From The Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery, 1971:

On a wall long buried in Babylon and recently excavated, there is a frieze
of cows and their calves and a man milking a cow into tall jars. The frieze
is five thousand years old. On the side of a cave in the Pyrenees is a crude
drawing of a cow. Archeologists say it is twenty thousand years old. Among
the oldest writings still preserved are the Vedic hymns of India, inscribed
four or five thousand years ago. They are records of Hindu folklore. They
sing the praises of the cow as the greatest benefactor of the human race.

Don.