The morphological differentiation of African bovids in highly fragmented zooarchaeological assemblages is a major hindrance to reconstructing the nature and spread of pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa. Here we employ collagen peptide mass fingerprinting, known as Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), coupled with recently published African ZooMS reference datasets, to identify domesticates and wild bovids in Iron Age assemblages at the cave site of Panga ya Saidi in southeast Kenya. Through ZooMS we have identified all three major African livestock—sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus) and cattle (Bos taurus)—at the site for the first time. The results provide critical evidence for the use of domesticates by resident foraging populations during the Iron Age, the period associated with the arrival of food production in coastal Kenya. ZooMS results show that livestock at Panga ya Saidi form a minor component of the assemblage compared to wild bovids, demonstrating the persistence of hunting and the secondary role of acquiring livestock in hunter-gatherer foodways during the introduction of agro-pastoralism. This study sheds new light on the establishment of food production in coastal eastern Africa, particularly the role of interactions between hunter-gatherers and neighbouring agro-pastoral groups in what was a protracted regional transition to farming.

在高度零散的动物考古学组合中，非洲牛的形态学差异是重建撒哈拉以南非洲牧民的性质和传播的主要障碍。在这里，我们采用胶原蛋白肽质谱指纹图谱（通过质谱分析（ZooMS）称为动物考古学），再加上最近发布的非洲ZooMS参考数据集，来识别肯尼亚东南部Panga ya Saidi洞穴地点铁器时代组合中的驯养动物和野生牛科动物。通过ZooMS，我们确定了非洲的三种主要牲畜-绵羊（Ovis aries），山羊（Capra hircus）和牛（Bos taurus））-首次在该网站上展示。该结果为铁器时代（与肯尼亚沿海地区粮食生产的到来有关的时期）的居民觅食人口使用驯养品提供了重要证据。ZooMS的结果显示，与野生牛相比，Panga ya Saidi的牲畜只占该组合的一小部分，这表明在农业-畜牧业的引入过程中，狩猎的持续性和在猎人-收集者食物中获取牲畜的次要作用。这项研究为东部非洲沿海地区粮食生产的建立提供了新的思路，尤其是在长期的向农业过渡的过程中，狩猎者和采集者与邻近的农牧民群体之间的相互作用。