Study Pushes Back Herding in Central Asia by 3,000 Years archaeology.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archaeology.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Max Planck Society
The finds push back the presence of domesticated animals in the region by some 3,000 years
Along the Tian Shan and Alay mountain ranges of Central Asia, sheep and other domestic livestock form the core economy of contemporary life. Although it was here that the movements of their ancient predecessors helped to shape the great trade networks of the Silk Road, domestic animals were thought to have come relatively late to the region. A new study, published today in the journal Nature: Human Behavior, reveals that the roots of animal domestication in Central Asia stretch back at least 8,000 years – making the region one of the oldest continuously inhabited pastoral landscapes in the world.
Early dispersal of neolithic domesticated sheep into the heart of central Asia eurekalert.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eurekalert.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Shepherds were tending sheep in Central Asia at least 8,000 years ago
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A trio of domestic goats are pictured on the hillside above an archaeological site along Kyrgyzstan s southern border with Uzbekistan. Photo by Magdalena Krajcarz
April 8 (UPI) Neolithic herders were tending flocks of sheep and goats as early as 8,000 years ago on the slopes of Central Asia s mountains.
The earliest crops and domesticated livestock originated around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia and the mountains of Western Asia.
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During the millennia that followed, the so-called Neolithic Revolution spread north in Europe and south into Africa and South Asia. However, most researchers estimated it took a few thousand more years for sheep, cattle and goats to make their way to Central Asia.