ABSTRACT
To the student of African prehistory, the contribution of archaeology to hypotheses about the dates, methods and routes for the introduction of ruminant livestock is generally disappointing. In part this is because finds are relatively few and often late in date. Moreover, in many cases, it is not practical to identify the subspecies or race of livestock at a given site. Rock paintings constitute a more informative source of data but they are notoriously hard to date and give a misleadingly patchy coverage of types. Since it is generally the productivity characteristics of livestock that have implications for economic prehistory, this leaves a large historical lacuna.
