c. 1200 BCE · 2nd millennium BCE
The Cock in the Indus Valley
Archaeological evidence from Harappan sites places the domesticated fowl in the Indus Valley by 1200 BCE — possibly earlier — centuries before the bird reaches Persia or Mesopotamia.
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sortableYear: -1200
Seals and pottery fragments from Harappan sites of the mature Indus Valley Civilisation (2600–1900 BCE) depict birds that, while not unambiguously identifiable as the domestic fowl, include cock-like figures. By the late Harappan period (1900–1300 BCE), the bird is firmly attested: the famous bird pendant of Mohenjo-daro, the painted pottery of Harappa, and a series of skeletal finds place it in the subcontinent at least a millennium before its appearance in Persia.
This dating matters. It is consistent with the hypothesis that Gallus gallus was domesticated not in Southeast Asia, as once thought, but in the broad arc of South and Southeast Asia — and that the South Asian bird is the original domestic fowl, from which most Asian and ultimately European stock ultimately derives.