Humans have been sheep farming for 11,000 years, meaning the activity dates back to the middle stone age, new scientific research lead by Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has shown.

The new scientific work that has just been published in leading international journal Science shows that at this time humans domesticated sheep for their meat, milk and wool.

The researchers, led by geneticists from TCD alongside zooarchaeologists from LMU Munich and the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB), analysed 18 genomes recovered from archaeological bones dating across 12 millennia, stretching from Mongolia to Ireland.

Dan Bradley of TCD, leader of the research, said it demonstrates how the relationship between humans and sheep has evolved over millennia.

“From the early days of domestication through to the development of wool as a crucial textile resource, sheep have played a vital role in human cultural and economic development,” he said.

History

The earliest sheep-herding village in the sample was in central Turkey. The researchers said their analysis from here confirms the capture of wild sheep.

Some 8,000 years ago, in the earliest European sheep populations, the team found evidence that farmers were deliberately selecting their flocks – in particular for coat colour.

This is the earliest evidence of human moulding of another animal’s biology. The genetic analysis shows that these early farmers were breeding sheep with white coats.

Migration

The research also suggests that the westward migration of people from the Eurasian steppes some 5,000 years ago may have been fuelled by sheep herding and people looking to greater utilise their milk.

This process changed the makeup of human populations, the researchers said - for example, altering the ancestry of British people by around 90% and introducing the Indo-European language ancestor of the tongues spoken across the continent today.

The researchers said the study seems to show that this massive migration was fuelled by sheep herding and a desire for greater utilisation of milk and probably cheese, as it is around the same time that sheep ancestries also changed.

Consequently, by the bronze age, herds had about half their ancestry from a source in the Eurasian steppes.

Dr Kevin Daly of TCD is the first author on the report and he said this movement across the continent is one of the most important discoveries.

“One of our most striking discoveries was a major prehistoric sheep migration from the Eurasian steppes into Europe during the bronze age.

“This parallels what we know about human migrations during the same period, suggesting that when people moved, they brought their flocks with them,” he added.