Welcome to the ERC READ Project Website

Exploring the earliest steps of animal domestication through innovative biogeochemical research in the Fertile Crescent.

We are pleased to introduce the new webpage of the READ project (Revealing Earliest Animal Domestication in the Fertile Crescent), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2024–2028) led by Dr. Carlos Tornero at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Although the project began in January 2024, this site now launches as a platform to share our work with the wider community. Here, you will find updates on our research activities, news from the field and the lab, details of our collaborations, and the results as they emerge.

READ seeks to transform how we understand the origins of animal domestication—one of the key turning points in human history. Instead of relying solely on morphological changes in archaeological bones, our approach uses high-resolution biogeochemical analyses of fossil teeth to reveal the earliest management of sheep and goats. By tracking reproductive control, feeding strategies, and seasonal mobility, we aim to detect the subtle practices that preceded full domestication.

Our field and analytical work focuses on Neolithic sites across the Southern Levant, Northern Levant, and Eastern Fertile Crescent, complemented by comparative datasets built from modern and museum collections of wild relatives. The project is carried out in partnership with a broad international network of research institutions and laboratories, uniting expertise in archaeology, isotope geochemistry, paleoecology, and natural history collections across Europe and North America.

Over the coming years, this site will become the hub for sharing our journey: from field campaigns and laboratory analyses to conferences, publications, and outreach activities.

We also invite you to follow us on Instagram and X (Twitter), where we’ll be posting more frequent updates and snapshots of our research in action.

Join us as we work to reveal the earliest chapters of human–animal relationships.