Sheep are among the first animals to have been domesticated by humans. Their history goes back to between 11,000 and 9,000 BCE, when humans domesticated the wild mouflon in ancient Mesopotamia. The first sheep were primarily raised for meat, milk, and skins. Woolly sheep began to be developed around 6000 BCE. They were then imported to Africa and Europe via trading.
Wild ancestors
The exact line of descent between domestic sheep and their wild ancestors is unclear. The most common hypothesis states that Ovis aries is descended from the Asiatic (O. orientalis) species of mouflon. A few breeds of sheep, such as the Castlemilk Moorit from Scotland, were formed through crossbreeding with wild European mouflon.
The urial (O. vignei) was once thought to have been a forebear of domestic sheep, as they occasionally interbreed with mouflon in the Iranian part of their range. However, the urial, argali (O. ammon), and snow sheep (O. nivicola) have a different number of chromosomes than other Ovis species, making a direct relationship implausible, and phylogenetic studies show no evidence of urial ancestry. Further studies comparing European and Asian breeds of sheep showed significant genetic differences between the two. Two explanations for this phenomenon have been posited. The first is that there is a currently unknown species or subspecies of wild sheep that contributed to the formation of domestic sheep. The second explanation is that this variation is the result of multiple waves of capture from wild mouflon, similar to the known development of other livestock.
One chief difference between ancient sheep and modern breeds is the technique by which wool could be collected. Primitive sheep can be shorn, but many can have their wool plucked out by hand in a process called "rooing". Rooing helps to leave behind the coarse fibers called kemps which are still longer than the soft fleece. The fleece may also be collected from the field after it falls out naturally. This rooing trait survives today in unrefined breeds such as the Soay and many Shetlands. Indeed, the Soay, along with other Northern European breeds with short tails, naturally rooing fleece, diminutive size, and horns in both sexes, are closely related to ancient sheep. Originally, weaving and spinning wool was a handicraft practiced at home, rather than an industry. Babylonians, Sumerians, and Persians all depended on sheep; and although linen was the first fabric to be fashioned into clothing, wool was a prized product. The raising of flocks for their fleece was one of the earliest industries, and flocks were a medium of exchange in barter economies. Numerous biblical figures kept large flocks, and subjects of the king of Judea were taxed according to the number of rams they owned.
In Asia
Domestication Sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated by humans (although the domestication of dogs may be over 20,000 years earlier); the domestication date is estimated to fall between 11,000 and 8,000 BCE in Mesopotamia.EnsmingerWeaverSimmons & Ekarius They may have been domesticated independently in Mehrgarh in South Asia (in present-day Pakistan) around the 7th millennium BCE. Their wild relatives have several characteristics, such as a relative lack of aggression, a manageable size, early sexual maturity, a social nature, and high reproduction rates, which made them particularly suitable for domestication.Budiansky Today, Ovis aries is an entirely domesticated animal that is largely dependent on humans for its health and survival. Feral sheep do exist, but exclusively in areas devoid of large predators (usually islands) and not on the scale of feral horses, goats, pigs, or dogs, although some feral populations have remained isolated long enough to be recognized as distinct breeds.
The rearing of sheep for secondary products, and the resulting breed development, began likely in southwest Asia. Initially, sheep were kept solely for meat, milk and skins. Archaeological evidence from statuary found at sites in Iran suggests that selection for woolly sheep may have begun around 6000 BCE, and the earliest woven wool garments have been dated to two to three thousand years later.Smith et al. Before this, when a sheep was slaughtered for its meat, the hide would be tanned and worn as a kind of tunic. Researchers believe that the development of such clothing encouraged humans to live in areas far colder than the Fertile Crescent, where temperatures averaged . Sheep molars and bones found at Çatalhöyük suggest that populations of domestic sheep may have been established in the area. By that span of the Bronze Age, sheep with all the major features of modern breeds were widespread throughout Western Asia.
The residents of the ancient settlement of Jeitun, which dates to 6000 BCE, kept sheep and goats as their primary livestock.D.R. Harris, C. Gosden and M.P. Charles, Jeitun : Recent excavations at an early Neolithic site in Southern Turkmenistan, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 1996, vol. 62, pp. 423–442. There have also been numerous identifications of Nomadic pastoralism in archaeological sites, identified by a prevalence of sheep and goat bones, a lack of grain or grain-processing equipment, very limited architecture showing a set of characteristic traits, a location outside the region's zone of agriculture, and ethnographic analogy to modern nomadic pastoral peoples.Oriental Institute of Chicago "Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives".
