There are multiple wild forms of cattle (
Bos primigenius), which suggests that the process occurred independently at least twice and perhaps three times. The taurine (humpless,
Bos taurus) was probably domesticated somewhere in the Fertile Crescent about 8,000 years ago. Taurine cattle were apparently traded across the planet, and appear in archaeolgoical sites of northeastern Asia (China, Mongolia, Korea) about 5000 years ago.
Evidence for domesticated zebu (humped cattle, Bos indicus)has been discovered at the site of Mehrgahr, in the Indus Valley of Pakistan, about 7,000 years ago. The most controversial is the appearance of cattle in Africa. The earliest non-controversial bones have been found at Capeletti, Algeria, about 6500 BP, but Bos remains are found at African sites in what is now Egypt, such as Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba as long ago as 9,000 years, and they may represent domesticated cows.
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