According to research, the chickens were initially tempted by the trees and their domestication by rice.
Chicken is one of the most popular foods in the world today, with more than one billion birds killed each year in the United Kingdom alone. But researchers from the University of Exeter, the University of Oxford and the University of Cardiff say in a new study that birds are actually a relatively new addition to our farms.
Chickens were previously thought to have been raised for the table 10,000 years ago, but a new report published in the journal Antiquity suggests that humans did not come into close contact with chickens until about 1500 BC.
Researchers have used carbon dating to determine the age of 23 of the earliest proposed chickens found in Western Eurasia and Northwest Africa. Most of the bones are much newer than previously thought.
Dr Julia Best of Cardiff University said: “This is the first time that radiocarbon dating has been used on this scale to determine the importance of chickens in early societies. Our results show the need for direct dating of the proposed early specimens, as this allows us to get the clearest picture of our early interactions with chickens.
The chickens, originating from the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia, arrived in Europe only around 800 BC. Then, after arriving in the Mediterranean, it took almost 1,000 years longer for the chickens to settle in the colder climates of Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia and Iceland.
Experts have re-evaluated chicken remains found in more than 600 sites in 89 countries. They found that the oldest bones of a particular domestic chicken are in the Neolithic Ban Non Wat in central Thailand, dating between 1650 BC and 1250 BC.
Researchers say people came into contact with jungle birds that lived high in the trees while growing dry rice. The ancient ancestors of domestic chickens were tempted by rice trees.
After being domesticated, the chickens were transported first through Asia and then across the Mediterranean on routes used by early Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician sea traders.
Professor Gregor Larson of Oxford University said: “This overall reassessment of chickens first shows how wrong our understanding of the time and place of domestication of chickens is. And even more exciting, we show how the advent of dry rice farming acts as a catalyst for both the domestication of the chicken and its global distribution.
Previous research has shown that chickens were not originally domesticated for food, but as exotic. Earlier studies have found that chickens appear to have been respected in Iron Age society, for example, and were often buried whole and unharvested, with their hens or sometimes even their human owners. Chickens and their eggs began to be popularized as food during the Roman Empire.
Professor Naomi Sykes of the University of Exeter said: “Chickens are eaten so often that people think we have never eaten them. Our evidence shows that our past relationships with chickens have been much more complex and that chickens have been celebrated and revered for centuries. ”
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