Early evidence for domestic chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus ) in the Horn of Africa

摘要: Domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus L. 1758) are one of the most valued farm animals in world today. Chickens widespread and economically socially significant Africa. Despite their importance, little is known about nature introduction subsequent integration into African economies. One reason for this morphological similarity domestic to wild galliform birds Africa such as guineafowl francolin. Here, we present direct dates evidence recovered from Mezber, a pre-Aksumite (>800–450 BCE) rural farming settlement northern Ethiopia. Key markers differentiated these francolins. The Mezber chicken element accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) cal 820–595 BCE indirect/charcoal AMS 921–801 constitute earliest osteological Chicken bones food waste an early at presence later Aksumite urban contexts show that were integrated diverse Ethiopian highland settings. specimens predate Egyptian by least 550 years draw attention exotic faunal exchanges Horn during first millennium BCE. These findings support previous archaeological, genetics linguistic data suggest maritime exchange networks with South Arabia through ports along Red Sea coast possible route Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.