Fig. 4.14 runs from 15000 years ago on the left to 0 (the present) on the right, with six regions stacked down the page. Each region has icons for pottery, cultivation, livestock, sedentism (settled living) and agricultural landscape, placed at the time each appeared there. Reading the icons region by region:
| Region (crop named) | Animal shown for 'livestock' | Habitat shown for 'sedentism' | Objects shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Africa (Pearl millet) | A white long-horned cow | A round hut with mud walls and a conical thatched roof | A globular red pottery jar; a farmer bending with a hoe; a field of pearl millet |
| West Asia (Wheat and barley) | A humpless cow / ox (taurine cattle) | Flat-roofed mud-brick houses with a ladder against the wall | A round-bodied pot; a farmer with a hoe; a field of wheat/barley |
| India (Millets) | A sheep (woolly, with curved horns) | A round hut with a mud plinth and a thatched dome roof | A tall storage jar; a farmer with a hoe; a millet field |
| India — Ganga Plains (Rice) | A grey humped zebu bull | A thatched hut | A globular pot; a woman bending with a hoe; a rice field |
| North China (Millets) | A pig (dark brown boar-type) | A round house with wattle walls and a thatched roof | A cylindrical corded-ware jar; a farmer with a spade; a millet field |
| South China — Yangtze (Rice) | A pig | A thatched house raised on wooden posts (pile dwelling), and a large round thatched structure | A conical pot with a pointed base; a farmer with a hoe |
So the animals domesticated, as shown in the chart, are: cattle — both humped (zebu) and humpless — sheep, and pigs. The chapter's text adds goats for Mehrgarh, where the people 'raised sheep, goats, and Indian cattle—the zebu humped bull in particular'.
The habitats shown are: round thatched huts (West Africa, India, North China), flat-roofed mud-brick houses (West Asia), and houses raised on wooden posts above the ground (South China). The objects shown are: pottery of many shapes — globular jars, tall storage jars, cylindrical corded jars, pointed-base pots — and the hoe or digging stick in every single region.
Are any still used today? Yes — most of them. And this is the real point of the exercise:
| From the chart | In India today |
|---|---|
| Zebu humped cattle | The ordinary cattle of Indian villages — for milk, for ploughing and for carting |
| Sheep and goats | Herded across Rajasthan, the Deccan and the Himalaya; wool, milk and meat |
| Millets | Bajra, jowar and ragi are still staple grains — and are now promoted again as climate-resilient crops |
| Rice, wheat, barley | Still the main food grains of the Ganga plains and the north-west |
| The hoe | The khurpi and kudal are in every kitchen garden and small field |
| Earthen pots | The matka and surahi for cooling water; earthen kulhads for tea; storage jars in village homes |
| Thatched, mud-walled houses | Still built in villages across India; houses raised on stilts are standard in Assam and other flood-prone and high-rainfall areas |