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647 ZEBUS AND INDIAN WILD CATTLE Sandor BÔKÔNYit Summary Résumé Zusammenfassung The zebus represent a special group Zébus et bovins sauvages d'Inde. Zebu und indisches Wildrind. of domesticated cattle that is character­ Les zébus représentent un groupe Die Zebus repriisentieren eine speziel­ ized by its elongated, very narrow skull, particulier de bovins domestiques carac­ le Gruppe der Hausrinder, die durch peculiar horn form, cervico-thoracic or térisé par un crâne allongé et très étroit, einen verliingerten, schmalen Schiidel, thoracic hump, spinae bifidae on certain une forme particulière des cornes, la pré­ eine eigenartige Hornform, einen cervi­ thoracic vertebrae, drooping rump, and sence d'une bosse cervico-thoracique ou calen oder thoracalen Buckel,gespaltete a leggy conformation with long, slender thoracique, des apophyses épineuses Dornfortsiitze (spinae bifidae) bestimmter metapodials. bifides pour certaines vertèbres dorsales, Brustwirbel, einen muskelarmen Rumpf As the wild form of zebus, the Indian une croupe tombante et des membres und lange Beine mit besonders langen wild cattle (Bos primigenius namadicus) longs avec des métapodes élancés. und schlanken Metapodien charakteri­ can be taken into consideration. The Pour trouver l'ancêtre des zébus, il siert wird. area of distribution of namadicus wild convient d'examiner le bœuf sauvage Heutzutage sind die meiste Autoren cattle extends to the dry parts of India d'Inde (Bos primigenius namadicus). Son darin einig, daj3 der wilde Ahne der and possibly to Southeast Asia, and their aire de répartition s'étend aux régions Zebus nur die indische Unterart des Ures westernmost limits are the Great Salt plus sèches de l'Inde et peut-être de (Bos primigenius namadicus) sein kann. and Lut Deserts of Iran, particularly l'Asie du Sud-Est, et sa limite occidentale Das Verbreitungsgebiet des indischen their eastern borderlands. se situe sur les bordures est du Grand Wildrindes erstre sich neben den trocke­ Lately, a Chalcolithic-Bronze Age site Désert Salé et du Désert de Lut, en Iran. nen Teilen Indiens wahrscheinlich auch of Iranian Sistan (Shahr-i Sokhta) pro­ Récemment, un site daté du Chalcoli­ auf Südostasien und seine westlichen duced good evidence of the occurrence thique et de l'Âge du Bronze du Sistan Ausliiufer waren in der Grossen Salzwü• and local domestication of Indian wild iranien (Shahr-i Sokhta) a livré de bons ste bzw. in der Lut-Wüste Irans zufinden. cattle through characteristic, flattened, arguments pour la présence et la domesti­ Neuestens hat man eine chalcolit­ keeled horn cores and the presence of cation locale du bœuf sauvage d'Inde, hisch-bronzezeitliche Siedlung (Shahr-i domestic zebus by figurines, bifid verte­ sous la forme de chevilles osseuses caré­ Sokhta) im nordost-iranischen Sistan aus­ brae and the relative length and slender­ nées et aplaties, de figurines de zébus geg raben. Dieser Fundort hat gutes ness of distal extremity fragments. domestiques, d'apophyses vertébrales Beweismaterial für das Vorkommen und Obviously, zebu domestication hap­ bifides et d'éléments osseux des extrémi­ die ortliche Domestikation des indischen pened in the Neolithic of the Jndian tés élancés. Wildrindes in Form von: seinen charac­ Peninsula as well, the earliest attempt Il est clair que la domestication du teristischen, gekielten Hornzapfen und für took place by our most recent knowledge zébu a eu lieu au Néolithique dans la das Vorkommen von domestizierten in Mehrgarh, Middle Pakistan. Péninsule indienne, la plus ancienne Buckelrindern durch Figurinen, bifide Nevertheless, in India, taurine and attestation venant des récentes décou­ Dornfortsiitze bzw. durch lange und humped cattle coexisted very well, though vertes de Mehrgarh (Pakistan). Des schlanke Metapodien geliefert. the swift-legged zebus had an advance as bovins de type taurin et de type zébu ont Die früheste Zebu-Domestikation hat draught animals ofpeasant households. cependant très bien coexisté en Inde, en auf der Indischen Halbinsel in der lung­ Zebus reached Mesopotamia in the dépit du fait que les zébus, plus rapides, steinzeit stattgefunden, die frühesten 5th millennium be and Africa through étaient préférés par les fermiers pour la domestizierten Zebu-Rinder gehen bis southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa traction. 6 000 B.C. in Mehrgarh, Mittel-Pakistan in the early 2"d millennium be, and a lit­ Les zébus ont atteint la Mésopotamie zurück. Domestizierte taurine und Zebu­ tle later via the Levant as well. Thev au Ve millénaire be et ont gagné l'Afrique Rinder lebten gut zusammen, jedenfalls arrived in Europe quite late, in the tim~ au début du Ile millénaire av. 1.