ovicaprid

plural ovicaprids

1. archaeologyA domestic sheep or goat.

   1 more example

   The bones of sheep and goat are virtually identical with only a few distinguishing features. For this reason it is often necessary to consider these animals together and they are then termed ovicaprids. The small domestic ovicaprids are called ‘turbary’, and the large sheep, similar to the moufflon, which were found during the late neolithic have been called ‘Copper (Age) sheep’ by [Johann Ulrich] Duerst.

   1970, Jacqueline Murray, “The Problems and the Background”, in The First European Agriculture, a Study of the Osteological and Botanical Evidence until 2000 BC, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; Chicago, Ill.: Aldine Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 4

   Synonyms: caprovine

1. not comparablearchaeologyOf, relating to, or designating domestic sheep or goats.

   All the ovicaprid materials came from the pit.

   1986, Haskel J. Greenfield, “The Species”, in The Paleoeconomy of the Central Balkans (Serbia): A Zooarchaeological Perspective on the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age (ca. 4500 – 1000 B.C.) (BAR International Series; 304(i)), part i, Osney Mead, Oxfordshire: B.A.R., →ISBN, chapter 9 (The Zooarchaeology of Three Late Bronze Age Sites Near Svetozarevo), page 196

   2 more examples

   Amongst the ovicaprid bones only the sheep is known with certainty, and considerable variation in their size was apparent.

   1970, Jacqueline Murray, “European Mesolithic and Aceramic Neolithic Economies”, in The First European Agriculture, a Study of the Osteological and Botanical Evidence until 2000 BC, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; Chicago, Ill.: Aldine Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 20

   Of the 23 ovicaprid mandibles present, four exhibited dental calculus on the buccal surfaces of the cheek teeth.

   2015, Sylvia Warman, “Animal Bone”, in Mary Alexander, editor, Medieval and Post-Medieval Occupation and Industry in the Redcliffe Suburb of Bristol: Excavations at 1–2 and 3 Redcliffe Street, 2003–2010 (Cotswold Archaeology Monograph No. 8), Cirencester, Gloucestershire: Cotswold Archaeology, →ISBN, chapter 5 (Biological Evidence), page 100, column 1

   Synonyms: caprovine