ABSTRACT
It is possible oh the basis of the distribution of wild progenitors of domestic cats (African wild cat, Felis sylvestris (Schreber 1777)), donkeys (The Nubian wild ass, Equus africanus (Fitzinger 1857)), or the domestic guinea-fowl (Helmeted guinea-fowl, Numida meleagris (Linnaeus 1758)), that these animals could have been domesticated in eastern Africa. In addition, classical sources, and depictions of elephants at Meroitic sites, suggest that by 2,000 years ago elephants (Loxodonta africana, Blumenbach 1797) from the Sudan and northern Ethiopian regions were systematically captured and tamed (Shinnie 1967, Scullard 1974, Burstein 1989). But there is currently no zooarchaeological evidence that any of the diverse and abundant mammalian fauna of eastern Africa were domesticated. Instead, there seems to be a pattern of long-term successful use of wild mammals, with a gradual spread of Near eastern and North African domesticates, especially cattle, sheep and goat, through eastern Africa from the Sudan and more arid areas to the north 6,300–2,000 years ago (Ambrose 1984a, Gautier 1984a,b, Barthelme 1985, Marshall 1989, Marean 1992).
