![]() In time, these animals grew increasingly tame and became an easily accessible source of food. It is thought likely that wild sheep and goats came to graze around human settlements in an attempt to escape from natural predators who would have avoided contact with humans. Scholars have determined that these sheep and goats were domesticated, and not wild, based upon the condition of the bones and, of course, the writings and artwork of the cultures. This same basic pattern has been determined in China, India, and Egypt. The domesticated animals came to symbolize order as opposed to the chaos of the untamed world.Įxcavations of refuse dumps outside of the towns and cities in the region of Mesopotamia show a gradual decline in the number of wild gazelle bones after 7000 BCE (which, it has been suggested, shows a depletion of wild game) while the number of domesticated sheep and goat bones grows in number after the same year. The elephant, for example, became the god Ganesha, and was recognized as Shiva's son he personified man's animal nature and, at the same time, his image served as a charm against evil fortune. There was no real gap between animals and men animals as well as men had souls and souls were perpetually passing from men into animals and back again all these species were woven into one infinite web of karma and reincarnation. In India, according to the historian Durant, Wild animals came to represent untamed forces in the universe (such as the lions of the goddess Inanna in Mesopotamia) while domesticated creatures symbolized comfort and security (for example, the dog in Greece and Rome). Worship of animals in Egypt is well known (most notably their reverence for the cat who symbolized the goddess of the hearth and home, Bastet), but many ancient cultures incorporated animal imagery into their religious icons and practices. Once people realized that animals could be tamed, the creatures became incorporated into the most basic and widespread rituals of the culture. Civilizations which had relied on hunting and gathering as a means of subsistence now built permanent settlements and engaged in a pastoral existence relying on their cattle and crops. The domestication of animals allowed for the building of permanent settlements.ĭomestication of animals produced a dramatic change in the way people lived. Eventually, elephants, tigers, and lions were employed on the battlefield particularly in the latter cases of the Persian campaigns, in Indian warfare in resistance to Alexander the Great, and, most famously, by during the Punic Wars by Hannibal of Carthage against the Romans. ![]() Horses were tamed by 4000 BCE and, in time, became an important component in warfare in drawing the great chariots of the various nation-states. By the time of the settlement of the first Mesopotamian city of Eridu in 5400 BCE, animal husbandry was widely practiced and domesticated animals used in the workforce (such as in plowing), as pets, and as a food source. ![]() Wheat was domesticated and in wide use in Mesopotamia by 7700 BCE, goats by 7000 BCE, sheep by 6700 BCE, and pigs by 6500 BCE. Though domestication of animals was probably common earlier, it is certain that goats and sheep were domesticated throughout Asia by 8000 BCE. Shortly after this date, evidence of domesticated animal bones left over from human social gatherings such as dinners emerges said bones having been discovered in excavations of fire pits in ancient kitchens. It has been speculated that human beings used fire to cook food 1.5 million years ago, but the only archaeological evidence obtained thus far sets the date of the use of fire for cooking at 12,500 years ago as indicated by the discovery of clay cooking pots in East Asia and Mesopotamia. Animal husbandry began in the so-called Neolithic Revolution around 10,000 years ago but may have begun much earlier.
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