Modern
Middle East and Central Asia There is a large but constantly declining minority of nomadic and seminomadic pastoralists in countries such as Saudi Arabia (probably less than 3%), Iran (4%), and Afghanistan (at most 10%).Dale Eickelman, The Middle East and Central Asia. An Anthropological Approach. Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall, 2002, p. 11
India In India, there are efforts to 'grade up', or improve the quality of, the native desi sheep breed, by crossing it with Merino and other high-quality wool sheep. This is being done in an effort to produce a desi sheep that produces high-quality wool and mutton.
China Sheep are not an important part of China's agricultural economy, since the majority of China does not have the large open pastures required for sheep-rearing. Sheep farming is more common in the northwestern provinces of the country, where such tracts of land exist. China does have a native sheep breed, the zhan. The population of the breed has been in decline since 1985, despite government promotion of the breed.
Japan The Japanese government encouraged farmers to raise sheep throughout the 19th century. Sheep-rearing programs began to import Yorkshire, Berkshire, Spanish merino, and numerous Chinese and Mongolian sheep breeds, encouraged by government promotion of sheep farming. However, a lack of knowledge on the farmer's part of how to successfully keep sheep, and the government's failure to provide information to those importing the sheep they promoted, led to the project's failure, and in 1888 it was discontinued.
Mongolia Sheep herding has been one of the main economic activities and lifestyles of Mongolians for millennia. Mongolian sheep herding traditions and modern science are well developed. Mongolian selection and veterinary science classifies the sheep herd of the country by (i) wool fiber's length, thinness and softness, (ii) capability of surviving at various altitudes, (iii) physical appearance, tail form, size, and other criteria. The most common sheep breeds are Mongol Khalha, Gov-altai, Baidrag, Bayad, Uzenchin, Sumber and number of other breeds, all being of the fat-tailed family of breeds.
A census of the entire domestic animals stock of the country is carried out annually. At the end of 2017, the census counted more than 30 million of sheep that makes up 45.5 percent of the entire herding stock.
Annually before the Lunar New year the Government awards the prestigious “Best Herder” (in Mongolian “Улсын сайн малчин цол”) nomination to select herders.
In Africa Sheep entered the African continent not long after their domestication in western Asia. A minority of historians once posited a contentious African theory of origin for Ovis aries. This theory is based primarily on rock art interpretations, and osteological evidence from Barbary sheep. The first sheep entered North Africa via Sinai, and were present in ancient Egyptian society between eight and seven thousand years ago. Sheep have always been part of subsistence farming in Africa, but today the only country that keeps significant numbers of commercial sheep is South Africa, with 28.8 million head.
In Ethiopia, there are several varieties of sheep landrace. Attempts have been made to classify the sheep based on factors such as tail shape and wool type, and H. Epstein made an attempt at classifying them this way by dividing the breeds into 14 types based on those two factors. However, in 2002, further genetic analysis revealed that there are only four distinct varieties of Ethiopian sheep: short-fat-tailed, long-fat-tailed, fat-rumped, and thin-tailed.
In Europe
Sheep husbandry spread quickly in Europe. Excavations show that in about 6000 BCE, during the Neolithic period of prehistory, the Castelnovien people, living around Châteauneuf-les-Martigues near present-day Marseille in the south of France, were among the first in Europe to keep domestic sheep.Max Escalon de Fonton, L'Homme avant l'histoire, p. 16–17, in Histoire de la Provence, Editions Privat, Toulouse, 1990. See also F. Bourdier, Préhistoire de France (Paris, 1967) and G. Bailloud, Les civilisations Néolithiques de la France (Paris, 1955). Practically from its inception, ancient Greek civilization relied on sheep as primary livestock, and were even said to name individual animals. Scandinavian sheep of a type seen today — with short tails and multi-colored fleece — were also present early on. Later, the Roman Empire kept sheep on a wide scale, and the Romans were an important agent in the spread of sheep raising through much of Europe. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (Naturalis Historia), speaks at length about sheep and wool. Declaring "Many thanks, too, do we owe to the sheep, both for appeasing the gods, and for giving us the use of its fleece.", he goes on to detail the breeds of ancient sheep and the many colors, lengths and qualities of wool. Romans also pioneered the practice of blanketing sheep, in which a fitted coat (today usually of nylon) is placed over the sheep to improve the cleanliness and luster of its wool.
During the Roman occupation of the British Isles, a large wool processing factory was established in Winchester, England in about 50 CE. By 1000 CE, England and Spain were recognized as the twin centers of sheep production in the Western world. As the original breeders of the fine-wooled merino sheep that have historically dominated the wool trade, the Spanish gained great wealth. Wool money largely financed Spanish rulers and thus the voyages to the New World by conquistadors. The powerful Mesta (its full title was Honrado Concejo de la Mesta, the Honorable Council of the Mesta) was a corporation of sheep owners mostly drawn from Spain's wealthy merchants, Catholic clergy and nobility that controlled the merino flocks. By the 17th century, the Mesta held upwards of two million head of merino sheep.