Combining Morphology and Palaeogenomics to understand the Status and Contribution of Mules to Roman Equine Populations in Austria and Germany.

结合形态学和古基因组学来了解骡子对奥地利和德国罗马马科种群的地位和贡献。

• 批准号: 401205971
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Joris Peters
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lehrstuhl für Paläoanatomie, Domestikationsforschung und Geschichte der Tiermedizin
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/401205971?language=en
• 关键词: Combining; Morphology; Palaeogenomics; understand; Status

In evolutionary and cultural studies, interspecies hybridisation is a relevant topic. In this respect, humans have been crossbreeding wild and domestic members of the family Equidae since millennia, as illustrated by archaeological, iconographic and written sources. In focus of this study is the mule, the cross between the male domestic donkey and the mare. Being more effective than either of the parental stock, elicited by the so-called heterosis effect, mules were particularly valued as labour animals and according to Classical sources bred in numbers. However, identifying mules (and other equid hybrids) in archaeofaunal assemblages based solely on dental and osteomorphological features is problematic and prone to considerable inter-observer variation. Consequently, application of traditional morphological methods might not be very efficient to specifying adequately the role of mules in ancient cultures.This study aims at elucidating local breeding practices and the contribution of mules to the equid populations exploited in southeastern Germany and Austria in pre-Roman and Roman times. It will apply a multidisciplinary approach combining standard morphology with Geometric Morphometrics (GMM) and ancient DNA analysis in order testing several hypotheses, namely that (H1) the mule represents a marker for the process of Romanization in the Provinces Raetia (Germany), Noricum and Upper Pannonia (Austria), (H2) north of the Alpine divide hybridization between male donkeys (jackass) and female horses (mare) was not practiced, implying that animals had to be imported from regions south of the Alps where cross-breeding was already established, and (H3) the high demand for horses in Roman military service in Raetia not only necessitated imports from elsewhere but involved breeding efforts with local horse lineages descending from pre-Roman local populations. From a methodological viewpoint our project expects establishing a reliable genetic and GMM pipeline for tracing systematically F1-hybrids in equine archaeological assemblages, thus enabling to validate identifications based on standard morphological analyses. By comparing the results of the different approaches it will also be possible to quantify the degree of accuracy for recognizing hybrids in cases where only standard morphological analyses can be performed. In sum, we expect that the combined approach proposed here will open up additional venues to address the hitherto underestimated role of equine hybrids in past societies whilst significantly enhancing our knowledge of the cultural, economic and military history of the mule in the Roman Empire north of Alps.

在进化和文化研究中，物种间杂交是一个相关的话题。在这方面，人类已经杂交野生和家庭成员的家庭马科自千年以来，如考古，图像和书面资料所示。这项研究的重点是骡子，即公驴和母马的杂交后代。由于所谓的杂种优势效应，骡子比任何一个亲本都更有效率，因此作为劳力动物特别有价值，根据古典文献，骡子是大量繁殖的。然而，确定骡子（和其他马科动物的杂交种）在archaeofaunal组合的基础上，仅根据牙齿和骨形态特征是有问题的，并倾向于相当大的观察者之间的变化。因此，传统的形态学方法的应用可能不是很有效的充分指定骡子在古代culturation.This研究的作用，旨在阐明当地的育种实践和骡子的贡献，在德国东南部和奥地利的马在前罗马和罗马时代的人口。它将采用一种多学科方法，将标准形态学与几何形态测量学（GMM）和古代DNA分析相结合，以检验几种假设，即（H1）骡子代表了Raetia（德国）、Noricum和Upper Pannonia（奥地利）等省罗马化过程的标志，（H2）阿尔卑斯山脉北部没有实行公驴（公驴）和母马（母马）之间的杂交，这意味着动物必须从阿尔卑斯山以南已经建立杂交育种的地区进口，以及（H3）罗马军队在雷蒂亚服役时对马匹的高需求不仅需要从其他地方进口，而且还涉及到从罗马前当地人口中传承下来的当地马匹血统的育种工作。从方法论的角度来看，我们的项目预计建立一个可靠的遗传和GMM管道系统跟踪F1-杂交马考古组合，从而使标准形态分析的基础上验证身份。通过比较不同方法的结果，也将有可能量化识别杂交种的准确度，在这种情况下，只有标准的形态学分析可以进行。总之，我们期望这里提出的综合方法将开辟更多的场所，以解决迄今为止被低估的马杂交种在过去社会中的作用，同时大大提高我们对阿尔卑斯山以北罗马帝国骡子的文化，经济和军事历史的了解。