: from the Aegean, and around the
northern margin of the Black Sea; and it seems likely that both routes played a role in the
appearance of these new features. The dating evidence discussed in the first section suggests
that the first element to be adopted in Europe was the plough, together with the cart or wagon.
The connections • which are evident in pottery types between Baden, Ezero and western
Anatolia present the possibility that this innovation reached central Europe from Anatolia.
 100 Andrew Sherratt

However, a steppe route is also possible, and this is most likely for wool-sheep, and certain
for the horse.
The open landscape of the Pontic steppes presented a more immediate opportunity for an
increased scale of animal-keeping than did the forested conditions of temperate Europe. The
true steppes had been avoided by early farmers, and their native population consisted of
riverine groups living by-fishing and keeping domestic livestock, mainly cattle (Bibikova 1975).
During the later fourth millennium these populations made increasing use of the interfluves,
constructing the characteristic pit-graves under round tumuli. Although not nomadic, this
increasingly pastoral emphasis was promoted by the use of the horse, which was locally
domesticated, and the cart which was adopted from neighbouring Caucasian groups. These
populations expanded both eastwards, towards the steppes of central Asia, and westwards to
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

intrude upon sedentary agricultural groups in eastern Europe.

By the early third millennium, there is evidence that some of these groups had penetrated
as far as eastern Hungary, where they settled mainly in areas abandoned by local agricultural
groups, probably because of increasing salination (Ecsedy 1979; Sherratt 1982-3). At the same
time the sheep populations in this area of central Europe show an increase in size (Bökönyi
1974) which is likely to reflect their use for secondary products. This bridgehead seems to have
acted as a point of dispersal both for wool-sheep and for the horse, which spread into the North
European Plain where the sandy areas of this morainic landscape were being increasingly opened
up by plough cultivation.
Up to this point, the livestock economies of temperate Europe had been constrained by the
limited areas of forest clearance created by Neolithic cultivation. The introduction of the
scratch-plough in the fourth millennium made possible a radical change in the character of land
use, in which an extensive strategy replaced small-scale horticultural systems. The larger areas of
fallow and abandoned land created by this more extensive form of agriculture made possible
an expansion in the use of livestock, including both dairy cattle and subsequently wool-sheep.
This major transformation in the character of European agriculture had profound effects on
economy and social structure, beginning the pattern which was to characterise the Bronze Age.

Conclusion

The development of economies based on secondary animal exploitation thus began as a mosaic
of individual innovations, mostly in the semi-arid areas of the Near East. It was a response
to the problem of adapting early forms of farming to new environments, especially open
landscapes where it was possible to maintain larger quantities of livestock. These innovations
came together during the period of rapid economic change leading to the rise of urban
communities, and were disseminated by the expansion of trade routes linking the early states
with their resource-rich hinterlands.
The introduction of these new elements to the Pontic steppes accelerated the local develop-
ment of pastoral economies, already using the domestic horse. This zone became a major area
of secondary development and dispersal, carrying the new elements both into central Asia and
into eastern Europe. In the forested conditions of temperate Europe, livestock-keeping had
been restricted in scale by the limited area of grazing; but the introduction of the plough
initiated a more extensive type of agriculture that could support a larger pastoral component.
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World 101

The Carpathian Basin acted as an important centre of dispersal for steppe elements in Europe,
and its links to the North European Plain carried advanced types of stock-raising to the Atlantic
seaboard by the third millennium BC.

Note on dates

All dates in this article are calibrated radiocarbon dates, following the table provided by R. M.
Clark in Antiquity, 49, 265-6.
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to many colleagues who have brought new material to my attention, especially
Jim Lewthwaite and John Watson, and particularly to Roger Moorey for his frequent advice on
Near Eastern matters.

4.i.1983 Ashmolean Museum

University of Oxford

References

Alon, D. 1976. Two cult vessels from Gilat. 'Atiqot. 11: 116-18.
Bakker, J. A. 1979. The TRB West Group. University of Amsterdam Subfaculty of Pre- and
Protohistory, Amsterdam.
Behrens. H. 1981. Der Walternienburger und der Bernburger Keramikstil und die Walternienburg-
Bernburg Kultur. Jahresschrift für Mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte. 63: 11-16.
Bibikova, V, I. 1975. Formen der Viehzucht bei den Äneolitischen Stämmen Südosteuropas.
In Moderne Probleme der Archaeologie (ed. K. H. Otto and H. J. Brachmann). Berlin: Akademie
Verlag.
Bökönyi, S. 1974. History of Domestic Mammals in Eastern and Central Europe. Budapest:
Akadémiai Kiadó.
Bökönyi, S. 1978. The earliest waves of domestic horses in east Europe. Journal of Indo-
European Studies. 6: 17-76.
Bökönyi, S. 1979. Copper Age vertebrate fauna from Ketegyhaza. In Ecsedy (1979), pp.
101-18.
Bulliet, R. W. 1975. The Camel and the Wheel. Harvard University Press.
Cassau, A. 1935. Ein Feuersteindolch mit Holzgriff und Lederscheide aus Wiepenkathen, Kreis
Stade. Mannus. 199.
Compagnoni, B. and Tosi, M. 1978. The camel: its distribution and state of domestication in
the Middle East during the third millennium in light of finds from Shahr-i Sokhta. In Meadows
and Zeder (1978), pp. 91-103.
 102 Andrew Sherratt

