Cows come home to near east according to a genetic study of cattle reported in Nature vol. 410, p1088, 26 Apr 2001 by English and Irish scientists who studied the mitochondrial DNA of 392 cattle from Europe, Africa, and the Near East. They found the variation found in modern cattle is best explained if cattle originated in the Near East and were brought into Europe by migrating people. Domestic cattle have been an important part of European civilisation for thousands of years. It was previously thought that early settlers in Europe domesticated local wild oxen.
Editorial comment: These results fit the picture on the Biblical origin of the human civilisations. After Noah’s flood people and domestic animals settled in the Near East for several generations until God judged them at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 8-11). Family groups of people then migrated away from Babel and took their domestic animals with them. These people and animal groups became the nucleus of differing ethnic groups and their beasts. (Ref. cattle, domestic animals, DNA)