Staff
Mr Linus Girdland-Flink
(email at linus.girdland-flink@durham.ac.uk)
Research Topic
Pigs, people & the Neolithisation of Europe
Abstract
The domestication of pigs took place over one of the widest geographical ranges of any domestic animal. Wild and domestic pigs (Sus scrofa and Sus scrofa domesticus) were integral to the formation and development of prehistoric and modern human societies throughout Eurasia. Despite nearly two centuries of research, however, some key issues surrounding the origin and subsequent dispersal of domestic pigs remain unanswered.
My research forms part of a larger, multi-disciplinary, project that will provide new and more detailed insights into the process of pig domestication. Specifically, I use ancient DNA as a means to trace the origin and dispersal of domestic pigs throughout the Holocene, with emphasis on the Neolithic, in Western Eurasia.
