10 Understanding Bio-archaeological Remains: Archaeo-Zoology

Pramod Joglekar

  Introduction

We humans are also animals and belong to a species known as Homo sapiens. Our species, what anthropologists call anatomically modern humans, appeared around 200,000 years ago. Since then we humans have used animals for variety of activities necessary for survival. The earliest way of using animals was for meat during the hunting-gathering-scavenging way of life. Until around 10,000 years ago all humans primarily lived by hunting and gathering food. Even now this mode of subsistence is continued by some communities, especially those that live in deserts, dense forests and frozen tundra regions.

2. Objectives

In this chapter you will learn how humans in the past have interacted with the animal world over several millennia. Also, you will look at the changing roles of animals in man-animal relationships after humans mastered the techniques of domesticating plants and animals as an assured supply of food and other essential resources, which are basically secondary products. In addition you will be introduced the earliest evidence of domestic animals in the Indian subcontinent.

3. Wild and Domestic Animals

All animals before the idea of animal domestication or selecting animals for domestication were wild. Wild animal is the one that lives in nature that do not live in an environment created by man or man controlled habitats. Wild animals have access to food and water from nature, and one that is not under human control or care. Domestic animal is dependent on humans for its shelter, food, water, and care in general. There are three more terms used to define human-animal relationship – captive, tame and feral animals. Captive animal is in a state of confinement or imprisonment (e.g. animals kept in zoo or circus). Tame animals are considered not dangerous (to humans) because of prolonged association with humans, such animals have become mild or disciplined. A feral animal is in a wild or uncontrolled state, especially after escaping from captivity or domestication. Thus domestic animals that escape human control become feral and many times behave like wild animals.

4. Adaptation

The concept of controlling plants and animals during the Neolithic period changed the way humans lived. This also brought changes in both plants and animal populations that came in contact with humans. The change in animals was possible because of an innate ability of all biological entities to adapt both structurally and functionally. Hence, to understand the dynamics of animal domestication it is necessary to know the basic principle of adaptation

During the process of domestication, individuals would cope with a situation by changing either physiological or behavioural patterns, or both so as to avoid harmful effects of the changed situation. This is one of the basic properties of the individual that allows them to tolerate their environment and get adjusted to it. Animals have used various means to adjust the situations when their environment has changed. The environment includes both outside or external environment and internal environment. Animals brought within the fold of domestication have to adapt to a situation created for them such as limited space and limited food (only allowed by the controlling humans). The change that occurs in animals after gaining certain experiences and stimuli from their artificial environment is known as adaptation.

All domestic animals have to adapt in such a way that they do not perish (that is they are given chance to survive as a group that reproduces). In general, domestic animals do not have the problem of extinction and have no danger of predators and parasites (apart from those transferred from their masters). Only those individual domestic animals that are considered fit to reproduce by humans are allowed to reproduce. Therefore, one finds that in modern animal husbandry practice, a few males are reserved as breeding bulls and the rest are castrated or are culled before attaining sexual maturity. In ancient India also, select bulls (Nandis) were left to roam freely which could be used by whole community for breeding purpose, while all other bulls were castrated and put to work.

5. Process of Domestication

Sometimes taming and holding animals in captivity are considered equivalent to domestication. But there is difference between taming and domestication. In taming there is change in human-animal association in case of a particular animal on a short term basis. The taming process does not create effects that last through successive generations. On the other hand domestication is long-term change in relations beyond the lifetime of a single animal that results in morphological and behavioural changes. However, taming over a long period of time could led to one of the pathways taking captive/tamed animal populations towards domestication.

Various definitions of domestication are available in literature, but essentially there are two ways of defining a domestic animal. The first is based on biological aspect, while the second refers to animal in social and cultural context of human societies. Also, the theories of domestication of animals have both biological and cultural sides since both animals and humans have to adjust to each other in constantly changing cultural complexity of human societies. Both of these definitions are mainly related to human control over animal mobility and of their reproduction.

Definitions of domestication that emphasise the biological side either see it as human control of breeding of animals, or as a type of symbiotic relationship between humans and animals. A domesticated animal is `one that has been bred in captivity, for purpose of subsistence or profit, in a human community that maintains complete mastery over its breeding, organisation of territory, and food supply.’ The end product of domestication is a breed. A breed is a group of animals that has been intentionally bred to possess uniform characteristics. These characteristics are heritable and distinguish the group from other animals within the same species. The meaning of breed can be easily seen in various forms of dogs that range from very small toy breeds to massively built dogs (e.g. Great Dane breed).

