The chicken was domesticated from the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia, though the date and location have been substantially revised by recent genomic research: older estimates placed domestication as far back as 8,000 years ago in several separate Asian locations, but a large 2022 genomic and archaeological study instead points to a single domestication centered in the Southeast Asian mainland (in the area of modern Thailand) around 1500 BCE, from which the chicken spread across Asia and, later, to Europe, Africa and eventually the Americas via multiple routes including Polynesian voyagers. Kept initially at least in part for cockfighting and ritual purposes before becoming a major meat and egg source, the chicken is today the most numerous domesticated bird in the world.
Facts
Partially Attested
Milestone YearConverted from the source's 8,000 years ago to an approximate calendar year; archaeological dating is contested. WhenAbout 8,000 years ago by genomic evidence 1 Classification
Type/ClassificationAgricultural Revolution or Transformation 1 Connections
Associated With
Chicken, Livestock This milestone records the domestication event of the chicken it is directly named for.
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Chicken
Domestication section, genomic passage
the chicken was domesticated 8,000 years ago in Southeast Asia and spread to China and India 2,000 to 3,000 years later.
Domestication section, single event passage
A 2020 Nature study that fully sequenced 863 chickens across the world suggests that all domestic chickens originate from a single domestication event of red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) whose present-day distribution is predominantly in Southeast Asia.
lead description (milestone-kind)
The chicken was domesticated from the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia, though the date and location have been substantially revised by recent genomic research: older estimates placed domestication as far back as 8,000 years ago in several separate Asian locations, but a large 2022 genomic and archaeological study instead points to a single domestication centered in the Southeast Asian mainland (in the area of modern Thailand) around 1500 BCE, from which the chicken spread across Asia and, later, to Europe, Africa and eventually the Americas via multiple routes including Polynesian voyagers.
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