Browsing by Author "Siddiq, Abu Bakar"

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Animal Remains of Alaybeyi Hoyuk
(Tubitak Scientific & Technological Research Council Turkey, 2019) Siddiq, Abu Bakar
This paper presents the zooarchaeological observations on animal remains of Alaybeyi Hoyuk unearthed from 2016 and 2017 excavation sessions. Dated to 4721-4553 cal. BC, Alaybeyi stands so far as the oldest archaeological settlement discovered in northeast Anatolia. Therefore, the faunal assemblage at Alaybeyi offers great opportunity to study the status of animals and their relationships with humans in the largely unexplored Kars-Erzurum plateau covering a period from the Chalcolithic to Late Iron Age. Taxonomic and osteometric analyses show that, like the present day, cattle were dominant over caprines, revealing extensive cattle pastoralism in the region for at least about 7 millennia. While caprines too were significant in the subsistence strategy of local humans, there was not any sign of raising pigs. Significant numbers of wild species including carnivores, aquatic mammals, and rodents, as well as resident and migratory birds, were also hunted by Alaybeyi people. Additionally, horse burials, horse cult, dog burials, and a rich number of dog bones present animals as versatile actors in various ritual and symbolic practices at the site.
Craneometric Canine Types Are Well Expressed at the Level of the Zygomatic Arch Conformation
(Soc Chilena Anatomia, 2020) Onar, Vedat; Siddiq, Abu Bakar; Asal, Rahmi; Pares-Casanova, Pere M.
Within the wide conformation of skull spectrum, there are generally three recognized broad categories that correspond to the concept of cephalic biotype, determined by the cephalic index. The three cephalic biotypes are: brachiocephalic, mesaticephalic and dolichocephalic, which are based on linear measures. In order to revise this classification based on its geometry, we studied 53 skulls of adult dogs, corresponding to the three craneometric groups previously described: 16 brachycephalic, 20 mesaticephalic and 17 dolichocephalic. Images on ventral plane were obtained and 17 anatomical landmarks were subsequently located and analyzed by means of geometric morphometric techniques. Five of those landmarks corresponded to the neurocraneal area and the rest of the splanchnocranium. The three craneometric groups showed statistically significant dicremes between them for both size and shape. The variables that contributed to the differentiation between them were located along the edge of the zygomatic arches and on the basis of this arch. Splanchnocranial variables also presented a much more marked allometry than the neurocraneal variables. Since the zygomatic arch should be considered as part of the splanchnocranium, we suggest that the cephalic index (which takes into account the maximum width of the head) is as important as the facial index (which takes into account the maximum width of the face). The neurocraneal index would he much more conservative, and therefore less discriminatory between cell the groups.