Why did the chicken cross the Wallace Line? Archaeological evidence suggests human ‐mediated dispersal of Gallus to Flores first occurred at least ~2.25 ka cal. BP

AbstractDomesticated chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) are a dominant part of the global human diet. Although the early domestication history of this species remains disputed, Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) is assumed to have been the initial domestication center. The eastward spread of chickens into Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Pacific is typically attributed to human-mediated dispersals. Chicken remains are relatively common at Pacific Neolithic sites but are extremely rare in the archaeological records of MSEA and ISEA. Therefore, the exact routes and timing of the human-mediated spread of chickens from their native range in MSEA into the Pacific remain questions of interest. Here we present the earliest evidence ofGallus on the Indonesian island of Flores at Liang Bua. This site has yielded an extensive stratigraphic sequence that spans from ~190 thousand calendar years (ka) ago until the present and includes dense accumulations of faunal remains. Twelve bones from the cave ’s Holocene deposits have been identified asGallus. The oldest remains, a right and left coracoid, were each directly dated to ~2.25 thousand calibrated radiocarbon years before present (ka cal. BP) whereas the youngestGallus elements are ~0.3 ka old. Although wild Green Junglefowl (G. varius) and Red Junglefowl (G. gallus) are found on Flores today, the absence of either of these species in deposits at Liang Bua older than ~2.5 ka as well as the size and shape of the oldest coracoids sugge...
Source: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology - Category: Science Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research