ABSTRACT
Archaeologists working on animal domestication must assess the significance of bones excavated from archaeological sites. In ancient China, there are references to the ‘harvest of abundant five crops and flourishing with six livestock species’. The ‘six species’ were horse, cow, sheep/goat, pig, dog and chicken (Shao 2003). This review introduces the methodology used to identify bones of ancient livestock, to estimate the time-depth and origins of the six livestock species and to discuss in detail recent research on the origins of pigs and horses. Epstein (1969) is an overall view of the livestock species and breeds kept in China.
