Baaaaaaaaaaaaa

http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/neolith
ic_age.html "
It would be a mistake to think that the Mesolithic people of Ireland
suddenly invented farming and became Neolithic. Rather, Ireland's
Mesolithic hunters were displaced or assimilated by Neolithic settlers who
gradually arrived in Ireland from Britain and brought the technology with
them. The practice of farming had spread from the Middle East, through
eastern and southern Europe to reach Britain around 4000BC. Again it seems
that it arrived in Ireland via the Scotland-Antrim link. Evidence from
Cashelkeelty, county Kerry, suggests that this happened between 3900BC and
3000BC [4 p28].
"http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/neolit
hic_age.html


http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/rr/pages/rr-1.shtml "
3. Severn Estuary [Wales]- c. 6500 BC

About 8,500 years ago, a 5' 6" man with size 11 feet walked along the
Severn Estuary at 2.6 miles per hour carrying a heavy load on his right
shoulder. Archaeologists deduced all this from a series of footprints
cemented in the hard clay of the Severn Estuary.

Mesolithic man would have lived in skin tents, close to the grazing animals
they would hunt with flint weapons. The Severn Estuary was prime hunter-
gatherer territory as evidenced by footprints of men, red deer, pelicans
and some of the earliest sheep in the British Isles.
"

[Note if this were true it would validate that the Hoguette culture of
France and its Sheep/Goat preference would have predated LBK Neolithic
in northern france. And represente earlier gene flow.]

http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/neolithic.htm "
Around 3800 BC neolithic agriculturists began arriving in large numbers.
These early farmers were the builders of the famous mounds and passage
tombs mentioned above, and which are more densely packed into Ireland than
into any other country. Domesticated cattle, sheep and goats were imported
to Ireland at the beginning of the Neolithic period, together with cereals.
" http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/neolithic.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Scotland "
At the wonderfully well preserved stone house at Knap of Howar on the
Orkney island of Papa Westray (occupied from 3500 BC to 3100 BC) the walls
stand to a low eaves height, and the stone furniture is intact. Evidence
from middens shows that the inhabitants were keeping cattle, sheep and
pigs, farming barley and wheat and gathering shellfish as well as fishing
for species which have to be line caught using boats. Finely made and
decorated Unstan ware pottery links the inhabitants to chambered cairn
tombs nearby and to sites far afield including Balbrindi and Eilean
Domhnuill.
" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Scotland

So one can basically argue on rather weak evidence that sheep culture
in norther scotland is about 3800 BC, about the same time that or shortly
thereafter sheep arrive as part of the culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Scotland

.

Relevant Pages

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