i LOVE goats

i know i've mentioned them before. i was attacked (in a VERY friendly way that is) by a small herd of pygmy goats at the texas state fair right before that emu SHAT ON MY SHOE. but that is another story for another day

Goats Key to Spread of Farming, Gene Study Suggests

James Owen for National Geographic News
October 10, 2006
Goats accompanied the earliest farmers into Europe some 7,500 years ago, helping to revolutionize Stone Age society, a new study suggests.
The trailblazing farm animals were hardy and highly mobile traveling companions to ancient pioneers from the Middle East who introduced agriculture to Europe and elsewhere, researchers say.
The onset of farming ushered in the so-called Neolithic Revolution, when settled communities gradually replaced nomadic tribes and their hunter-gatherer lifestyles between 8000 and 6000 B.C.
A team of archaeologists and biologists has traced the origins of domesticated goats in Western Europe to the Middle East at the beginnings of the Neolithic period. .........


Goats were key to the spread of early farming from the Middle East into Europe, a new study suggests. The hardy animals accompanied pioneers that first brought agriculture to Europe, ushering in a rapid transformation of hunter-gatherer societies into settled communities.Photograph courtesy Pierre Taberlet/PNAS