Abstract
The early evidence of domesticated animals and human–animal interaction in South Asia can be traced back to the seventh millennium BCE; however, our understanding of their use is incomplete and limited to the analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites. By the third millennium BCE with the emergence of the Indus Civilization, cattle and water-buffalo became the primary domesticates and outnumbered any other animals at the majority of the Indus settlements. Based on the analysis of skeletal remains and ethnographic data, a number of studies have suggested that cattle and water-buffalo were utilized for their meat, dairy, hides, and other labor-oriented jobs. While some of these claims are backed by empirical data, others are primarily discussed as hypotheses, for example, the exploitation of dairy. In this paper, by analyzing the absorbed lipid residues from fifty-nine ceramic sherds recovered from an agro-pastoral settlement that was occupied during the peak of the Indus period around mid- to late third millennium BCE, we provide the earliest direct evidence of dairy product processing, particularly from cattle and possibly from some water-buffalo. By providing direct evidence of animal product processing, we identify the use of primary domesticated animals and other resources in the diet during the Indus Civilization.
Highlights
The primary and secondary consumption of domesticated animals is a topic of great interest for archaeologists, for those who are interested in early domestication[1,2,3]
During the onset of the third millennium BCE, economies depending on domesticated animals were prominent[4,5], and by the mid-third millennium BCE archaeological data clearly demonstrates that all four of these animals were of major importance in the Indus Civilization (Fig. 1), and that specialized animal husbandry had become one of the primary e conomies[6]
Because mammary glands in ruminant animals are unable to biosynthesize C18:0, whereas, a major portion of it in the adipose fats are due to de nevo biosynthesis from acetate, it is likely that the δ13C values of C 18:0 fatty acids in adipose fats will be slightly enriched compared to the dairy fats of animals raised on the same diet[38]. This is what we observed for our samples, where the δ13C values of C18:0 in cattle/water-buffalo adipose fats were enriched compared to cattle/water-buffalo dairy fats (Supplementary Information table S2 and fig S1). Based on these lines of evidence we feel that the potential mixing of C4 plant derived Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) with animal derived lipids raised on C 3 type vegetation is unlikely to have occurred in these samples that we have securely identified as potential dairy fats
Summary
The primary and secondary consumption of domesticated animals is a topic of great interest for archaeologists, for those who are interested in early domestication[1,2,3]. Over a hundred years of excavations at many sites throughout the Indus Civilization region suggest that cattle, water-buffalo, and likely sheep were utilized for their meat and hides as well as for secondary products such as dairy, wool, and labor, while goats were primarily exploited for their meat and hides. Lipid analysis has helped in the identification of resinous materials that have been used as adhesive and waterproofing layers on ceramic vessels[47,48,49,50] This tool has been successfully used to identify the sources of organic materials in wall p aintings[51,52] and in ashy deposits from archaeological s ettlements[53]
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