Thee pathways responsible for creation of domestic animals have been suggested. These are: (1) commensal pathway, (2) prey pathway and (3) directed pathway [Figure 1]

5.1 The Commensal Pathway

The concept of this pathway is based on commensalism. Commensalism is one of various inter-species interactions (how species interact with each other). Commensalism is relation between two organisms in which, one obtains food, or other benefits from the other, without damaging or benefiting the other species. When humans were in hunting-gathering stage some wild animals were attracted to human settlements for feeding (scavenging) on leftover food or came in near contacts when preying upon other animals. This way an association with humans and human settlements developed into commensalism. In this process once wild animals started obtaining shelter or food (passively) and at the same time due to this association perhaps developed social or psychological bonds with humans due to reduced aggressive behaviour. Dog domestication from ancestral wolves is an example of this pathway. A few members of Pleistocene wolf population perhaps begun following mobile hunter-gatherers. This wolf population slowly acquired genetic and phenotypic differences that allowed them to more successfully adapt to the human habitat. The cats and fowls were also perhaps domesticated in the same way.

5.2 The Prey Pathway

Predator-prey relationship is unique in which one organism (predator) consumes the other organism (prey). Humans that hunt animals for food show this type of relationship where hunters are the predators and the hunted animals are the prey animals. Most major livestock species became domestic through the prey pathway. These animals were primary prey species that humans had hunted for their meat and hides for thousands of years. The prey pathway was perhaps a response to depletion of local stocks of these prey animals. In such situation humans developed specialised hunting strategies to increase prey availability. Over time such game management strategies developed into actual herd management and, eventually, the controlled breeding of managed animals. The species that have been domesticated through this path in include goat, sheep, humpless cattle, humped cattle, yak, water buffalo, one-humped camel and two-humped camels.

Figure 1: Multiple pathways of animal domestication (After Joglekar, P.P. 2015)

5.3 The Directed Pathway

The directed pathway is a much shorter and speedier route to animal domestication. Animals traveling down this path may have begun as human prey or competitors for prey, or may have had little or nothing to do with humans. The prey pathway was mainly related to the goal of securing a predictable source of animal flesh to get proteins. But soon people must have realized the importance of other usages of animals for secondary products. Before using this pathway humans were already using domesticated animals. Horses, donkeys, and Old World camels were sometimes hunted as prey species before deliberately getting under control. These were brought into the human niche as sources of transport. Even in these cases, domestication was a multi-generational adaptation to human selection pressures, including tameness.

There are hundreds of wild animals around humans, but very few were domesticated. In past many animals were tried for making them tame and further domestic. Yet several animals could never be domesticated. The reason is that animals need to have certain biological or behavioural characteristics (called pre-adaptation traits). Some of these pre-conditions are:

1.  The animal should be tough enough so that the young animal could survive the shock of removal from its own mother, and also be able to adapt new diet and new environments,
2. it should show fondness towards humans,
3. it should be able to live with humans,
4. it should be useful to humans in some way or the other,
5. it should be able to breed freely, and
6. it should be easy to control.

In the past some human groups all over the world decided to shift the way of obtaining food. The food producing animals (sheep, goat, cattle, and so on) were domesticated earlier than transport animals (horse, donkey and camel, and so on). This shows that there was need for a regular food supply for the growing population. Therefore, growing population seems to be the prime motivating factor for animal domestication. Domestication of plants and animals certainly allowed a larger number of people to sustain themselves over a piece of land than on hunting and gathering.

6. Domestic Animals in South Asia

Current evidence indicates that early domestication only took place within a subset of the geographical distribution of the wild ancestors, suggesting that animal domestication was relatively rare not only on a global scale but also within the area traversed by the wild species. It is suggested that about 35 separate animal domestication episodes took place during the last 15000 years or so. The species that were domesticated or at least an attempt was made include many mammals and birds, and some that belonged to the New World (the Americas). There are a number of animal species that humans have been keeping as pets or as captive animals. These include parrots, doves, the Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), the Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), the European buzzard (Buteo buteo) and both Asian and African elephants. However, the history of such captive animals is entirely different than the proper domestic animals such as dogs, cats, horses, camels and food animal species.