-C., en waren die Buckelrinder schnellere Zug­ of the Roman Empire. passant par l'Arabie et la Corne de tiere als die taurinen Rinder und das l'Afrique et, un peu plus tard, par le bedeute einen Vorteil in einer Region, wo Levant. Ils ont fait une apparition plus Ochsen auch bis heute die wichtigsten tardive en Europe, avec l'Empire romain. Zugtiere der Bauernwirtschaften sind. Buckelrinder haben Mesopotamien shon im 5. Jahrt. v. Chr. erreicht, in Afri­ ka sind sie doch erst am Anfang des 2. Jahrt. v. Chr. durch Südarabien und das Horn von Afrika und ein bisschen spiiter auch durch den Levant angekommen. Die frühesten Zebus sind in Europa * clo Dr. L. Bartosiewicz, Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Lorand Eotvos viel spiiter, erst in der Periode des Romi­ University, 1088 Muzeum krt. 418, Budapest, Hungary. schen Reiches erschienen. ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA. 1997. N° 25-26 648 Key Words Mots clés Schlüsselworte Zebu, Iran, Cattle, Aurochs. Zébu, Iran, Bovin, Aurochs. Zebu, Iran, Hausrinder, Ur. The zebus make out a considerable part of domestic to 4'h century AD Roman site of Britain and by the author cattle. They prefer hot and arid climates; nevertheless, arid­ from the Late Neolithic of Southwest France, thus from ity is more essential for them than heat, a fact that enables regions where the occurence of zebus or their crossings them to survive in arid plains of Central Asia that are hot were quite improbable in the given time periods. only in summer time whereas they can have cruelly low An original idea was suggested by Mason (1963: 18). winter temperatures. According to him, the hump mostly along with the long Their original homeland is the southern half of Asia, horns and the envelopped dewlaps is a product of deliber­ from where they first penetrated neighboring territories and ate selection by man. As he explains, the early cattle breed­ they became widespred in remote areas such as Africa and ers breeding their sacred bulls wanted the most imposing, the southern fringes of Central Asia. In modern times they the most "bullish" bulls as possible. Since the hump is pri­ were carried over to further continents (North and South marily a secondary sexual character, its size being larger in America and Australia) as well, and they have been feeling bulls than in cows, this fact a!so drew the breeders' atten­ well and were consequently breeding successfully both in a tion, resulting in a selection toward this direction. purebred form and also in crossings in their new homelands. The zebu skull is very elongated and narrow. This is The zebus' main and foremost distinguishing charac­ particularly so in the aboral part of the frontal region show­ teristic is that they are humped. The zebu hump is not ing a very narrow intercornual ridge between the horn equivalent with the hump of the came!, the fat rump of the cores. The forehead is commonly convex, particularly in short-tailed sheep or the fat-tail of the long-tailed sheep. bulls and oxen, Jess in cows. As Epstein (1971: 198) points Whereas the latter are simple fat accumulations, the hump out "the typical zebu skull is remarkable for its Jack of ele­ of the zebu can be regarded as an enlarged muscle, how­ vations and cavities". The highest point of a zebu skull can ever, it is a!so possible that the zebu's hump contains some generally be found right behind its eye sockets. The latters fat as well; this could be even an adaptation to a climate are Jess protruding than those of taurine cattle and are situ­ with a marked seasonal difference (Slijper, 1951, 6ff.) ated more outwards and Jess forwards. Another interesting In agreement with Curson and Bisschop (1935: 18), zebu feature is the absence or at least the reduction of Epstein (1971: 328) classified the zebu humps according to supra-orbital ridges. The horns vary in size and form. Both cervico-thoracic or thoracic body regions, and according to long-horned and short-horned zebus exist and hornless ani­ muscular structure and fatty. Zebu sometimes have divided mais also occur. Their horn form basically differs from that humps. Epstein found artistic representations of such zebus of the taurine cattle: their typical direction is lateral or from Susa, 3000 be (Epstein, 1971: 508) and from Elam upright with a backward tendency (this is the so-called (Epstein, 1971 : 510, fig. 607), nevertheless, it is not certain "auchenokeratos" type) and in profile they are well behind that such divided humps can osteologically be determined. the plane of the face. These features of the horns were Mason (1963: 17) suggests that the hump is a product observed already by Rütimeyer (1878: 47) who a!so of domestication. In his opinion it would be impossible to stressed the vaulting of the forehead in ail directions that determine from fossil (and also subfossil) skeletal remains can particularly well be seen on skulls of zebu oxen. whether a hump was already present in the zebu' s wild Nevertheless, the presence of hump and the special skull ancestors. This is certainly true, nevertheless only the pres­ and horn forms are not the only features that identify zebus. ence or absence of bifid vertebrae would help us to decide The general slenderness of the long bones of the extremities, this question.
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