History of the domestic sheep History of the domestic sheep The history of the domesticated sheep goes back to between 11000 and 9000 BC, and the domestication of the wild mouflon in ancient Mesopotamia. Sheep are among the first animals to have been domesticated by humans, and there is evidence of sheep farming in Iranian statuary dating to that time period. These sheep were primarily raised for meat, milk, and skins. Woolly sheep began to be developed around 6000 BC in Iran, and cultures such as the Persians relied on sheep's wool for trading. They were then imported to Africa and Europe via trading. The
Taxonomy of wheat the fertile crescent of the Near East. All the other species are domesticated. Although relatively few genes control domestication, and wild and domesticated forms are interfertile, wild and domesticated wheats occupy entirely separate habitats. Traditional classification gives more weight to domesticated status. All wild wheats are hulled: they have tough glumes (husks) that tightly enclose the grains. Each "package" of glumes, lemma and palaea, and grain(s) is known as a spikelet. At maturity the rachis (central stalk of the cereal ear) disarticulates, allowing the spikelets to disperse. The first domesticated wheats, einkorn and emmer, were hulled like their wild ancestors,