Domestic animals are of various types depending on their use to humans. Dogs and cats are human companions or animals that help in reducing stress. Sheep, goats, cattle, buffaloes, and chickens were domesticated primarily for food purpose. Horse, camels and donkeys were mainly thought to provide the power of doing various agricultural works and pulling carts or chariots.

6.1 Dog

The dog (Canis familiaris) belongs to the genus Canis, which also includes various other species such as the wolf (Canis lupus) and jackal (Canis aureus). Dog is the oldest domestic animal and a companion of humans since its domestication thousands of years ago. When humans were in hunting-gathering mode of subsistence, initial dogs appeared in human habitation through commensal pathway. The domestication of dogs also provided important lessons for later domestication of other animal species. It is well established that domestic dogs originated from wolves, but the true nature of domestication events has not been accurately recognized in archaeological record. The exact timing of dog domestication is still unclear since a few Upper Palaeolithic dog skulls have been recently found at sites in Belgium, Ukraine and Russia. The archaeological evidence indicates the emergence of the dog as a distinct domestic entity between 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. The mandibles of dogs are shorter than those of wolves and there is considerable reduction in the length of their molars. The earliest archaeological evidence of these features is found in 13,000-year-old mandible of domestic dog recovered from Palegawra Cave in northeastern Iraq. Dog domestication perhaps occurred at several places over several hundreds of years. The bones of the dog occur regularly from the Neolithic period onwards, there is no evidence of indigenous domestication of the dog in the Indian subcontinent so far.

6.2 Cat

The domestic cats (Felis catus) were the second oldest animals to enter human cultural sphere. The cats are territorial, generally solitary carnivores. Archaeological remains indicate that the wild cats most probably began association with humans as a commensal species by feeding on rodent pests infesting grains stores of the first farmers. It is now clear that domestic cats all over world descended from the Middle Eastern wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica). The wildcat (Felis silvestris) is a polytypic species that comprise five ecologically and genetically different subspecies. These subspecies have wide distribution, occupying Europe, Africa and Asia. Since the wild cats already well adapted to preying on rodents, artificial selection was largely unnecessary. Therefore, domestic cats retained many of the morphological and behavioural traits of their wild ancestors even as they spread to various parts of the world.

Cat remains have been found in association with the humans at several Neolithic sites. The oldest direct evidence of cats in association with the humans dates to 9,500 years ago in Cyprus and at sites in Israel (9,000 years ago). The Egyptian paintings (dated around 3,600 years ago) provide the oldest known unmistakable depictions of the domestic cats. Cat was one of the most sacred of all animals to the ancient Egyptians. They were even mummified in enormous numbers 2,900 years ago. A number of Harappan sites in India have yielded the skeletal fragments of domestic cats. However, in these paintings cats are shown under chairs, sometimes collared or tethered, and often eating from bowls or feeding on scraps.

6.3 Sheep

Sheep, together with goats, have been the important livestock species in the world. The sheep represents the earliest of the livestock to be domesticated. Wild sheep today are found in the mountain ranges of central Asia, from which they extend westwards into Europe. At least five wild species of sheep are recognized of which three were considered as the potential ancestor species for domestic sheep. These supposed ancestral species are the Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis), the urial (Ovis vignei), and the argali (Ovis ammon). It is suggested that sheep most likely descended from Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) populations. Genetic evidence suggests that there were at least three domestication events for sheep within the area of distribution of the wild forms between the Mediterranean and the Indus Valley. The earliest archaeozoological evidence for sheep domestication comes from northeastern Iraq and southeastern Anatolia that can be dated to 12,000 before present. In south Asia, Mehrgarh, a multi-cultural archaeological site in Pakistan provided the evidence of sheep domestication.

6.4 Goats

The Sheep are grazing ungulates whereas goats are browsers. Therefore, goats generally complement a flock of sheep by browsing on thorny scrubland, whilst the sheep prefer grass. The wild progenitor of domestic goat (Capra hircus) is the bezoar goat (Capra aegargrus). The bezoar goat lives in high, rocky mountain regions extending from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey to Pakistan. Some scholars suggest that the markhor (Capra falconeri) may have contributed as a goat progenitor in eastern Asia. The markhor lives in high, rocky mountain regions extending from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey into Pakistan.

