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==Domestication==
Domestic sheep are descended from the [[Urial|mouflon]] (''Ovis orientalis'') that is found from the mountains of [[Turkey]] to southern [[Iran]]. Evidence for domestication dates to [[9th millennium BC|9000 BCE]] in [[Iraq]].<ref>{{cite book | author=Krebs, Robert E. & Krebs, Carolyn A | title=Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions & Discoveries of the Ancient World | ___location=Westport, CT | publisher=Greenwood Press | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-313-31342-3}}</ref> It has been found by [[DNA]] analysis to be one of two ancestors of domestic sheep. Although the second ancestor has not been identified, both the [[urial]] and [[argali]] have been ruled out. The [[urial]] (''O. vignei'') is found from northeastern Iran to northwestern India. It has a higher number of [[chromosome]]s (58) than domestic sheep (54) which makes it an unlikely ancestor of the latter, but it interbreeds with the mouflon. The [[argali]] sheep (''O. ammon'') of inner Asia (Tibet, Himalayas, [[Altay Mountains]], [[Tien-Shan]] and [[Pamir Mountains|Pamir]]) has 56 chromosomes and the Siberian [[snow sheep]] (Ovis nivicola) has 52 chromosomes.
The European mouflon (''O. musimon'') found on [[Corsica]] and [[Sardinia]] as well as the Cretan and the extinct Cypriot wild sheep are probably descended from early domestic sheep that turned feral. Evidence of early domesticated sheep have been found in [[PPNB]] [[Jericho]] and [[Zawi Chemi Shanidar]]. The fleece-bearing sheep is only found since the [[Bronze Age]]. Primitive breeds, like the Scottish [[Soay sheep]] have to be plucked (a process called rooing), instead of sheared, as the kemps are still longer than the soft fleece, or the fleece must be collected from the field after it falls out.
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