Did chickens go north? New evidence for domestication

Abstract

Using archaeological evidence for chicken domestication from China, Asia and Europe, as well as palaeoclimatic evidence from China, it is concluded that chickens were first domesticated from the red junglefowl Gallus gallus in Southeast Asia well before the sixth millennium BC and taken north to become established in China by c. 6000 BC, whence they were later introduced to Japan via Korea during the Yayoi Period (c. 300 BC-300 AD). Domestication occurred in India much later (c. 2000 BC?), either independently or as a diffusion from Southeast Asia. Although the Iron Age was the main period for dispersion of chickens throughout Europe, they were already present in some areas during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. It is proposed that the earliest European material may be derived from China via Russia. Because the key is likely to lie in central areas of the USSR, the finding of positive or negative evidence for the theory will depend on the interest of archaeologists working in the Soviet Union. Their collaboration is invited.

Keywords:

• Red junglefowl
• chicken domestication
• faunal remains
• palaeoclimate
• China
• Russia
• Europe