Archaeological evidence from the Near East suggests that like sheep the goats followed prey pathway to domestication, with the transition from generalized hunting to specialized hunting, and then herd management taking place within the natural habitats of wild progenitor species. In Western Eurasia, sheep and goats were domesticated after prolonged hunting of the wild goats between 13,000 and 12,000 years before present. This distinctive herd management harvest profile is first detected in goat assemblages from the archaeological site of Ganj Dareh in the Central Zagros Mountains of modern-day Iran at about 10,000 years ago.

Genetic studies on goats suggest three independent domestication events. At least two of those were likely to have occurred in the Fertile Crescent, and the third region was perhaps within the Neolithic culture of Baluchistan in the western Pakistan.

6.5 Cattle

There is no other animal that provide such a versatile range of products as does domestic cattle, making this animal the most numerous and economically important of all the domestic animals in the world. Due to their multiple utility values cattle played an important role in the shaping civilizations. Cattle were domesticated after the inclusion of sheep and goats in human societies. It is a general believe that having sheep and goats might have created the intellectual space for consciously adding these animals to the existing herds. However, actual processes which led to the domestication of cattle are still not properly understood from archaeozoological record.

There are two types of domestic cattle. The taurine (Bos taurus) cattle are humpless whereas the zebu cattle (Bos indicus) have a prominent hump and a dewlap. The zebu cattle are found in the hot-arid or semi-arid regions of South Asia and Africa. All domestic cattle are derived from the now extinct wild cattle known as aurochs (Bos primigenius). It is suggested that zebu cattle were derived from western Eurasian aurochs within south-western Asia during the early Neolithic period of pastoralism. However, an alternative way of zebu domestication from a biologically distinct wild progenitor within the Indian subcontinent is also discussed in South Asian archaeozoological studies. Archaeological evidence from the site of Mehrgarh in Baluchistan have already yielded evidence pertaining to the domestication of zebu cattle, possibly as early as 7000 BCE. Genetic studies focused on the domestication of zebu cattle suggest that there were two or more separate loci of domestication of Bos indicus in South Asia. These studies also propose multiple domestication events in different parts of South Asia and the spread of these domestic animals to new areas within and outside of the subcontinent.

6.6 Water Buffalo

There are two types of water buffaloes: the swamp buffalo (Bubalus bubalis carabensis) and the river buffalo (Bubalus bubalis bubalis). As the name implies, the water buffaloes, both the river and the swamp type have an inherent liking for water. While swamp buffaloes are found throughout Southeast Asia and China, river buffaloes are mainly found in the Indian subcontinent and westwards through the western Asia and Mediterranean countries.

The Indian wild buffalo or arnee (Bubalus arnee) is considered as the progenitor species of all breeds of domestic buffaloes. The arnee was once common across the Indian subcontinent, but in recent years their number has decreased rapidly, and these wild buffaloes are now endangered animals on the brink of extinction.

6.7 Pig

Domestic pigs (Sus domesticus) are are mainly kept for meat as these provide nothing such as traction power, milk or wool. Domestic pigs descended from one common species: the wild boar (Sus scrofa). The wild boar is found in a vast region of the world and this world-wide distribution created a special challenge to those interested in identifying the initial sites of pig domestication. Recent genetic studies indicate many independent centres of domestication: central Europe, Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The beginning of pig heard management and domestication most probably emerged sometime between 10,000 to 8,000 years ago. The site of Cayonu Tepesi, located in southeastern Turkey, is earliest one that has provided valuable evidence of pig domestication. Remarkably, evidence from that site suggests that probably pigs were not driven by direct human intervention

6.8 Horse

The domestication of horse was certainly one of the significant events in the history of human-animal interactions since the horses brought about a remarkable change in some early human societies in the field of transportation. It allowed people to move faster from one place to another farther away with the heavier loads. In addition, the swiftness and fearlessness of a horse also made it the best mount not only in warfare, but also in hunting. However, the questions such as when, where and why the horses were first domesticated, are still not clearly resolved.

