Genetic characterization of an archaeological sheep assemblage from South Africa's Western Cape

The Neolithic Revolution, constituting a shift from food acquisition to food production, came to Africa as it did to most of the rest of the world: through processes of transmission rather than through de novo innovation. In contrast with other regions the pastoral management of cattle, sheep and goats was widespread in Africa thousands of years before settled agricultural communities or the use of domesticated plants were in evidence (Neumann, 2005; Marshall and Hildebrand, 2002; Gifford-Gonzalez, 2005). We report here the discovery of haplogroup B in the first genetic analysis of an African archaeological sheep assemblage. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.