34 THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



No excavation on the mainland has afforded so complete 

 a series of successive occupations of early date. In the three 

 layers of the MacArthur Cave discovered near Oban in 1 894, 

 a site of very early Neolithic culture, the bones of Oxen were 

 found at all levels, those of the Pig in the lowest and highest 

 strata and those of the Dog in the highest layer. In a rock- 

 shelter near West Kilbride in Ayrshire, described in 1879, 

 three floors of occupation were also distinguished ; bones of 

 Sheep, Oxen and Red Deer were found at all levels, the re- 

 mains of a Dog were discovered between the oldest and 

 middle floors, and those of a Horse between the middle and 

 most recent floors. Goat remains were also found, but their 

 definite location in the series of deposits was not noted by 

 the excavators. Professor Clelland of Glasgow University, 

 who examined the animal remains, came to the conclusion 

 that the earliest inhabitants of this rock-shelter used the 

 Sheep as food. 



There are many difficulties in the way of drawing definite 

 conclusions regarding the appearance of domestic animals, 

 from such observations as have been made. The sequence 

 on an island such as Colonsay may not apply to the mainland; 

 for various reasons, the remains of some animals may find 

 their way more readily into the kitchen-midden than those 

 of others; and there is difficulty in distinguishing between 

 the bones of the early domesticated animals and their wild 

 representatives. But my own opinion, founded on such 

 evidence as I have been able to gather, is that the domestic 

 animals which first appeared in Scotland were Sheep and 

 Oxen, and of these the Sheep was probably the earlier. Then 

 followed in doubtful sequence the Dog, the Pig, the Goat, and 

 perhaps last of the larger domestic animals, the Horse. The 

 domestication of the Pigeon, Duck and Goose, and the intro- 

 duction of poultry and other foreign fowls belong to a period 

 much later than the Neolithic Age when all the larger and 

 more important domestic animals made their appearance. 

 In the succeeding pages, I propose to indicate the changes 

 which man has wrought in the domestic animals which are 

 most interesting from the Scottish standpoint. 