There were many types of caballine equids of large and small forms present in the Pleistocene period which initially led to believe that different wild equids gave rise to different breeds of domestic horse. However, of all the different varieties of horses in the Pleistocene, only one relatively small species of wild horse survived into the Holocene and gave rise to the domestic horse. That species is known as the tarpan (Equus ferus). The earliest evidence of domestic horse comes from the site Dereivka, a Copper Age settlement in Ukraine, dating to between 4470 to 3530 BCE.

In the Indian subcontinent, horse bones have been reported at a few Harappan sites, such as Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Ropar, Kalibangan, Lothal, Kuntasi, Surkotada and Shikarpur, besides at the Malvan and Kanewal sites of the late phase of Harappan culture. In a slightly later context, the horse bones have been identified at Pirak (a site of the second millennium BCE), located closely to the Mehrgarh and Nausharo sites. However, whether the horse was known to the Harappans, has long been a cause a contentious and yet unsettled issue among scholars.

6.9 Donkey/Ass

While domesticated horses brought about a significant change in human societies, domestication of the ass was also an important step for the humans. Being tough animals adapted to the desert, plus endowed with the ability to carry heavy loads through arid lands, donkeys might have enabled pastoralists of those regions to move farther more frequently and to transport their households with their herds. Another important outcome of the domestication of donkeys was the possibilities of creating hybrids with horse (mules, hinnies).

The domestic ass originated from African wild asses such as the Somali wild ass and the Nubian wild ass. In addition to the domestication of ass from the African wild ass, there is also a suggestion that the Asiatic half-ass, commonly known as onager (Equus hemionus), was also either domesticated in the western Asia or was used to hybridise with the domestic ass there. Recent archaeological evidence also suggested that northeast Africa is the most probable place for the origin of domestic ass. The evidence of the earliest use of the domestic ass comes from Egypt at prehistoric settlements of El-Omari (c. 4600-4400 BCE), Maadi (first half of the fourth millennium BCE) and Hierakonpolis (ca. 3600 BCE). In the Indian subcontinent, the bones of domestic ass have been reported from a number of Harappan sites, including Kalibangan, Rangpur, Surkotada, Kuntasi and Harappa, among others. However, as was the case with horse, the presence of domestic ass during the Harappan period is still a debated issue.

6.10 Camels

At present, there are two species of domestic camel: the Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedaries) and the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus). These are also known as one-humped and two-humped camels, respectively. The history of domestication of these camels is poorly known. Recent studies indicate different ancestors and separate domestication events for the one-humped and two-humped camels. Domestication of the two-humped camel took place in Central Asia, perhaps as early as the third millennium BCE. One-humped camel domestication occurred towards the end of second millennium BCE in the southern Arabian Peninsula. From these areas of origins, the camels dispersed over all of northern Africa, parts of east Africa and Asia, as far east as India. Archaeologically, the earliest evidence for domestic camels (two-humped) comes from the site of Shar-i-Sokhta in Central Iran, where clay vessels containing camel dung and cloth woven from the combination of camel and sheep hair were recovered dated to approximately 2600 BCE. Camel bones have also been reported from the Harappan sites. However, as was the case with the horse and ass, the association of camels with the ‘mature-Indus’ phase is debatable. It is also not clear whether the earliest camels present in the Indian subcontinent were the one-humped or two-humped type. The clearest evidence of the presence of camels in the Indian subcontinent comes from the site of Pirak, located in the northern Kachi Plain some distance from Mehrgarh. Camel bones and figurines of two-humped camels have been reported from this site dated between second and first millennium BCE.

6.11 Domestic fowls/Chickens

Many species of birds have been domesticated by the humans, but by far the most common is the domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus). The domestication of this bird is sometimes claimed to have had its roots in some kind of interdependence that developed between humans and these birds on the edge of settlements in the jungle. The domestic fowls descended from red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) at many places in South Asia and Southeast Asia. At present, the red jungle fowl has its widest distribution in East Asia, Pakistan, India, China and the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Bali. In addition, along with the red jungle fowl and grey jungle fowl the Cingalese jungle fowl might also have contributed to the present domestic fowls.

Chicken bones have been reported from a number of Indus sites, which place the existence of domestic chickens in the Indian subcontinent in the mid-third millennium BCE. The evidence of the domestic fowl from the Harappan Civilisation (2500-1900 BCE) comes in the form of seals, figurines, and bones recovered from a number of Harappan sites. Important evidence also comes from the Mesolithic site of Damdama, where chicken bones occur in reasonably large number in the later levels. Thus there is likelihood of emerging chicken husbandry practices among semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers. Chickens appear to have spread from India to the west during the second millennium BCE.

