0000000000631418
AUTHOR
Guy Bar-oz
Long-distance trade and consumption of mollusks in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods in the Negev Desert
Abstract Recent archaeological excavations in the Negev desert in the southern Levant have yielded a variety of mollusk shells originating from the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile River, and the Red Sea, uncovered in the trash mounds and settlements of Byzantine and Early Islamic sites. These remains indicate that aquatic products were among the merchandised comestibles transported across long distances. Three shellfish taxa manifest such transportation: (1) the small clam, Donax trunculus, commonly found in the exposed sandy wash zones of the Eastern Mediterranean coast; (2) the large freshwater mussel, Chambardia rubens, whose habitat stretches from the Nile River to western Africa; and (3) t…
Ancient goat genomes reveal mosaic domestication in the Fertile Crescent
How humans got their goatsLittle is known regarding the location and mode of the early domestication of animals such as goats for husbandry. To investigate the history of the goat, Dalyet al.sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear sequences from ancient specimens ranging from hundreds to thousands of years in age. Multiple wild populations contributed to the origin of modern goats during the Neolithic. Over time, one mitochondrial type spread and became dominant worldwide. However, at the whole-genome level, modern goat populations are a mix of goats from different sources and provide evidence for a multilocus process of domestication in the Near East. Furthermore, the patterns described suppor…