152 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



remains of a hornless sheep, believed by Dr. 

 Duerst to be derived from the turbary sheep, which, 

 in the opinion of the same writer, may have been 

 the parent of the fat-tailed Asiatic breeds. 



This chapter may be closed with the following 

 quotation from Dr. Duerst's article^ in regard to 

 the probable age of the Anau deposits and of the 

 European Pfahlbauten : — 



" According to Professor Pumpelly's strati- 

 graphic chronology, which is without doubt the 

 most exact prehistoric chronological table that we 

 possess, the 20 feet of culture-stratum at the base 

 of the North Kurgan [a district of Anau] dates 

 from the latter half of the ninth millennium (8250) 

 B.C. The turbary sheep {Ovzs aries palustris) 

 attained its full development 6250 B.C., while we 

 find the large-horned transitional form from Ovis 

 vignei arkal about 7000 B.C. Therefore, a migra- 

 tion which, leaving Turkestan between the sixth 

 and seventh millenniums B.C., penetrated western 

 Europe, might have taken with it this sheep as well 

 as the turbary pig [Sus palustris) and the long-horned 

 cattle. It follows that the turbary sheep could not 

 have arrived in Europe earlier than in the seventh 

 millennium B.C., and since we find its remains in the 

 oldest lake-dwellings and early Neolithic stations of 

 central Europe, these cannot be of greater age." 



The author then proceeds to point out that 



' Op. cit, p. 439. 



