Sheep exploitation and husbandry in first farming societies: from production to consumption in Central Pyrenees in the Early Neolithic

International audienceSheep were the most important species in the first domestic flocks in the Early Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula. However, theirstudy has tended to stress their role as a fossil guide of the neolithization process rather than their economic importance. Theprocess of their introduction and the initial sheep management and exploitation practices in the Pyrenean sector of the Ebro riverbasin are studied here based on two sites in this region (Cueva de Chaves and Espluga de la Puyascada). The age and sexcomposition of the flocks and comparative biometric analysis are the main variables used, and the data obtained are contextualizedwithin the general panorama in the Iberian Peninsula and the western Mediterranean. The results show that sheep wererapidly introduced and included in subsistence strategies and that they maintained homogenous metrical characteristics during theEarly Neolithic. The implications of the data for the debate on the neolithization process in the Iberian Peninsula are thendiscussed