No, I’m suggesting that the particular eastern culture in question, the Harappan civilization, wasn’t around at the time of the neo-Babylonian empire.
Well, now, “apes” would probably not mean actual apes but monkeys. Peacocks make more sense, though. Still, how long have they been semi-domesticated? The source need not be India, just as seeing chickens being traded doesn’t mean they’re coming from Southeast Asia.
That’s not bad. I think the data could also fit two sources of dispersal, given that there are a few sites in India that are as old as the oldest in the Near East. But the presence of wheat at some of the sites is consistent with a Near Eastern source. Perhaps we could be looking at a mixed model.
Interestingly, many sects of the Kurds honors the Peacock as the ideal representation of their God, which hints at their ethnic affinity with Aryan/Iranian civilization; Peacocks are not native to Kurdistan.
Most interesting is that it appears the Sumerian cuneiform for Peacock was written like the cuneiform for the God Ea - - because the bird’s loud “call” sounded like Peacocks were calling Ea’s name!
My son does a mean peacock impersonation. Perhaps he could get a job as a Sumerian priest if business slackens off. On thhe other hand, walking around naked doing peacock calls has limited job satisfaction, I should imagine.