https://phys.org/news/2018-07-ancient-genome-analyses-reveal-mosaic.html > One of our first domesticates and a source of meat, milk and hides, goats now number almost a billion animals. They have been a partner animal since c. 8,500 BC. The earliest evidence for domestic goats occurs in the Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia, where crop farming and animal herding began. Before herding, local hunters targeted wild goats—also known as bezoar—and this local practice eventually became the basis of goat management and livestock keeping. > However, reading the past from examining modern genetics is difficult due to thousands of years of migration and mixture.