Discrimination des genres Ovis et Capra à l'aide des prémolaires inférieures 3 et 4 et interprétation des âges d'abattage : l'exemple de Dikili Tash (Grèce)

The kill-off patterns of small domesticated ruminants obtained from the study of teeth wear are a mixture of two patterns: those of sheep and those of goats. Until now only the work of Payne on the lower deciduous teeth allows the distinction between these two species which also provided evidence for a certain type of exploitation for milk where the young suckling animals are killed. However this last type is not the most common (the most common being that where one simply prevents the young animals from suckling during the best part of the day and in this case the killing of the mothers once the production of milk starts to diminishes), however for the moment it is impossible to know if the sheep and/or the goats were exploited for their fleece. The study here of 40 mandibles of Ovis and Capra permitted to differentiate the two species with the aid the lower premolars P3 and P4. Thus by adding the data from deciduous teeth it is possible to tackle separately the type of exploitation of goats from those of sheep. A practical example is given: those of the small domestic ruminants of Dikili Tash (Macedonia, Greece).