Posted on 12/21/2007 7:39:54 AM PST by finnsheep
Gutefar - The Bronze Age Sheep of Gotland
This article claims sheep of the British Isles descended from sheep from Gotland, an Island in the Baltic "...arriving in Britain between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, doubtless traveling along with the same Viking raiders that brought sheep originally to Gotland." She also claims Vikings are the ANCESTORS of the Visigoths.
Only problems is that the Visigoths preceded the Vikings by about 400 years. The Visigoths sacked Rome in 451 AD and the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles happened around 800 AD with the raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne.
The people who might have brought sheep to the British Isles 2,000 or 3,000 years ago would have been Celtic peoples or even their predecessors. The only folks raiding the British Isles 2,000 years ago would have been Romans.
She also claims the Icelandic sheep are descended from sheep from the island of Gotland which is also not true since Icelandic sheep arrived with the first humans in 874 and they came from NORWAY!
Further on in this article she claims the prehistoric mouflon is the ancestor of the Big Horn sheep (Ovis canadensis) of North America. Only problem with that is that it isn't true either. The Big Horn sheep's closest relative isclosest relative is the Siberian wild sheep (ovis nivicola) and the Big Horn diverged from them 600,000 years ago. Genetically the Big Horn belongs to the Pachyceriform group, not the Moufloniform and evolved separately from them having diverged 1.4 million years ago.
Well, I THINK this calls for DNA testing to see if the sheep are indeed related to the Visigoths, or even the Scots....
Vikings or their predecessors traveled far more extensively and earlier than many people think. There are hieroglyphics in Runestone State Park in Heavener, Oklahoma http://www.oklahomaparks.com/detail.asp?id=1%2B5U%2B5325 long before the Spanish or French explored the area.
This doesn’t have anything to do with Viking Kitties, does it?
Can anyone spell “narcissism”?
This thread is useless without SPAM.
B-I-L-L C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
I have never hearda anything else than our sheep being from Norway (or Scandinavia in general).
If she finds DNA that says they are from Gotland there could be a simple reason for it. Since sheep were taken from Scandinavia to Iceland about 1200 years have come and gone, during wich time a lot of influx of new sheep DNA to Scandinavia has probably happened. But in islands like here in Iceland, in Shetland islands (Hjaltland like we call them), Faoerer island and Gotland the old stock was preserved and isolated.
Probably because the sicknesses that must have come with the migration of sheep to the rest of Scandinavia, and we people of the islands have not wanted to endanger our sheep when they have heard about the sicknesses.
About weather sheep from scandinavia have been part of the genetic makeup of the british sheep, it is probable, as England used to be called Danish Law, as it was under Danish control for quite some time.
Sometimes people seem to be able to spin crazy stories from little or no evidence, probably they already had spun them, but then tried to find any proofs for them. It is not scientific.
Come now, everybody knows sheep come from the muslims.
No, it is not that.
In my youth, I was there. It is power. It is invulnerability. It is sheer ‘Aliveness’.
There was a time when I was so strong, that I could move the world to my whim. Notice how the crowd moves when he moves. He implicitly controlled them. Not in a malevolent way but just with his spirit. All things are possible.
That guy is 10 times more ‘alive’ than most people, including me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svR3iXKTJvc
Ping
Oh, sorry. I thought those were pigs though.
How do they explain their 6 loses this year?
2 to the cheese packers
1 to dem Cowboys
1 to an early season, pass happy Lions. Got revenge later in the seson.
Iggles an KC losses unexplainable.
Thank you for making my day. - I love the Viking Kitties.
Viking Revision History? I was so disappointed to read this article was about sheep. I wanted it to detail how in the 1975 NFC Championship Game, Drew Pearson had pushed Nate Wright down and incurred an offensive interference penalty. The Cowboys subsequently lost the game 14-10 and the Vikings went on to the Superbowl. That’s the kind of Viking revisionist history I’m looking for...
Bloody Vikings...
Breaking News from Scotland....
New Use for sheep has been found.
Wool.
Film at 11.....
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