Cattle were the first domestic animas capable of pulling a plough. The earliest evidence for the domestication of cattle, during the 8,000 BC, points toward the marshland and forest of the Middle Euphrates Basin.
Humped Zebu (Bos indicus) are believed to have been domesticated around 7000 to 8000 years ago, in the Indus Valley region of modern Pakistan.
Early man used cattle for draft, meat and milk. Cattle were also a measure of wealth.
Several breeds of domesticated cattle were known by 2500 B.C. An interesting frieze from Ur, dating from 3000 B.C, shows that cows were then milked from the rear.
About this same time the fattening of cattle by forced feeding was practiced in Egypt.
In the late nineteenth century, Eduard Hahn has argued that domestication of cattle emerged from religious practices based on awe, fear and admiration of the great bulls, which sometimes stood two meters at the withers.
Modern cattle are descendants of Bos taurus and Bos indicus. Bos taurus are domestic cattle that came from either the Aurochs or the Celtic Shorthorn.
Domestication of cattle
