![]() Recent regional analyses of the adoption of cattle traction in Southwest Asia and Europe have been performed based on multi-proxy approaches that include new osteological evidence and methodological improvements. In particular, the lack of zooarchaeological evidence to support the idea that animals were initially raised for meat and only subsequently exploited for secondary products (milk, wool, and traction) has been highlighted. Like other elements of the Secondary Products Revolution promoted by Sherratt for Neolithic Europe, the exploitation of cattle for labour has been reassessed in recent decades and his model of a unique innovation horizon including transfer of know-how from the Near East to Europe has been critiqued on both theoretical and empirical grounds. We argue that access to draught animals and the exploitation of associated resources were at the heart of wider changes that took place in Neolithic Ireland in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. ![]() This new technology has important implications for early agriculture in the region since it provides a key support for more extensive land management practices as well as for megalithic construction, which increased considerably in scale during this period. Bone pathology data combined with osteometric analysis highlight specialised husbandry practices, producing large males, possibly oxen, for the purpose of cattle traction. Dublin that strongly support cattle traction in the middle 4th millennium BC in Ireland. ![]() Using a suite of methods and refined criteria for traction identification, we present new and robust data on a large faunal assemblage from Kilshane, Co. This paper sheds new light on a region of Europe–Neolithic Ireland–for which our knowledge is particularly restricted as evidence from both Ireland and Britain in this period has been so far patchy and inconclusive. However, data are still lacking on the timing, purposes, and intensity of exploitation of draught animals. The power harnessed by cattle traction was undeniably a valuable asset to Neolithic communities.
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