Davis, S. 1982. Some Evidence of the Origin of Wool and Milk Production in the Near East
Based upon a Sequence of Faunal Assemblages from Western Iran. Paper delivered at Fourth
International Conference on Archaeozoology. London.
Driehaus, J. 1960. Die Altheimer Gruppe und das Jungneolithikum in Mitteleuropa. Mainz:
RGZM.
Drower, M. 1969. The domestication of the horse. In The Domestication and Exploitation of
Plants and Animals (ed. P. Ucko and G. Dimbleby). London: Duckworth, pp. 471-8.
Druks, A. and Tsaferis, V. 1970. Tel Azor. Revue Biblique. 77: 578 and Plate XLb.
Ecsedy, I. 1979. The People of the Pit-grave Kurgans in eastern Hungary. Budapest: Akadémiai
Kiadó.
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

Flatz, G. and Rotthauwe, H. W. 1977. The human lactase polymorphism. Progress in Medical
Genetics. 2: 203-44.
Gejvall, N. G. 1946. The Fauna of the Different Settlements of Troy: Part I: Dogs, Horses and
Cattle. Unpublished typescript in London University Institute of Archaeology.
Gejvall, N. G. 1969. Lerna: a Preclassical Site in the Argolid, vol. 1: The Fauna. Princeton:
American School of Classical Studies.
Gheţie, B. and Mateesco, C. N. 1973. Utilisation des bovins à la traction dans la phase plus
récente de la civilisation Vadastra. Actes du VIIIe Congrès international des Sciences pré-
historiques et protohistoriques: 454-60.
Gimbutas, M. 1956. The Prehistory of Eastern Europe. Part I. Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody
Museum.
Hald, M. 1950. Olddanske Tekstiler. Copenhagen: Kongelige Nordiske-Oldskriftselkab.
Kaczanowska, M. 1980. Uwagi o surowcach, technice i typologii przemysłu krzemiennego
kultury Bodrogkereszturskieji i Grupy Laznany. Acta Archaeologica Carpathica. 20: 19-56.
Kaplan, J. 1969. 'Ein el Jarba. Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research. 194:
2-39 and Plate VII.
Lichardus, J. 1980. Zur Funktion der Geweihspitzen des Typus Ostorf: Ueberlegungen zu einer
vorbronzezeitlichen Pferdeschirrung. Germania. 58: 1-24.
Lomborg, E. 1973. Die Flintdolche Dänemarks. Copenhagen: Lynge.
Marfoe, L. 1981. Cedar Forest to Silver Mountain: on Metaphors of Growth in Early Syrian
Society. Paper delivered to the Århus International Conference.
Masson, V. M. and Sarianidi, V. I. 1972. Central Asia. London: Thames & Hudson.
Mateesco, C. N. 1975. Remarks on cattle breeding and agriculture in the Middle and Late
Neolithic on the Lower Danube. Dacia. 19: 13-18.
Meadows, R. H. and Zeder, M. A. 1978. Approaches to Faunal Analysis in the Middle East.
Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum, Bulletin 2.
Mezzena, F. 1981. La Valle d'Aosta nella preistoria e nella protostoria. In Archaeologia in Valle
d'Aosta dal Neolitico alla Caduta dell'Impero Romano 3500 a.v.-V sec. d.c. Regione Valle
d'Aosta: Assessorato del Turismo Urbanistica e Beni Culturali.
Müller, H.H. 1978. Tierreste aus eine Siedlung der Bernburger Gruppe bei Halle (Saale).
Jahresschrift für Mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte. 62: 203-20.
 The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World 103

Oates, D. and Oates, J. 1976. Early irrigation agriculture in Mesopotamia. In Problems in

