The origins and dispersal of the chicken remain among the most enigmatic questions about Eurasian domesticated animals. The reasons are practical: morphological identifications are contested, direct dating is scarce, and thin brittle bird bones preserve badly. So the bones are the wrong thing to count.
Count the instead. Archaeological and from 12 sites spanning a millennium and a half shows chickens widely raised across southern Central Asia, from the fourth century BC through medieval periods. Eggshell turned up in high abundance at every one of those sites, and the geography points to dispersal along the .
The origins and dispersal of the chicken across the ancient world remain one of the most enigmatic questions regarding Eurasian domesticated animals. The lack of agreement about timing and centers of origin comes from problems with morphological identification, a lack of direct dating, and poor preservation of thin, brittle bird bones.
The response is to change the evidence. Rather than chasing bones, the study works from eggshell, which survives where bone does not, combined with molecular identification to establish what laid it.
The result covers a long span and a wide area. Chickens were widely raised across southern Central Asia from the fourth century BC through medieval periods, on material from 12 different archaeological sites spanning a millennium and a half.
Abundance is the part that carries the interpretation. Eggshell was recovered in high abundance at all of these sites, which supports raising chickens for , and the geography points to dispersal along the ancient Silk Road.
wat. The chicken’s route through Central Asia is written in eggshell, not in bones.
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Abundant eggshell means birds kept for eggs rather than kept as curiosities, which is a different relationship between people and animals.
How do we know?
Peters and colleagues combined archaeological material with molecular identification of eggshell from 12 sites across southern Central Asia, which gives both the species and the scale of production.
What is still unknown
Twelve sites in one region, and eggshell abundance speaks to egg production rather than to how the birds first arrived.
Learn something?
Where to next
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