Earliest economic exploitation of chicken outside East Asia: Evidence from the Hellenistic Southern Levant
Abstract
This study offers new evidence on the cultural history of the chicken, a species that until recently received limited attention compared with other domesticated animals. We provide evidence for the earliest known economic exploitation of the chicken outside its original distribution. This intensified use is first documented in the Southern Levant during the Hellenistic period (fourth-second centuries B.C.E.), at least 100 y before chickens spread widely across Europe. We explore the mechanisms for the spread of chickens as an important species in livestock economies from Asian to Mediterranean and European economies in antiquity to become one of the most widespread and dominant domesticates in the world today.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- August 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1504236112
- Bibcode:
- 2015PNAS..112.9849P