At the beginning of domestication, cattle may have been animals that served as both meat and dairy products, as well as raw materials such as skin, tendon and bone. After domestication, cattle may have been used for riding or packing, but more commonly as draft animals were used to pull carts and plough land. Before the popularization of modern mechanization, cattle played an important role in agricultural production and transportation, which greatly contributed to the development of productivity. Because of this, the question of when cattle began to become service animals has long attracted the attention of the academic community. Researchers usually obtain relevant information based on various images and historical documents, but the information provided by images and documents is often relatively lagging and reflected later. With the development of zooarchaeology, archaeological excavations of animal bones have become an important material for the study of early draft animals.
Advances in the study of osteopathy in service cattle
Judging the sex of cattle by the morphological differences of the metatarsal bones is one of the most influential research results in the second half of the 20th century. The work of Nobis (1954), Boessneck (1956), Calkin (1960, 1962), Fock (1966) and Mennerich (1968) is exemplary in this field. These attempts to identify steers by morphological differences in bones reflect the potential interest of scholars in the question of animal power development. Since the 70s of the 20th century, more and more scholars who have studied the bones of excavated animals have raised questions about service cattle, but only a few ideas about the characteristics associated with service have been tested in modern service cattle with known age and sex. Undoubtedly, the lack of access to the bones of service cattle is the main reason for the paucity of these materials. Fock's (1966) dissertation, especially Mennerich's (1968) dissertation, is a special case. However, both authors focused on the analysis of skeletal measurement data.
There are few reports of joint lesions in bovine bones excavated from archaeological sites, and there is a lack of standards. Siegel (1976: 359) reported that skeletal lesions had been found at 18 sites in the United Kingdom, but this was only a non-random collection of data, and its conclusions were inconclusive. The results obtained by Siegel (1976: 359), as well as the influence of variable sample sizes, conflicting diagnoses, and unclear etiology, indicate the complexity of the problems that arise in the identification of the remains of service steers.
In interpreting the results of osteological studies of animal bones excavated from archaeological sites, it is important to bear in mind the fundamental problem of archaeology, namely, that a dynamic system cannot be completely inferred from its static results (Cribb, 1984: 164). Thus, the link between symptoms and etiology of morphological and even pathological changes remains largely elucidant (Horwitz, 1989: 170). The same problem is faced with the study of morphometry and microstructural variability. Zooarchaeologists often lack a reliable database to describe pathological features and pathological diagnoses. As Rotschild and Martin (1993: 1) point out, this type of information can only be obtained from human and veterinary medical practices.
Leg bones
In general, most speculations about draft animals are based on the observation of exophytes and other deformations at the ends of the bones of the limbs (Higham et al., 1981: 357). These observations are often found in the description of (sub)pathological phenomena in zooarchaeological specimens (Hesse and Wapnish, 1985: 83). The use of animals as draft animals means that their foot bones are subjected to the stress of hard work. Many archaeological texts often discuss deformed metatarsal and phalangeal joints in the section "Pathological Phenomena". Anomalies of bovine bones, such as palm/metatarsal bones caused by intratarsal swelling (aerosporal intraswelling, tarsal arthritis, spavin) (translator's note: the word "foot bone" here is "autopodia", the plural form of autopodium, which is defined as "distal limbs, forefoot and hind foot (anatomical term)" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/autopodium#English).
At the same time, the definition given by the original author is all foot bones, including carpal bones/tarsal bones, metacarpal bones/metatarsals, and phalangeal joints. ), which is commonly found in the description of many pathological phenomena (Wäsle, 1976: 83; Feddersen and Heinrich, 1977: 167; Johansson, 1982: 59）。 However, in some excavated animal bones, it is important to note that these diseases may be caused by poor foot structure and joint detention, leading to ostitis rarefaciens and periostics, and ultimately to chronic deformable arthropathy (Durr, 1961: 32). Barthel (1985) diagnosed chronic ossifying perioscopitis on only 8 of the 3065 Neolithic bovine bone specimens on the proximal (toe) joint bones. He believes the lesion is caused by chronic ligament damage and postural malposition. Site topography and the substrate of the animal's activity ground may also influence the development of deformed lesions in the foot bones of cattle (Clutton-Brock, 1979: 147; Van Neer and De Cupere, 1993: 231）。
Heavy pressure due to traction can trigger inflammation of the joints, particularly in the tarsal joints (Alur, 1975: 411). von den Driesch (1975: 423) classified arthritis on the wrist/tarsal (joint) and phalangeal joints, as well as chronic degenerative and rigid periarthritis (e.g., hip arthritis in cattle) as skeletal lesions caused by overwork or old age. According to Silbersiepe et al. (1965: 486), intratarsal swelling usually occurs in cattle on heavy labor. Harcourt (1971: 267) published a first-century case of intratarsal swelling associated with tarsal joint disease. Harcourt suggests that it is not an infection (arthritis) that causes these deformities. Pfannhauser (1980: 106) reported intratarsal swelling in late Roman cattle at the Germania site. Hüster (1990: 45, Fig. 18c) published cases of medieval endotarsal swelling.
