British study: Humans worshiped chicken for a long time before they discovered its delicious taste
A new study shows that humans did not initially view chickens as a source of food, but rather saw these birds as exotic creatures, and they were honored and even worshiped by some ancient cultures.
The study from the University of Cambridge indicated that the first domesticated chickens were not the huge, fast-growing birds like today.
They were about a third the size of modern chickens, and they may have attracted humans at first due to their unique colors and distinctive noises, thinking they were mysterious and exciting creatures rather than potential meals.
In fact, about 500 years passed between the time chickens first arrived in Europe and the time they began to be widely used for food.
"The chicken, at first, was an amazing thing," said study co-author Greger Larson, director of the Paleobiology and Bioarchaeology Research Network at the University of Oxford in England.
Just as people today are quick to own what celebrities have, thousands of years ago everyone wanted to own a chicken.
Before beginning the domestication of chickens, humans got to know their wild ancestors, the red junglebird known as "Gallus gallus", which lived in Southeast Asia especially in the dense bamboo forests where it ate fruit and seeds.
But the story about the transformation of these jungle birds into one of the most popular foods on earth has mysterious origins.
Recent studies have shown that humans began domesticating chickens much sooner than previous estimates suggested.
It is possible that the "relationship" between humans and chickens is only about 3,500 years old.
By 1500 BC, people in Southeast Asia began cultivating rice and weeds, a process that required clearing forest areas to replace them with grain fields.
This attracted the red bushbird, and perhaps people found these colorful birds very likable... "They are very easy to raise, and they are very beautiful with their colours," Larson explained.
The custom of raising chickens (not eating them) passed from Central and South Asia to the Middle East via the Silk Road. It reached Europe around the year 500 BC.
Interestingly, many chicken skeletons found in Europe between 50 BC and AD 100 were associated with burials: men were often buried with roosters, and women with hens, “and it is likely that these poultry held the value of important for people to be buried with.”
How did you move on to the dishes?
The transformation of the chicken from a strange and revered bird into a source of food likely occurred with the rise of the Roman Empire in Europe, where eating eggs as a snack became popular.
Larison believes that the presence of chickens in abundance in the vicinity of humans throughout this period prompted them to “re-evaluate their relationship with it and think more practically towards it.”
Source: "Monte Carlo"
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