Origin of prehistoric cattle excavated from four archaeological sites in central and northeastern Thailand

Abstract

Cattle have been domesticated in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, for thousands of years, but the history of cattle domestication in the region remains unclear. To date, only genetic studies of modern Thai cattle DNA have been reported. To gain some insight into cattle domestication in the country, a total of 56 cattle remains excavated from four archaeological sites (dated to between 3550 and 1700 years before present (YBP)) in northeastern and central Thailand were analysed in this study. Of 56, the 157-bp D-loop fragment was successfully generated from 26 samples, all of which belonged to Bos taurus in haplogroup T/T3. One haplotype contained 19 members from all four archaeological sites and clustered with the ancient B. taurus from Iran, Turkey and China. Other haplotypes have not shared haplotype with B. taurus from other countries but they showed close relationship to those from China. This represents the first genetic evidence that B. taurus was domesticated in Thailand between 3550 and 1700 YBP. In addition, the close relationship among ancient Thai, Iranian and Chinese taurines suggests that cattle from the Near East were introduced into North China, and were subsequently brought into Thailand thousands of years ago.

Keywords:

• Cattle domestication
• ancient DNA
• zooarchaeology
• Thailand

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ban Chiang Museum, Si Thep Historical Park, the 4th Regional Office of Fine Arts, Lopburi Province, the 9th Regional Office of Fine Arts, Konkean Province and the 12th Regional Office of Fine Arts, Amphoe Phimai, Nakon Ratchasima Province, The Fine Arts Department for providing cattle remains applied in this study. Siripan was financial supported by Graduate School, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. Surat was financial supported by the Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute (KURDI), Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Siripan was supported by Graduate School, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. Surat was supported by the Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute (KURDI), Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.