More recently, Frey (1991: 173) has also cited irrational animal husbandry along with "mechanical injury" as a cause of intratarsal swelling in cattle. However, mechanical damage is still considered to be the main cause of this pathological phenomenon in zooarchaeological remains. In the case of a milder metatarsal/metatarsal deformity, Mennerich (1968: 35) attributed the traction to the widening of the medial trochlear joint of the distal metacarpal in cattle in the Roman period. Similar cases have been described by von den Driesch (1975: 420) and Uerpmann (1994). These efforts focused research attention on the measurement of asymmetric widening of the metatarsal/distal metatarsal (Davis, 1992: 5).
Other bones
Armour-Cheluh and Clutton-Brock (1985: 298) attempted to introduce pathological deformities, particularly osteoarthritis, to demonstrate the use of service cattle in the Neolithic period of England. They focused their research on excavated scapulas and acetabulums, and based on data from modern veterinary medical literature, they studied a significantly high incidence of bovine bone deformities. Their findings suggested, among other things, that traction may have caused increased stress on the forelimbs of prehistoric cattle. In addition, periosteal hyperplasia often occurs on excavated bones lateral to the acetabular articular surface, where the ligament connecting the femur and hip is attached (Levine, 1986: 70, Fig. 4.1).
Hüster (1990: 44-45, Fig. 18) also observed deformities of the hip joint, including hip arthropathy from medieval cattle from Schleswig. He observed 27 cases of acetabular lesions from about 1,300 bone fragments, and correspondingly, 57 cases of femoral head deformity were found out of a total of about 985 proximal femoral fragments. Murphy and Galloway (1992: 96) argue that the high incidence of medieval bovine hip deformities from Winchester is consistent with the overexploitation of cattle traction. However, von Dendrisch (1975: 420) proposed that malnutrition is another explanation for bovine hip disease that led to the excavations of bovid hip disease from sites of the Late Neolithic (Forster, 1974: 22) and Medieval periods (Klumpp, 1967: 46) in Switzerland. Congenital hip dysplasia is associated with abnormalities in the shape of the femoral head and acetabulum and delayed ossification (Innes, 1959: 1174). Although this is most commonly seen in dogs, it can also occur in cattle (Rainey, 1955: 108).
As early as prehistoric times, the anatomy of steers made it easier to associate yokes with yokes tied to horns or hung around the neck of cattle (Huntingford, 1934: 457; Gandert, 1966; Benecke, 1994）。 Scholars have noted the dents left by the yoke or rope tied to the yoke on the horn center, cervical vertebrae, and first thoracic vertebrae of cattle (Druckatrophie) (Nieberle and Cohrs, 1970; Rauh, 1981: 19; Gross et al., 1990: 88; Milisauskas and Kruk, 1991; Müller, 1992; Benecke, 1994: 147; Bökönyi, 1994: 25）。 The earliest evidence of centroid strangulation comes from the sites of Holubice in the Czech Republic and Bronocice in Poland in the third millennium BC (Milisauskas and Kruk, 1991). The probability of such deformities being found in zooarchaeological remains is very small.
For example, in the medieval site of Schleswig, only 8 lesion specimens were found out of 2252 centroid remains (Hüster, 1990: 47, Fig. 19). Of course, this low proportion can be partly attributed to burial bias, as the centroid is more easily fragmented than a strong, dry limb bone, which makes it difficult to identify the deformity of the centrum. Ryder (1970) describes five medieval cattle skulls from York with damaged parietal bones. Although the exact cause of the lesion cannot be determined, it is likely that the hole of the lesion is due to acute inflammation due to abnormal vascular hyperplasia in the yoke. However, Baker and Brothweli (1980: 37) describe similar pathological phenomena as congenital anomalies. In a recent re-study of this issue by Brothwell et al. (1996), the possibility of parasites, tumors, and infections as causes of perforation on the skull of cattle was ruled out. It is uncertain whether yoke or congenital disorder is most likely to cause skull perforation.
