Transition Between Two Worlds: Morphological Continuity in Iron Age Cattle, Pig, and Sheep Populations (800–50 bc) of the Rhône Valley (France)

Abstract

The Rhône valley is an important contact point between the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. In Iron Ages (800–50 bc), it was an area of circulation between different material and cultural worlds, where different practices and cultures met. In this particular context, archeozoological studies can offer a different view of these questions of exchange and potential influence, by approaching the issues of food and animal husbandry. This study seeks to approach this question through the prism of animal morphology, the result of a selection of morphotypes by breeders, notably cattle, pig, and sheep, the most common species in the region at the time. Thanks to the log size index method, a certain stability can be demonstrated in pig and cattle morphology over time and space, as well as a slow homogenization of their sizes, which is really visible at La Tène D (125–50 bc). Sheep show a specific pattern with a notable high increase during La Tène C (250–125 bc). Comparison with data from other parts of the Mediterranean world would suggest that the development of local morphotypes owes little or nothing to the influence of Mediterranean breeding practices.