Global chicken production is expected to reach 103 million tons in 2024, a figure that leaves no doubt about the importance of this meat in multiple cultures. But despite the great weight it has in the economy of many countries, until recently it was not clear when these birds began to be raised for human consumption. Now, new research has shed light on the matter.
A study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology (Germany) and published this Tuesday in Nature Communications has concluded that these animals have been widely bred throughout southern Central Asia since 400 BC. C. until the medieval periods, a practice that probably spread to the rest of the world along the ancient Silk Road.
To reach these conclusions, the team collected tens of thousands of eggshell fragments from 12 sites located along the main Central Asian corridor of the Silk Road. They then determined its origin through a biomolecular analysis called ZooMS, which relies on protein signals rather than DNA, but is just as effective.
The abundance of these shells, which span some 1,500 years, suggests that birds laid out of season, which made the domestic chicken very attractive to ancient people, explain the authors of this work carried out by an international team of archaeologists, historians and scientists.
“This study shows the potential of ZooMS to shed light on past human-animal interactions,” said Dr. Carli Peters, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology and first author of the article, in a statement.
The identification of these shell fragments and the quantities found in the sediment layers of each site demonstrates that these birds laid eggs more frequently than their wild ancestor, the red jungle fowl, which nests once a year and lays about six eggs per put. Without a doubt, this advantage made the domestic chicken a global species of great economic importance.
This is the earliest evidence of chicken farming identified so far in the archaeological record, defend the researchers, who hope that their study demonstrates the potential of new and profitable methods and interdisciplinary collaboration to address different unknowns from the past.
