Multiple lines of evidence of early goose domestication in a 7,000-y-old rice cultivation village in the lower Yangtze River, China

Poultry are farmed globally, with chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) being the leading domesticated species. Although domestic chicken bones have been reported from some Early Holocene sites, their origin is controversial and there is no reliable domestic chicken bone older than the Middle Holocene....

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 119; no. 12; p. e2117064119
Main Authors Eda, Masaki, Itahashi, Yu, Kikuchi, Hiroki, Sun, Guoping, Hsu, Kai-Hsuan, Gakuhari, Takashi, Yoneda, Minoru, Jiang, Leping, Yang, Guomei, Nakamura, Shinichi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 22.03.2022
Subjects
Animals
Aquatic birds
Biological Sciences
Bones
Chickens
China
Crops, Agricultural
Cultivation
Domestication
Geese
Geochemistry
Grain cultivation
Holocene
Humans
Isotope composition
Morphology
Oryza
Poultry
Poultry farming
Radiocarbon dating
Radiometric dating
Rice
Rice fields
Rivers
Social Sciences
Species
Stable isotopes
Villages
Waterfowl
China
Yangtze River
poultry farming
stable isotope composition
domestication
Middle Neolithic
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Summary:Poultry are farmed globally, with chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) being the leading domesticated species. Although domestic chicken bones have been reported from some Early Holocene sites, their origin is controversial and there is no reliable domestic chicken bone older than the Middle Holocene. Here, we studied goose bones from Tianluoshan—a 7,000-y-old rice cultivation village in the lower Yangtze River valley, China—using histological, geochemical, biochemical, and morphological approaches. Histological analysis revealed that one of the bones was derived from a locally bred chick, although no wild goose species breed in southern China. The analysis of oxygen-stable isotope composition supported this observation and further revealed that some of the mature bones were also derived from locally bred individuals. The nitrogen-stable isotope composition showed that locally bred mature birds fed on foods different from those eaten by migrant individuals. Morphological analysis revealed that the locally bred mature birds were homogenous in size, whereas radiocarbon dating clearly demonstrated that the samples from locally bred individuals were ∼7,000 y old. The histological, geochemical, biochemical, morphological, and contextual evidence suggest that geese at Tianluoshan village were at an early stage of domestication. The goose population appears to have been maintained for several generations without the introduction of individuals from other populations and may have been fed cultivated paddy rice. These findings indicate that goose domestication dates back 7,000 y, making geese the oldest domesticated poultry species in history.
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Edited by Fiona Marshall, Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO; received September 20, 2021; accepted January 10, 2022
Author contributions: M.E., Y.I., H.K., M.Y., and S.N. designed research; M.E., Y.I., H.K., K.-h.H., T.G., and M.Y. performed research; G.S., L.J., and G.Y. contributed and organized the samples; M.E. and Y.I. analyzed data; M.E., Y.I., and H.K. wrote the paper; and S.N. supervised the research.
1M.E. and Y.I. contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2117064119