10,000–6000 BCE: (The Global Map of Independent Animal Domestication — In Several Far-Separated Regions People Also Turning to the Protection and Herding of …

10,000–6000 BCE: (The Global Map of Independent Animal Domestication — In Several Far-Separated Regions People Also Turning to the Protection and Herding of Formerly Wild Animals, Including Pigs in Anatolia and Sheep Goats and Cattle in the Fertile Crescent Hill Country, Cattle Separately in India, Llamas in Highland South America, Pigs Separately in China, Water Buffalo in Southern Asia, and in Africa Donkeys Along the Red Sea Hills and the Protection and Probable Early Domestication of Cattle by Nilo-Saharan Speakers in the Eastern Sahara by the Eighth Millennium BCE): In several far-separated regions people also turned to the protection and herding of formerly wild animals during this era: pigs in Anatolia, and sheep, goats, and cattle in the arc of hill country west, north, and northeast around the Euphrates-Tigris lowlands; cattle separately and quite early in India; llamas in highland South America; separately, pigs in China, and somewhat later, water buffalo in southern Asia; and donkeys in areas along the Red Sea Hills in Africa, along with the protection, and probably the early steps toward domestication, of cattle by Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in the eastern Sahara already by the eighth millennium BCE. The animal domestication story follows the same pattern as the plant cultivation story: multiple independent centers, multiple species, multiple continents. And once again, Africa is among the earliest participants. The Nilo-Saharan speakers of the eastern Sahara were protecting and beginning to domesticate cattle by the eighth millennium BCE — contemporary with or even earlier than the domestication of sheep and goats in the Fertile Crescent. The donkey, that indispensable beast of burden whose labor would underpin trade networks from the Nile to the Mediterranean, was domesticated in Africa. The continent that gave the world its humanity also gave it one of its most economically consequential animals. And the cattle that would become the foundation of pastoral economies across half of Africa — and whose cultural significance would permeate the religion, politics, and social organization of Nilo-Saharan-speaking societies for the next ten thousand years — were first brought under human care not in Anatolia or Mesopotamia but in the eastern Sahara, by African peoples speaking African languages.