The horse is one of the species most represented in cave art during the Paleolithic in the southwest of Europe. These representations show an equine with phenotypical characteristics close to two presentday species which are considered as ancient horses: tarpans (Equus ferus caballus Linnaeus, 1758) and Pzrewalski (Equus caballus przewalskii Poliakov, 1881) horses. There are no paleontological evidence at sites dating from the Upper Paleolithic in this area of the last species, and furthermore various authors compare these representations with Pzrewalski horses. The comparative anatomical analysis of these representations is difficult due to the variety of styles and the different sizes of the figures. In this case, we carry out a study of the body proportions on six variables measured in 42 pictures of horses represented in 15 caves (eleven from Spain and four from France) from different cultures and styles. These measurements have been compared with data obtained from pictures of present-day horses: 22 pictures of hemiones or Asian asses (Equus hemionus Pallas, 1775), 20 tarpans of Konik breed (Equus ferus caballus Linnaeus, 1758) and 25 Pzrewalski's horses. The results of these analyses were three different equations to distinguish these three current equine species and their relationship with cave art. The equids represented in the caves studied show similar body proportions to Konik horses and similar lengths of mane, tail and ears to present-day Pzrewalski's horses. The results of this analysis significantly discriminate the three current equine species, which shows that the method is reliable and that the equids represented in the caves studied have body proportions similar to Konik horses and similar lengths of mane, tail and ears to the Pzrewalski horses.

Whale, a common name, a simple word, but so many meanings. An animal, a good, a belief, a surprise, a part of these aspects or the encompassing of them all. It is, for sure, a being of some kind, but one that is described, depicted and appropriated in several forms, in a multitude of ways. To the whale is always assigned a role, but its relevance to distinct groups of society and its presentation to diverse audiences, across history, can be very different from one type of source to another. Working from the question – what's in a whale? – we present a study on the long-term human-whale relationships (from the 13^th century onwards) connecting history and literature, to highlight the deep entanglement of societies and cultures with the marine environment. We aim at understanding the significance of whales and how culture, knowledge and values determine human behavior and actions towards these mammals. For that, we run through a long timeframe analyzing the whale, mostly based on Portuguese written sources, in comparison with European data, to discuss it as a commodity, a monster, a show and an icon. What we find is that the whale – real or conceptualized – has continuously been an element of human fascination. It is not merely a whale, but a wonder whale. An animal that still attracts crowds of people when it strands on nearby shores or when its blow is spotted in the horizon. The wonder whale allows for a close connection of people with the strange, enormous, paradoxical, ambivalent, still much unknown, oceanic realm.

This paper focuses on the identification and interpretation of a sample of vertebrate faunal remains from the Croxton archaeological site, located at Tukuto Lake, on the north slope of the Brooks Mountain Range, Alaska, in which caribou (Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)) dominate. Bone modifications are assessed to inform selection and processing, and skeletal part frequencies are analyzed with utility indices developed for this species among the Nunamiut at Anaktuvuk Pass. Results confirm the accumulation of faunal remains resulted primarily from human subsistence activities in the middle to late Holocene that included nutritional uses for meat, marrow and grease as well as technology manufacturing. Statistical utility analyses point to a deposit of marrow and grease processing debris at an activity area and support these as enduring subsistence practices in this region. A previous study on a larger faunal sample from the site also indicated a range of economic uses of caribou but did not find significant results with utility indices. To explain this difference it is suggested that the faunal aggregates chosen for analysis in this and the previous study have influenced statistical outcomes. The results of this study hold implications for utility analysis as well as for interpretations of caribou use at archaeological sites in arctic, sub-arctic, and alpine tundra areas of the Northern Hemisphere where this species has been abundant.

This article advances the hypotheses that sheep (Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758) and goats (Capra hircus Linnaeus, 1758) in the Neolithic Middle East were employed regularly as pack animals and were domesticated to serve as pack animals. The employment of pack ovicaprines, especially pack goats, can explain how obsidian and other goods that circulated in exchange networks were transported across long distances and mountainous terrain. A pack goat can carry 30% of its weight over 24 km of mountainous terrain daily. A lactating dam can provide milk for human consumption on the trail. Compared to pack sheep and pack cattle, pack goats are more agile and adaptable to a greater variety of environments. Training a goat to pack is not difficult, and research on caprines' social preferences suggests that the wild sheep (Ovis orientalis Gmelin, 1774) and wild goat (Capra aegagrus Erxleben, 1777), if born in human captivity, could be trained to pack. Findings support the hypothesis that dairying originated from the training and use of pack goats in the Neolithic. Goats usually don't sustain bone pathology from bearing pack loads, and bone pathology and increased bone robustness from pack-bearing, especially of goats, may be impossible to discern from the faunal record. Neolithic figurative evidence of pack ovicaprines is highlighted.

Along the Atacama Desert coast, fish has always been a staple food and by the Formative period (500 cal B.C.-700 cal A.D.) it had become a product in high demand by the inhabitants of the inland valleys, oases and ravines of the desert. In this paper we explore the technologies used in coastal fishing activities, the diverse species caught, and fish processing and preserving techniques. We further examine the circulation routes of the product through the desert and associated strategies, the agents involved in transporting it and consumption levels in inland villages. Our study employs a multivariate analysis that includes evidence from zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis of deceased individuals, and the composition of human coprolites, all of which were recovered from domestic waste, funerary contexts, and rest stops associated with the circulation routes running between the coast and the inland desert regions. Our results suggest that in this ancient social context, food was not only used to quell hunger, but through its associated economic cycles of production, circulation and consumption, was part of a complex and extended web of social relations. Within that network, food functioned as material culture, and as such enabled social distinctions to emerge within local groups and cultural negotiations to be conducted among different localities. Fish circulation and consumption played an active role in the reproduction of a social structure characterized by close and firm ties between marine hunter-fisher-gatherers and agropastoral communities, despite their long distance from each other.

Extensive Spanish cattle ranching boasts a strong, deeply rooted tradition: the use of completely black sheep, the offspring of white mothers, as magical elements to protect flocks from bad luck. Conditions are very specific, so they are unique, exceptional animals. These characteristics make them special, sacred sheep that are kept in the herd with special care until their death. There is an explanation for this symbolic and magic practice: it has existed to sustain, before Mendel discovered the laws governing genetics, the purity of white wool in sheep by isolating mutations in black ones. In this text we examine the scope of this practice and analyse it from the perspective of the anthropology of symbolism.