10000 BC -- When Sheep Were Wild

As the glaciers of the Ice Ages melted away, a strong stout wild sheep we call the Mouflon (Ovis orientalis) came to dominate the great highlands of Western Asia, inckuding the Zagros mountain ranges of Persia, the Highlands of Armenia, and the Toros Mountains of modern-day Turkey. The Mouflon itself probably evolved about two million years ago in one of these mountain ranges from a goatlike ancestor well before the Ice Ages, but because the Ice Ages in Western Asian highlands were comparatively mild, the Mouflon managed to survive them well enough.

Having said this, though, there is the possibility that the Mouflon evolved from an even more ancient wild sheep around three million years ago that originated further east in Asia, somewhere near the Asian steppes beyond the Caspian Sea, for example. Archeologists are still piecing together the evidence but because sheep bones and goat bones look pretty much the same -- it is hard to work out when sheep evolved away from the primordial ancient sheep-goat. Whilst goats evolved to be specialist browsers, munching on shrubs and bushes, sheep evolved to be specialist grazers, chowing down on all manner of grasses.

Though the Mouflon is regarded as the wild ancestor of modern domestic sheep, it was a much larger animal -- and not at all woolly. When fully grown, the male Mouflon has enormous twisting horns jutting into full circles that curve out from the sides of its head. The Mouflon’s back is usually flecked with an uncanny whitish saddle as though they’re enticing some brave Stone Age hunter to ride upon their backs. The females are also often horned -- but without the gigantic twists like the males -- and they lack the white saddle. 

he Mouflon is now quite rare in the mountains of Armenia, Turkey and Persia but it still survives, huge and hairy, in protected reserves and is often celebrated as an important part of the national fauna.

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FURTHER READING:

Hiendleder, S., Kaupe, B., Wassmuth, R., & Janke, A. (2002). Molecular analysis of wild and domestic sheep questions current nomenclature and provides evidence for domestication from two different subspecies. *Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences*, 269(1494), 893-904.

Zeder, M. A. (2008). Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact. *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*, 105(33), 11597-11604.

Vigne, J. D., Helmer, D., & Peters, J. (2005). New archaeozoological data for the study of the beginnings of sheep and goat husbandry in Southwest Asia. *Cahiers de l'Euphrate*, 12, 247-263.

Meadows, J. R. S., Cemal, I., Karaca, O., Gootwine, E., & Kijas, J. W. (2007). Five ovine mitochondrial lineages identified from sheep breeds of the Near East. *Genetics*, 175(3), 1371-1379.

Ryder, M. L. (1984). Sheep and Man. *Duckworth*.

Porter, V. (2002). *Mason's World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types and Varieties*. CABI Publishing.