Domestication of Goats & Sheep
Around 9000 BCE, people living in the highlands of the Near East began keeping goats and sheep under human control, breeding them for reliable access to meat, milk, hair, and hides. The Zagros Mountains, which run along the modern border of Iran and Iraq, are often identified as a key region for this shift. It matters because these were among the first livestock ever domesticated, and they helped create the mixed farming and pastoral economies that sustained many later societies.
The background lies in the end of the last Ice Age. As the climate warmed and became more stable, hunter-gatherers in the so-called Fertile Crescent exploited a rich range of wild plants and animals, and many groups became increasingly settled. Wild sheep and bezoar goats, the ancestor of the domestic goat, were already important prey in the hills. Hunters appear to have managed herds selectively, culling young males and sparing breeding females, a strategy that may have been a stepping stone toward full domestication.
The evidence comes mainly from animal bones at archaeological sites. Archaeologists study the age and sex makeup of herds, changes in body size, and shifts in where animals are found outside their natural range. Sites such as Ganj Dareh in the Zagros are frequently cited for early goat management, while other communities in southeastern Anatolia and the Levant show similar developments at roughly the same time. Genetic studies suggest that domestication was not a single event in one valley. Instead, it probably took place in several overlapping locations over centuries, with people exchanging animals and ideas. The date of 9000 BCE is therefore best understood as approximate, marking a long process rather than a sudden invention.
Domestic goats and sheep were well suited to the region. They thrived on rough terrain, were small enough to handle, and could convert grass and scrub into food. Over time, people learned to use them for more than meat. Milk and wool became important later additions, often called the "secondary products revolution," though scholars debate exactly when each began, with wool breeds developing considerably after the first domestication.
The consequences were far-reaching. Together with cattle and pigs, which were domesticated soon afterward, goats and sheep allowed communities to combine crop growing with herding. Some groups settled in villages, while others moved flocks seasonally between highlands and lowlands, a lifestyle known as transhumance, and in some regions full pastoral nomadism emerged. Domestic animals spread westward into Europe and eastward into Asia and Africa along with farming. Their wool, milk, and meat shaped trade, diet, and social wealth, and herding traditions that began in these ancient hills remain central to rural life across much of the world today.