Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.56

c12.56

In addition to vegetable crops, the farming economy which lay behind the Harappā kingdom’s prosperity naturally included various domestic animals. We are fortunate in having an admirable series of zoological reports on the animal bones from Harappā to form the basis of a detailed survey. The Indian humped bull, or zebu (*Bos indicus*), was domesticated as in Baluchistan; so too was a smaller, short-horned, humpless species. The origin of the humped bull is obscure: wild species are not known, and one can regard it only as a domesticated variety which ultimately goes back to the common stock represented by the Pleistocene *Bos namadicus*. It is a breed specifically Indian in ancient times, the characteristic hump differentiating it from contemporary domesticated breeds elsewhere in Western Asia; and, as we have seen, it certainly goes back to the Rana Ghundai II phase of North Baluchistan, perhaps contemporary with Hissar I and Jemdet Nasr at least.