Ghetie and Mateesco (1971, 1973) studied the overall features on the bones of cattle from the Middle Neolithic in Romania. Comparisons with modern cattle in the proximal epiphysis of the humerus and femur and the articular surfaces of the radius show differences due to traction. Most importantly, the angle between the radius and the dorsal aspect of the metacarpal bones in Neolithic cattle is slightly sharper. Mateescu (1975: 15, Fig. 3.2) measured an angle of 173° in modern cattle and 196° in Neolithic cattle. However, the extent to which this individual malformation can be attributed to environmental influences rather than the genetic structure of the foot is controversial (B. Kovács, 1977: 127）。
The internal structure of the bone
So far, the identification of cattle has not entered the micro level. Kratochvil et al. (1988) abandoned the controversial task of attempting to identify labor cattle while using palm/metatarsal X-ray images to determine the age and sex of cattle in the early Middle Ages.
Obviously, the most basic manifestation of animal servitude is the functional enlargement of the bones caused by excessive weight bearing or stretching. Therefore, to analyze this phenomenon, comparative imaging and histological studies of the microstructure of the skeleton of wild and domestic cattle are of interest (Bökönyi et al., 1965; Paaver, 1972; Lasota-Moskalewska, 1979）。 These studies shed light on the overall deterioration of cattle body size as a result of domestication, which makes these animals more susceptible to the aforementioned deformities.
Microscopic studies have also been conducted to explore how the domestication process of goats affects the relationship between the prismatic and tabular crystal structures of the goat's bony dense mass (Drew et al., 1971: 282; Bouchud, 1971: 271）。 However, the question of the preservation status of collagen has been widely discussed by scholars (Watson, 1975: 382).
Guidelines for the Identification of Service Cattle Bones
Draught Cattle: Their Osteological Identification and History [László Bartosiewicz, Birn Van Niel, Birn Lentak] is a professional work published in the 90s of the 20th century to define the morphological and morphometric characteristics of service cattle. Through the analysis of the shape and size of the foot bones of modern service cattle collected in Romania, the book defines a range of pathological features associated with traction, and applies the results of the study of modern service cattle to the analysis of Roman cattle bones excavated from a Belgian site.
At the same time, through the observation of bone diseases and osteometric studies of living cattle in Romania and Hungary, standards for the identification of service cattle based on pathological changes and measurement data were developed, and the cultural, historical and economic value of cattle as draft animals was elaborated. However, it should be noted that not all pathological phenomena observed on cattle feet are necessarily caused by traction labor, and other factors, such as age, sex, natural environment, and animal breeding environment, may also lead to deformities of cattle feet.
Zooarchaeological evidence suggests that domestic cattle were introduced from West Asia around 5,000 years ago and entered the Central Plains around 4,500 years ago. Judging from ancient Chinese documents and archaeological materials, iron farming tools and ox ploughing appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period, cattle ploughing technology was popularized in the Warring States Period, and the appearance of ox ploughing images in the Han Dynasty proves that cattle ploughing has been widely used in agricultural production at that time. However, historical documents can provide limited information about whether cattle were used as draft animals in the Western Zhou Dynasty or even in the Shang and Xia dynasties before the Spring and Autumn Period, so direct or indirect evidence can only be obtained from archaeological remains or relics. The book "Guide to the Identification of Service Cattle Bones" provides an important reference for us to explore the initial age and related issues of Chinese service cattle from the perspective of zooarchaeology.
In 2010, when I was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in the United States, I carefully studied this book and gained a lot of inspiration from it, and I hope to translate it as soon as possible and introduce it to Chinese archaeologists, so as to help Chinese zooarchaeology make progress in the identification of bovine bones in service. While in the United States, I informed the lead author of the book, Professor László Bartosiewicz, a renowned zooarchaeologist, of his intention to translate the book, and invited him to spend some time in China at the right time to discuss the pathological identification of cattle bones.
More importantly, it is hoped that combined with the cattle bone materials unearthed from archaeological sites in China, we will select specimens of cattle with significant pathological characteristics, and explore a series of archaeological questions such as the initial age of Chinese cattle and the utilization of cattle in different periods along the time axis from back to front, and follow the logical order from the known to the unknown, so as to provide new information for understanding the development level of agricultural productivity in ancient China. At the same time, it is also hoped that archaeologists will use China's rich zooarchaeological materials to explore the establishment of standards for the identification of draft animal bones with Chinese characteristics, and continuously expand the research direction and content of Chinese archaeology.
This article is excerpted from the book "Chapter 1 Introduction" and "Translator's Preface" in the book "Guide to the Identification of Service Cattle Bones" [(Hungary) Lasszlo Bartosievic, (B) Van Nier, (B) Ann Lentak, translated by Ma Xiaolin, Wang Juan, Hou Yanfeng, Beijing: Science Press, 2023.11].