Daly, Kevin G.Mullin, Victoria E.Hare, Andrew J.Halpin, ÁineMattiangeli, ValeriaTeasdale, Matthew D.Rossi, Conor2025-02-222025-02-2220251095-9203https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adn2094https://hdl.handle.net/11468/29888The origins and prehistory of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are incompletely understood; to address this, we generated data from 118 ancient genomes spanning 12,000 years sampled from across Eurasia. Genomes from Central Türkiye ~8000 BCE are genetically proximal to the domestic origins of sheep but do not fully explain the ancestry of later populations, suggesting a mosaic of wild ancestries. Genomic signatures indicate selection by ancient herders for pigmentation patterns, hornedness, and growth rate. Although the first European sheep flocks derive from Türkiye, in a notable parallel with ancient human genome discoveries, we detected a major influx of Western steppe-related ancestry in the Bronze Age.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessArticle38767334924972-s2.0-852173577843988377410.1126/science.adn2094Q1