La domestication des animaux d'embouche dans le Levant nord (Syrie du nord et Sinjar) du milieu du IX^e millénaire BP à la fin du VIII^e millénaire BP. Nouvelles données d'après les fouilles

The origins of ungulate domestication are still a subject of debate. Recent studies of new sites under excavation together with those already excavated permit us to re-evaluate different hypotheses. Three hypotheses have been confirmed: the emergence of domesticated Caprines in the middle PPNB and the presence of domestic cattle and that of pig in the late PPNB. One hypothesis still requires confirmation: that the goat was the first animal to have been domesticated. The last hypothesis has no universal value: that there was proto-herding of cattle. Finally two new hypotheses need to be tested: the low economic importance of early domestication, and the importance of cattle as pack animals for the diffusion of pottery and for nomadic pastoralism.