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Sheeplands

How Sheep Shaped Wales and the World

How sheep shaped the landscape and culture of Wales and beyond.

Human civilization was not just created by humans: we had the help of many creatures, foremost among them sheep. From Argentina to Australia and from Mesopotamia to Mongolia, just about every country with hills and meadows has adopted and then developed sheep farming as a way of living. 
 
Sheeplands outlines the journeys taken by some of these sheep as they voyaged across the world, both by themselves and with human shepherds, from the earliest human settlements to the present day. Along the way, Alan Marshall paints vivid portraits of the roles sheep have played in the development of the modern world, in times of peace and war, and describes how sheeplands might continue to influence Wales and the wider world in future years.

256 pages | 5.31 x 8.5 | © 2024

Earth Sciences: Environment

History: Environmental History


View all books from University of Wales Press

Reviews

"Top of your Royal Welsh reads should be ‘Sheeplands,’ Alan Marshall’s joyous celebration of those woolly pillars of the rural economy.  As you can tell from the subtitle ‘How Sheep Shaped Wales and the World,’ this is a book of epic scope, as we follow the winding track which leads back into the mists of history and the furthest corners of the globe."

Nation.Cymru

Table of Contents

1.Sheep of the Wild: The Mountains of Western Asia, 13000 BC
2.Villages of Sheep: The Levant, 13000 BC to 9000 BC
3.Towns of Sheep: Anatolia, 7000 BC
4.Cities of Sheep: Mesopotamia, 4000 BC
5.Sheep of Stone Age Wales: Brycheiniog, Wales, 3700 BC
6.Sheep of the Pharoahs: Egypt, 3000 BC
7.Sheep of the Indus Valley: Pakistan/India, 2500 BC
8.Sheep of the Beaker Folk: Gwent, Wales, 2300 BC
9.Sheep of the Golden Fleece: The Aegean Sea, 2000 BC to 517 BC
10.Sheep of the Celts: Wales, 500 BC to 54 BC
11.Sheep of the Roman Empire: Wales/Europe, 50 AD to 383 AD
12.The Flocks of Patricius: Banwen, Wales, 383 AD to 430s AD
13.Sheep of the Dark Ages: Wales/Europe, 400 AD to 800 AD
14.Sheep of the Vikings: Atlantic Europe, 793 AD to 1066 AD
15.Sheep of the Normans: The Welsh Marches, 1067 to 1154
16.Sheep of Christ’s Servants: Tintern, Wales, 1131
17.A Lion Saved By Sheep: Europe, 1186 to 1199
18.Sheep of the Mongol Empire: Eurasia, 1206 to 1368
19.The Welsh Prince vs The English King: Wales 1267 to 1307
20.The Sheep of Avalon: Llyn, Wales, 1284
21.Sheep of the Hundred Years War: Wales/Europe, 1337 to 1453
22.Black Shepherds of Death: Wales/Europe, 1348
23.The Discovery of New Sheeplands: Europe, Africa, America, 1492 to 1600
24.Sheeplands of the Tudors: Wales and England, 1485 to 1603
25.British Wool and American Freedom: Wales/America, 1700s
26.Clearances and Enclosures: Scotland Wales, 1750 to 1850
27.Welsh Droving: Harlech, Wales to London, England c1770
28.Sheeplands of the Antipodes: Oceania, 1773 to 1903
29.Sheep of the Industrial Revolution: Britain, 1800 to 1900
30.The Revolting Flannel-Makers: Gwynedd and Powys, Wales, 1812 to 1839
31.The Daughters of Rebecca: Carmarthenshire, Wales, 1839 to 1844
32.Sheep of the Welsh Colony: Welsh Patagonia, 1865
33.War of the Ranges: The American West, 1870 to 1920
34.Globalized Sheeplands: Africa/Asia, 1870s to the Present
35.A Green Sheepland: Wales, 1973 to the Future
36.Epilogue

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