This is my tribute to the unsung hero of the breakfast table providing us with eggs full of vitamins and minerals yet so often abused and mistreated.

Quote From the New Scientist:

Chickens were domesticated later than we thought, but probably not for their meat. Instead, they may have acted as early alarm systems or spiritual guides to the afterlife

The earliest domestic chickens we have ever found lived no earlier than 3670 years ago, suggesting the world’s most common domestic animal has a far shorter history than previously thought. What is more, these birds don’t appear to have been raised for their meat, making it unclear what drove the domestication process.

What we do know is that chickens were generally seen as exotic animals, particularly once they spread beyond the red junglefowl’s natural geographic range. With their radiocarbon dating, Best and her colleagues could see that the earliest chickens in Europe – which date to the first millennium BC – were often carefully buried rather than being casually butchered.

Human-chicken co-burials in Britain about 2000 years ago might be evidence that the birds were viewed as spiritual guides that could lead human souls into the afterlife, says Best. “There were some associations with deities.”

The chickens alive today descend from a wild bird native to South-East Asia called the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), but exactly when domestication occurred was unclear. Some researchers have estimated that the first domestic chicken lived more than 6000 years ago, while others claim to have found chicken bones at 10,000-year-old archaeological sites.

You can read the whole, fascinating article here.

Chickens of Planet Earth, I salute you.