A History of Agriculture in India v1.c16.34

v1.c16.34

The complex picture presented by the history of domesticated sheep is summarized as follows by Zeuner. 'The sheep was domesticated with the aid of the dog before agriculture was fully developed. The sheepdog played a vital part in the domestication of ruminants. The original centre of domestication is the Aralo-Caspian steppe and Turkestan. From there, sheep-keeping spread early into Iran, and later into Mesopotamia and Baluchistan. The domesticated race of wild sheep was in the first instance the arkal, which belongs to the species of the urial. The five main breeds which had reached Mesopotamia by about 2000 B.C. were: (1) the screw-horned hair-sheep, (2) the screw-horned wool-sheep, (3) the zackelschaf, (4) the ammon's horn wool-sheep and (5) the ammon's horn fat-tailed wool-sheep. All these were of urial stock, so far as is known. In so far as sheep are kept in India, Tibet and other countries of the east and south Asia, they are of western derivation, and basically of urial stock. Argali blood has, however, been introduced repeatedly, and a few breeds are claimed to be of almost pure argali stock.