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The domestication of animals and plants was triggered by the climatic and environmental changes that occurred after the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum and which continue to this present day. These changes made obtaining food by hunting and gathering difficult. [12] The first animal to be domesticated was the dog at least 15,000 years ago. [1]
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.
The first group proposed that animal domestication proceeded along a continuum of stages from anthropophily, commensalism, control in the wild, control of captive animals, extensive breeding, intensive breeding, and finally to pets in a slow, gradually intensifying relationship between humans and animals.
Domestication is a gradual process, so there is no precise moment in the history of a given species when it can be considered to have become fully domesticated. Zooarchaeology has identified three classes of animal domesticates: Pets (dogs, cats, ferrets, hamsters, etc.) Livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc.)
The dog is a classic example of a domestic animal that likely traveled a commensal pathway into domestication. [2] [38] The dog was the first domesticant, and was domesticated and widely established across Eurasia before the end of the Pleistocene, well before cultivation or the domestication of other animals. [38]
Domestication was not a single event, but a process repeated at various periods in different places. Sheep and goats were the animals that accompanied the nomads in the Middle East, while cattle and pigs were associated with more settled communities. [3] The first wild animal to be domesticated was the dog.
6500 BC – Evidence of cattle domestication in Turkey. [2] Some sources say this happened earlier in other parts of the world. 6001 BC – Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian Peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals. 6000 BC – Granary built in Mehrgarh for storage of excess food.
Helmeted guinea fowl in tall grass. Many foods were originally domesticated in West Africa, including grains like African rice, Pearl Millet, Sorghum, and Fonio; tree crops like Kola nut, used in Coca-Cola, and Oil Palm; and other globally important plant foods such as Watermelon, Tamarind, Okra, Black-eye peas, and Yams. [2]