New research transforms our understanding of the circumstances and timing of the domestication of chickens, their spread across Asia into the west, and reveals the changing way in which they were perceived in societies over the past 3,500 years.
From: University of Exeter
June 6, 2022 -- Experts have found that an association
with rice farming likely started a process that has led to chickens becoming
one of the world's most numerous animals. They have also found evidence that
chickens were initially regarded as exotica, and only several centuries later
used as a source of 'food'.
Previous efforts have claimed that chickens were domesticated up to
10,000 years ago in China, Southeast Asia, or India, and that chickens were
present in Europe over 7,000 years ago.
The new studies show this is wrong, and that the driving force behind
chicken domestication was the arrival of dry rice farming into southeast Asia
where their wild ancestor, the red jungle fowl, lived. Dry rice farming acted
as a magnet drawing wild jungle fowl down from the trees, and kickstarting a
closer relationship between people and the jungle fowl that resulted in
chickens.
This domestication process was underway by around 1,500 BC in the
Southeast Asia peninsula. The research suggests that chickens were then
transported first across Asia and then throughout the Mediterranean along
routes used by early Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician maritime traders.
During the Iron Age in Europe, chickens were venerated and generally
not regarded as food. The studies have shown that several of the earliest
chickens are buried alone and un-butchered, and many are also found buried with
people. Males were often buried with cockerels and females with hens. The Roman
Empire then helped to popularise chickens and eggs as food. For example, in
Britain, chickens were not regularly consumed until the third century AD,
mostly in urban and military sites.
The international team
of experts re-evaluated chicken remains found in more than 600 sites in 89
countries. They examined the skeletons, burial location and historical records
regarding the societies and cultures where the bones were found. The oldest
bones of a definite domestic chicken were found at Neolithic Ban Non Wat in
central Thailand, and date to between 1,650 and 1,250 BC.
The team also used
radiocarbon dating to establish the age of 23 of the proposed earliest chickens
found in western Eurasia and north-west Africa. Most of the bones were far more
recent than previously thought. The results dispel claims of chickens in Europe
before the first millennium BC and indicate that they did not arrive until around
800 BC. Then, after arriving in the Mediterranean region, it took almost 1,000
years longer for chickens to become established in the colder climates of
Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia and Iceland.
The two studies,
published in the journals Antiquity and Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, were carried out by academics at the
universities of Exeter, Munich, Cardiff, Oxford, Bournemouth, Toulouse, and
universities and institutes in Germany, France and Argentina.
Professor Naomi Sykes,
from the University of Exeter, said: "Eating chickens is so common that
people think we have never not eaten them. Our evidence shows that our past
relationship with chickens was far more complex, and that for centuries
chickens were celebrated and venerated."
Professor Greger
Larson, from the University of Oxford, said: "This comprehensive
re-evaluation of chickens firstly demonstrates how wrong our understanding of
the time and place of chicken domestication was. And even more excitingly, we
show how the arrival of dry rice agriculture acted as a catalyst for both the
chicken domestication process and its global dispersal."
Dr Julia Best, from
Cardiff University said: "This is the first time that radiocarbon dating
has been used on this scale to determine the significance of chickens in early
societies. Our results demonstrate the need to directly date proposed early
specimens, as this allows us the clearest picture yet of our early interactions
with chickens."
Professor Joris Peters,
from LMU Munich and the Bavarian State Collection of Palaeoanatomy, said:
"With their overall highly adaptable but essentially cereal-based diet,
sea routes played a particularly important role in the spread of chickens to
Asia, Oceania, Africa and Europe."
Dr Ophélie Lebrasseur,
from the CNRS/Université Toulouse Paul Sabatier and the Instituto Nacional de
Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, said: "The fact that chickens
are so ubiquitous and popular today, and yet were domesticated relatively
recently is startling. Our research highlights the importance of robust
osteological comparisons, secure stratigraphic dating and placing early finds
within their broader cultural and environmental context."
Professor Mark Maltby,
from Bournemouth University, said, "These studies show the value of
museums and the importance of archaeological materials to reveal our
past."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220606181159.htm
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