SHEEP IN 2000 B.C.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 24 (Supplement)

SHEEP IN 2000 B.C.

DISCOVERIES IN BRITAIN ; < ‘ ? TWO REMARKABLE SCULPTURES, ] < Two remarkable sculptures of sheep J heads made with crude implements about < 2000 B.C. have been found in the Cotswolds. They may throw valuable light 1 not only on the Neolithic Age, but also i on the problem how sheep came into i prehistoric Britain. 1 Major A. G. Wade, who discovered 1 them, also found arrowheads, harpoon 1 points, scrapers and amulets. He stated: 1 “I came across a remarkable hoard of 1 pierced nodules of oolitic limestones, i many of which represent grotesque ani- < mals and figures. With these ‘figure 1 stones’ were two sculptured sheep heads, < one in oolitic limestone, fine-grained, 1 with dark pellets of phosphate, the other 1 of fine-grained brown limestone. The 1 pierced .figure stones are undoubtedly ■ Neolithic amulets. “The British Museum authorities say ! that the sheep heads have been made by 1 some tool. The eye holes have been • made by boring first from one side and J then from the other. The method of 1 representing the wool on the back of the < neck of the smaller head is most ef- < fective, but the brain of the sculptor was 1 far in advance of his tools. 1 “The sheep are not like our modern • sheep; they resemble the more conical < skulled sheep of ancient Egypt. Farm- ■ ers will be interested, because the history ’ of sheep is even more difficult to trace than that of cattle. 1 “Experts state that it is likely that s sheep were brought into Europe by two ] distinct and different routes. The Swiss i lake-dwellers of early Neolithic times < possessed the ‘peat sheep’ which may - have come from Asia via the Danube, i Mediterranean races may have brought ‘ a different breed with them; some Euro- 1 pean sheep resemble the wild Moufflon i of Corsica and Sardinia.” ]