1 102 A The Indo-Iranian borderlands @ Farming began in the Indo-Iranian borderlands perhaps as early as the 7th millennium BC, based on wheat and goats introduced from West Asia and cattle and sheep that may have been locally domesticated. Irrigation was important. Pastoralism involving seasonal movement was a major practice, as it remains today.
# Indo-Iranian borderlands, Goat depicted on pot
2 102 B Farming in Kashmir @ Burzahom and other sites in Kashmir have many features linking them with North Chinese farming communities: human burials with dogs, characteristic stone harvesting knives, jade beads and pit houses. The pottery, though, is distinctive, suggesting the group's separate identity.
# Kashmir Neolithic, mat impressed sherds and vessel
3 103 C The Indus Civilization @ Farmers colonized the Indus-Saraswati plains from the Indo-Iranian borderlands around 3000 BC, giving rise to the Indus civilization. Herders moving between pastures linked the settled agricultural communities. New crops, particularly rice and millets, some of African origin, began to be grown in Indus times.
# Indus Civilization, Indus figurine of cart and oxen
4 102 D Farmers in the peninsula @ Contemporary with the Indus civilization farmers growing wheat and barley and keeping animals, especially cattle, established settlements in central, western and southern India. Best known are the south Indian ashmounds, mounds of burnt dung that were the seasonal camps of pastoralists. The peninsular farming communities grew more prosperous after 1600 BC.
# Peninsular farmers, pot depicting oxen ploughing
5 103 E Western India @ By about 2000 BC, settlement was expanding dramatically in western India, into zones suitable for millet cultivation. Farmers from this region may also have spread southward among the agricultural communities of the Deccan.
# Late Indus Western India, modern hut at Inamgaon
6 102 H Southern rice farmers @ Rice was being cultivated in Sri Lanka's Dry Zone by 400 BC. Irrigation techniques making this possible may have been introduced from the north but rapidly developed far greater complexity and sophistication. South India may have adopted both rice and the methods of growing it from Sri Lanka.
# Southern rice farmers., Irrigation reservoir at Anuradhapura with stupa in background
7 101 x Newcomers on the Ganges @ Rice cultivation allowed farming communities from the north gradually to colonize the Ganges plains, laying the foundations of the Ganges cities and states. Horse-riding cattle-herders originally from outside the subcontinent shared this colonizing movement.
# Newcomers on the Ganges., Painted grey ware vessel
8 101 x Ganges indigenes @ Sites like Chirand and Mahagara in the lower Ganges valley show that rice was being cultivated before 2000 BC. Finds at such sites in eastern India include distinctive stone axes and cord-marked pottery similar to those from rice-growing areas of contemporary South-East Asia.
# Ganges indigenes, shouldered celt
9 101 x Sheep and goats @ Goats were introduced from the west; it is likely that sheep were too, but the evidence is less clear.
# Sheep and goats
10 101 x Zebu @ Either descended from the local wild cattle or from a cross between this and imported western cattle, the zebu first appeared at Mehrgarh. It became the principal Indian domestic animal, providing milk, transport and traction, and probably meat in early times although later it came to be considered sacred.
# Zebu
11 101 x Elephant @ It is possible that Indian elephants were domesticated by the Indus people - representations on seals suggest blankets on their backs. Certainly before 500 BC they were being ridden as the elite cavalry of Indian armies.
# Elephant
12 101 x Camels @ The two-humped Bactrian camel was certainly used as a beast of burden by 1500 BC and camel bones found in Indus towns may also be of this type.
# Camel
13 101 x Chickens @ The chicken is the domestic descendant of the Indian jungle fowl and was being kept by Indus times. Chickens had spread as far as Europe by the 6th century BC.
# Chicken
14 101 x Buffalo @ The water buffalo was locally domesticated in South Asia and appears first at Mehrgarh. It provides much of the milk used today for drinking and for making ghee (butter).
# Buffalo
15 101 x Rice @ Rice, native to India, was cultivated in the western and eastern margins of the Indus civilization. From here rice farmers spread into the Ganges valley in the 2nd millennium BC, but local groups were also cultivating rice in the lower Ganges region by this time.
# Rice
16 101 x Wheat and barley. @ West Asian crops, these reached South Asia either through trade or brought by immigrant settlers after about 7000 BC. They were (as today) the main staple in the north-west and were also grown by early farmers in the peninsula.
# Wheat and barley.
17 101 x Millets @ Many types of millet, such as sorghum, finger millet, bulrush millet and Job's Tears, were cultivated from Indus times onwards in western India and the south, where they remain a staple. Some were introduced from Africa through the long-distance trade networks of the Indus people.
# Millets
18 101 x Other crops @ A wide selection of pulses and oilseeds were grown, including peas, horsegram, sesame, gingelly, linseed, lentil and chickpea. Some were native plants, others had been introduced from West Asia.
# Other crops
19 101 x Spices @ Many native Indian spice plants were cultivated from early times. In the early centuries AD pepper was a major export from South India to the Roman world.
# Spices
20 101 x Cotton @ Cotton, a plant native to the subcontinent, was cultivated at Mehrgarh after 5000 BC. Textiles made from cotton were a major product of western India in historical times, widely traded both at home and abroad, and they were probably similarly a traded commodity in the Indus period.
# Cotton
21 101 x Sugarcane and bananas @ Sugarcane and bananas plants were domesticated in South-East Asia but were certainly being cultivated in India by the final centuries BC.
