The earliest evidence for deformation of livestock horns: The case of Predynastic sheep from Hierakonpolis, Egypt

Abstract

Archaeozoological evidence for the modification of sheep horns during Egypt's Predynastic period was uncovered at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. At HK6, the site's so-called elite cemetery, a grave, which was part of a larger mortuary complex dated to around 3700 BC, contained at least 6 large, castrated male sheep. One individual was polled, while four others were of the corkscrew-horn type, but their horns were not oriented in the natural, lateral direction. Instead, the horns had been intentionally manipulated to grow upwards and in three cases this resulted in upright, parallel horns. While comparable practices are well documented in Africa in cattle through both modern ethnographic observations and archaeozoological studies of material from third millennium BC Nubia (in Kerma, Sudan), the Hierakonpolis sheep provide the oldest evidence for horn modification of livestock, and the first demonstration of the practice applied to sheep. When describing the skulls particular attention is paid to the pathological traces and deformities, i.e. constrictions on the horn cores, holes at the horn core bases, and deformations of the frontals. In order to assess the possible methods used in Predynastic Hierakonpolis to redirect the horns, these observations are compared with ethnographic and archaeozoological data from the literature. Finally, the possible reasons why these sheep were modified are also discussed. This study indicates that Predynastic Egyptians were already familiar with horn modelling techniques and confirms that this practice has a long history in the Nile Valley.