7. Uses of Animals in Ancient India

In present-day human societies, many people keep dogs and cats not only for symbolic purposes, but also by keeping them; they advertise their status and prestige. The dog is associated with most of the prehistoric cultures, and may have served as a watch animal for the settlement and domestic herds. In addition, it may also have been used in the hunting pursuits. Except a solitary evidence of a dog being killed for meat (in the late Jorwe phase – 1000-700 BCE at Inamgaon, Maharashtra), the dog was not treated as a food animal. The beginning of relationship between the cat and humans was more symbiotic and mutually beneficial. Cats might have helped in clearing unwanted rodents from the settlement. Keeping pets like dogs and cats can also be related to social differentiation in complex societies, such as the Indus civilisation.

The humped Indian cattle (Bos indicus) were the most predominant domestic animals in the early cultures of India, with only a few exceptions, such as at the Mesolithic site of Bagor and the late Jorwe phase at the Chalcolithic site of Inamgaon, where the faunal assemblage was dominated by sheep and goats. Cattle bones outnumber those of other animals at almost all the archaeological sites. The cattle were valued for food (meat and milk) in addition to the by-products. It is obvious that the earliest secondary use of cattle was due to milking, though there is no direct evidence for the consumption of milk until the Early Historical times in the Indian subcontinent. Indirect evidence indicates that cattle were milked during the Harappan times, at least at the site of Harappa (from 3700-3500 BCE). Another important use of cattle was its use as a draft animal. Terracotta wheeled carts are reported from a number of the protohistoric sites in India. Before the development of the cart technology, cattle may have been used as pack animals. The use of cattle as pack animals may have continued even after the development of cart technologies. Pathologies associated with cattle use as a draft animal have been recorded from a few protohistoric sites in India.

In order of preference in the food economy, the next most important domestic animals in the early Indian cultures were sheep and goats. However, there are some exceptions. For example, at the Chalcolithic site of Navdatoli in District Nimar, Madhya Pradesh, pigs were the second most important animals in the food economy. The secondary uses of sheep were milk and wool. At present, the beginning of the use of sheep wool in Indian subcontinent is difficult to trace. The secondary products (dairy, fibre and lighter traction) of sheep/goats were a vital component of the subsistence activities since the Harappan times.

Water buffalo could have made significant contributions in the subsistence economies of ancient Indian communities. Buffaloes are excellent milk producers. At present, buffaloes are mainly kept for milk production. However, this is not the only use of buffaloes; those are also used for traction purposes, at least in warm humid conditions. The evidence from Harappan sites indicates that buffaloes were managed as domestic animals in some of the Indus centres. The presence of a large number of domestic buffaloes at Dholavira suggests that the population at the site may have focused on buffalo dairying activities.

Pig is the only domestic animal which always appeared to have been a meat animal without any secondary uses. However, as an omnivorous animal, pigs consume both human excreta and kitchen refuse and can be a help in keeping a village clean and in surpassing diseases. In major parts of the India, today (except eastern India and in some parts of southern India) domestic pigs are not penned at all. Those animals wander here and there and manage to survive by subsisting off on human refuse all over the settlement. From time to time those animals are collected for the slaughter by the people who have right to do so. Such a strategy may have been adopted in the earlier cultures also.

As mentioned above, the horse was introduced into the early cultures of India in an already domesticated form. The addition and dispersal of the domestic horse in various parts of the subcontinent was much more than just including a new species to the list of domestic animals. It made revolutionary changes in transport as it allowed people to travel faster over increasingly long distances. Evidence for the use of the horse as a riding animal comes from the megalithic burials in the Vidarbha region in the form of horse headgear, including bits. The horse achieved a close relationship with humans, and was thought as the symbol of royalty since earlier times. Another important animal that was introduced to the Indian subcontinent was the camel. The camel can not only carry larger loads than cattle, but their more versatile pasturage and water requirements allow them a wider range than cattle. The important point to note here is that the use of those animals may have been a key factor forthe intensification of communication in the past. In a similar manner, the donkey may have offered an efficient transport system in the past.

Web links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooarchaeology
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooarchaeology

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