Thursday, January 14, 2016

Goat Domestication Occurred About Where Expected

Part of the Fertile Crescent Neolithic package of domesticated plants and animals was the domesticated goat, which is derived from one or more species of wild goats.

A survey of available mtDNA data from goats reveals, consistent with prior archaeological evidence, that goats were probably domesticated around the time of the Fertile Crescent Neolithic revolution in the Zargos Mountains at a location probably in the vicinity of what is currently in the Southeastern portion of the modern country Turkey (which obviously didn't exist at the time).

This is not far from the site of other important Fertile Crescent Neolithic domestication events (although probably some of domesticated species had origins elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent or even outside and adjacent to those strict boundaries), which is pretty much where archaeologists, historical zoologists and anthropologists had long suspects that this happened.

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