Rassadnikov Alexey
The Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sofia Kovalevskaya Street 16, Ekaterinburg 620018, Russia.
Int J Paleopathol. 2022 Sep;38:18-31. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpp.2022.05.003. Epub 2022 Jun 11.
Various dentition and bone pathologies of the postcranial skeleton of caprines are regularly mentioned in archaeozoological studies. This work analyzes pathological and age-related changes in modern animals with known life histories in order to improve the accuracy of interpretation of pathologies of caprines from archaeological sites.
1468 bones of modern caprines (mainly sheep) have been analyzed. The bones originate from the territory in which there are numerous settlements of Bronze Age pastoralists.
Bones of modern caprines with pathologies have been compared with bones without changes. The age of the animals was determined by the state of the dental system and epiphyses, which made it possible to determine the approximate age range of the caprines, the bones of which are analyzed in the work.
For each skeletal element of modern caprines, typical kinds of changes have been revealed. In some cases, a correlation has been established between the number of pathological changes and the age of livestock.
Despite the known life histories of sheep and goats, the etiology of a number of identified changes remains unknown. Most of the recorded pathologies are typical for caprines and are difficult to use for the reconstruction of the nature of animal husbandry practices.
This work analyzes a relatively extensive collection of bones of caprines with known life histories. It will allow the identification of typical bone pathologies in sheep and goats and their approximate etiology within a given breeding system and area. These data can be used in the framework of archaeozoological studies of the steppe zone of northern Eurasia and other territories.
This research is limited to a relatively small number of bones and complete skeletons of modern caprines, alongside the near absence of complete skeletons of modern wild ungulates from the same microdistrict.
The most promising area of future work is a combined comparative study of a larger sample of bones of modern and Bronze Age caprines and wild ungulates of the same size class. It will allow changes to be identified directly related to animal husbandry practices.
考古动物学研究中经常提到山羊后颅骨骨骼的各种牙列和骨骼病变。这项工作分析了具有已知生活史的现代动物的病理变化和与年龄相关的变化，以提高对考古遗址中山羊骨骼病变的解释准确性。
对1468块现代山羊（主要是绵羊）的骨骼进行了分析。这些骨骼来自青铜时代牧民众多定居点的地区。
将有病变的现代山羊骨骼与无变化的骨骼进行比较。通过牙齿系统和骨骺的状态确定动物的年龄，这使得能够确定本研究中所分析骨骼的山羊的大致年龄范围。
揭示了现代山羊每个骨骼元素的典型变化类型。在某些情况下，已确定病变数量与牲畜年龄之间存在相关性。
尽管已知绵羊和山羊的生活史，但许多已识别变化的病因仍然未知。大多数记录的病变是山羊特有的，难以用于重建畜牧实践的性质。
这项工作分析了一批数量相对较多、具有已知生活史的山羊骨骼。它将有助于识别绵羊和山羊典型的骨骼病变及其在特定养殖系统和区域内的大致病因。这些数据可用于欧亚大陆北部草原地区和其他地区的考古动物学研究框架。
这项研究仅限于数量相对较少的现代山羊骨骼和完整骨架，同时几乎没有来自同一小区的现代野生有蹄类动物的完整骨架。
未来工作最有前景的领域是对更大样本的现代和青铜时代山羊以及相同体型等级的野生有蹄类动物骨骼进行联合比较研究。这将有助于识别与畜牧实践直接相关的变化。
