A History of Agriculture in India v1.c16.24

v1.c16.24

The goat was the earliest ruminant to be domesticated. Long before 6700 B.C. the scimitar-horned bezoar goat had been domesticated, and most of the derived breeds lost the characteristic sub-angular and broad cross-section of the male horn. It may well have been first domesticated in Palestine, though Iran is an alternative. The domesticated goat existed in Iran about 6000 B.C. In the fourth millennium, goats with twisted horns appear, and gradually become dominant. This change may have coincided with the Chalcolithic stage. By Bronze Age times the twisted horn had become the fashion. The twisted-horn goats have descended from two stocks, one being the scimitar-horned Neolithic goat. The other, though twisted, is nearer the bezoar and thus betrays closer kinship with the original stock.⁴