Economic and Social Archaeology (ed. G. Sieveking, I. Longworth and K. Wilson). London:
Duckworth, pp. 109-36.
Peske, L. 1982. Neolithic and Aeneolithic Equids from Czechoslovakia in the Context of
Central Europe. Paper delivered at the Fourth International Conference on Archaeozoology,
London.
Piggott, S. 1968. The earliest wheeled vehicles and the Caucasian evidence. Proceedings of the
Prehistoric Society. 34: 266-318.
Piggott, S. 1983. The Earliest Wheeled Transport: from the Atlantic Coast to the Caspian Sea.
London: Thames & Hudson.
Pittioni, R. 1954. Urgeschichte des Österreichischen Raumes. Vienna: Deuticke.
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

Ratnagar, S. 1981. Encounters: the Westerly Trade of the Harappa Civilisation. Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Ripinski, M. 1975. The camel in ancient Arabia. Antiquity. 49: 295-8.
Rosetti, D. V. 1959. Movilele funerare de la Gurbaneşti. Materiale si Cercetări Archeologice.
6: 791-816.
Rothenberg, B. 1970. An archaeological survey in southern Sinai. Palestine Excavation
Quarterly. 4-29.
Ruoff, E. 1981. Stein- und Bronzezeitliche Textilfunde aus dem Kanton Zürich. Helvetia
Archaeologica. 45/48: 252-64.
Sakellaridis, M. 1979. The Mesolithic and Neolithic of the Swiss Area. Oxford: BAR (Inter-
national Series 67).
Scheil, V. 1923. Textes de compatibilité proto-Elamites. Mémoires de la délegation en Perse. 17.
Schlabow, K. 1959. Beiträge zur Erforschung der jungsteinzeitlichen und bronzezeitlichen
Gewebetechnik Mitteldeutschlands. Jahresschrift für Mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte. 43: 101-
20 and Plates.
Sherratt, A. G. 1980. Water soil and seasonality in early cereal cultivation. World Archaeology.
11: 313-30.
Sherratt, A. G. 1981. Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution.
In Pattern of the Past: Studies in honour of David Clarke (ed. I. Hodder, G. Isaac and N.
Hammond). Cambridge University Press, pp. 261-305.
Sherratt, A. G. 1982. The first European sailing ships. The Ashmolean. 1: 12-14.
Sherratt, A. G. 1982-3. Neolithic and Copper Age settlement in the Great Hungarian Plain.
Oxford Journal of Archaeology. (part I) 1: 287-316; (part II) 2.
Thrane, H. 1982. Dyrkningsspor fra yngre stenalder i Danmark. Om Yngre Stenalders
Bebyggelseshistorie. Skrifter fra Historisk Institut, Odense Universitet, no. 30, pp. 20-8.
Tosi, M. 1974. Some data for the study of prehistoric cultural areas on the Persian Gulf.
Seminar for Arabian Studies. 4: 145-74.
Ussishikin, D. 1980. The Ghassulian shrine at En-gedi. Tel Aviv. 7: 1-44.
Vladar, J. 1973. Osteuropäische und mediterräne Einflüsse im Gebiet der Slovakei während der
Bronzezeit. Slovenská Archaeologia. 21: 253-357.
 104 Andrew Sherratt

Vogt, E. 1937. Geflechte und Gewebe der Steinzeit. Monographien zur Ur- und Fruhgeschichte
der Schweiz.
van Wijngaarden-Bakker, L. 1974. The animal remains from the Beaker settlement at
Newgrange, Co. Meath: first report. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (Section C).
74: 313-83.
Winckler, H. 1939. Rock Drawings of Southern Upper Egypt, 2 vols. London: Egypt Explo-
ration Society.
Zarins, J. 1976. The Domestication of Equidae in Third Millennium Mesopotamia. PhD
dissertation, University of Chicago.
Zarins, J. 1978. The camel in ancient Arabia: a further note. Antiquity. 52: 44-6.
Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 21:34 08 February 2015

Zeuner, F. 1955. The identity of the camel on the Khurab Pick. Iraq. 17: 162-3.
Zindel, C. and Deluns, A. 1980. Spuren von Pflugackerbau aus der Jungsteinzeit in Graubünden.
Helvetia Archaeologica. 11: 42-5.

Abstract

Sherratt, A. G.
The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old World

This paper considers the range of evidence for the secondary uses and products of animals:
traction, transport, wool and milk. It suggests that early farming populations used livestock
mainly for meat, and that other applications were explored as agriculturalists adapted to new
conditions, especially in the semi-arid zone. Innovations in different parts of the Near East were
exchanged and disseminated as part of the process leading to urbanisation. Their dispersal
affected both the steppe belt, which saw a marked increase in population, and also temperate
Europe, where agriculture was revolutionised by more extensive methods of farming and
landscape clearance.