On the verge of animal domestication

A view of excavations in the Nachcharini Cave taken at end of the season in the summer of 1974

What was the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural settlements like? Among other things, it seems that humans got more specialized in their hunting, and adapted their approach, using temporary encampments as outposts while hunting in support of more substantial villages elsewhere in the region.

“We are not saying that hunters at Nachcharini were engaged in early stages of this domestication,” [Stephen Rhodes] said. “But the evidence of a local tradition makes this area a possible center of sheep domestication later on.”

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