The Origin and Evolutionary History of Sheep

Sheep is a domestic animal that people are generally familiar with. There are two types of domestic sheep: goats and sheep. Apart from their different appearances, these two types of sheep have roughly the same body structure.

Domestic sheep are domesticated from wild sheep. The earliest domestication of sheep in the world was in southwestern Asia. Moreover, goats and sheep were domesticated at almost the same time. In the Jericho region of Jordan, goats were domesticated as early as 8500 BC.

Domestic goats and sheep have a long history. Wild sheep were domesticated into domestic sheep in the late Longshan Culture, about four to five thousand years ago. For example, a large number of pigs were found in various sites of the Qijia Culture in Gansu Province in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. , dogs, cattle, sheep and other livestock bones.

By the Shang and Zhou dynasties, sheep farming had become very developed. According to divination records, 158 sheep were used as sacrifices at one time just because of something as trivial as tinnitus, which shows that the number of sheep raised at that time was very considerable.

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