Zebu cattle domestication (Bos indicus)
Domesticación del cebú (Bos indicus)
- Date
- c. 6500 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Mehrgarh, Kachi Plain, Balochistan, Pakistan
- Credited to
- Neolithic farmers of Mehrgarh
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Local domestication of humped cattle from the Indian aurochs, documented by the progressive reduction in bone size at Mehrgarh. It gave South Asia a bovine adapted to heat and drought that remains the basis of its livestock farming.
Genetics confirms that Bos indicus was domesticated independently of Bos taurus (Fertile Crescent); the most likely focus is the north-west of the subcontinent.
What it led to
- animal traction for ploughing and transport in the Indus Valley
- dairy production in the subcontinent
- spread of the zebu to East Africa, Mesopotamia and China
Built on
- domestication of wheat and barley at Mehrgarh