THE TURBARY OR BONDNER SHEEP 149 



ancient and presumably domesticated Mycenean 

 sheep as related to the Bundner and the turbary 

 sheep. In spite of the fact that Dr. Keller^ subse- 

 quently withdrew this theory, it will be evident, if 

 the aforesaid figures are compared with the head 

 of an old ram of the Cyprian red sheep {Ovis 

 orientalis) in pi. xi. fig. 2, that there is a 

 striking resemblance between the horns of the 

 old Bundner ram and those of both the ancient 

 Mycenean and the modern Cyprian sheep, all being 

 apparently of the " perverted " type ^ characteristic 

 of O. orientalis. 



This suggests the possibility that Ovis orientalis, 

 which inhabits Asia Minor and Persia as well as 

 Cyprus, may have been domesticated at an early 

 period, and that it gave rise in the Mycenean 

 epoch to a breed related to the Bundner sheep, 

 which may accordingly be distinct from the true 

 turbary sheep, or may have combined the blood 

 of that breed and of the ancient Mycenean sheep. 



Whatever may be the truth in these respects, it 

 seems evident — on the assumption that the wild 

 mouflon was the ancestral stock of some of the 

 tame sheep of western Europe — that there has also 

 been an admixture of Asiatic blood, not improbably 

 from two distinct stocks, namely the Kopet-Dagh 

 urial and the red sheep of Cyprus and Asia Minor. 



' On page 144 of the memoir cited below. 



' For the explanation of this term see p. 17 and chapter xiii. 



