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About 12,000 years ago
- Not counting the domestic dog, who has been our partner for at least 15,000 years, the animal domestication process started about 12,000 years ago. Over that time, humans have learned to control animal access to food and other necessities of life by changing the behaviors and natures of their wild ancestors.
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Apr 3, 2024 · Goats were probably the first animals to be domesticated, followed closely by sheep (Ovis aries). In Southeast Asia, chickens (Gallus domesticus) also were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Later, people began domesticating larger animals, such as oxen ( Bos taurus ) or horses ( Equus ferus caballus ), for plowing and transportation .
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Domesticated plants and animals spread across Europe,...
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- Domestication of animals
domestication, the process of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into domestic and cultivated forms according to the interests of people. In its strictest sense, it refers to the initial stage of human mastery of wild animals and plants. The fundamental distinction of domesticated animals and plants from their wild ancestors is that they are created by human labour to meet specific requirements or whims and are adapted to the conditions of continuous care and solicitude people maintain for them. See also plant breeding and animal breeding.
Domestication has played an enormous part in the development of humankind and material culture. It has resulted in the appearance of agriculture as a special form of animal and plant production. It is precisely those animals and plants that became objects of agricultural activity that have undergone the greatest changes when compared with their wild ancestors.
The first attempts at domestication of animals and plants apparently were made in the Old World during the Mesolithic Period. Dogs were first domesticated in Central Asia by at least 15,000 years ago by people who engaged in hunting and gathering wild edible plants. The first successful domestication of plants, as well as goats, cattle, and other animals—which heralded the onset of the Neolithic Period—occurred sometime before 9500 bce. It was not until the Neolithic Period, however, that primitive agriculture appeared as a form of social activity, and domestication was well under way. (The Neolithic Period occurred at different times around the world but is generally thought to have begun sometime between 10,000 and 8,000 bce.) Although the great majority of domesticated animals and plants that still serve humans were selected and developed during the Neolithic Period, a few notable examples appeared later. The rabbit, for example, was not domesticated until the Middle Ages; the sugar beet came under cultivation as a sugar-yielding agricultural plant only in the 19th century; and mint became an object of agricultural production as recently as the 20th century. Also in the 20th century, a new branch of animal breeding was developed to obtain high-quality fur.
Domestication of vegetatively reproducing plants, such as those with tubers, probably preceded domestication of the seed plants—cereals, legumes, and other vegetables. Some plants were domesticated for the strong fibres in their stalks, which were used for such purposes as making fishing nets. Hemp, one of the most ancient plants domesticated in India, is an example of a multipurpose plant: oil is obtained from its seeds, fibres from its stalk, and the narcotic hashish from its flowers and leaves.
The specific economic application of domesticated animals did not appear at once. Dogs probably accompanied hunters and helped them hunt wild animals; they probably also guarded human settlements and warned the inhabitants of possible danger. At the same time, they were eaten by humans, which was probably their main importance during the first stages of domestication. Sheep and goats were also eaten in the initial stages of domestication but later became valuable for producing the commodities of milk and wool.
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The principal aim of cattle breeding in ancient times was to obtain meat and skin and to produce work animals, which greatly contributed to the development of agriculture. Cattle, at the initial stages of domestication, produced a small amount of milk, sufficient only to rear their calves. The development of high milk yield in cows with their breeding especially for milk production is a later event in the history of domestication.
The first domesticated horses were also used for meat and skin. Later the horse played an enormous role in the waging of war. Peoples inhabiting the Middle East in the 2nd millennium bce used horses in chariot battles. With time the horse began to be used as transportation. In the 1st millennium bce carts appeared, and the horses were harnessed to them; other riding equipment, including the saddle and the bit, seems to have appeared in later centuries.
The donkey and the camel were used only for load transport and as means of conveyance; their unpalatability ruled out their use as a preferred food.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 27, 2019 · Not counting the domestic dog, who has been our partner for at least 15,000 years, the animal domestication process started about 12,000 years ago. Over that time, humans have learned to control animal access to food and other necessities of life by changing the behaviors and natures of their wild ancestors.
Coming to a scientific understanding of when, where, how and why domestication, food production, and social complexity occurred requires archaeological investigation. Plant and animal domestication leading to food production occurred in the last 12,000 years, during the geologic interval known as the Holocene .
The first animal to be domesticated was the dog, as a commensal, at least 15,000 years ago. Other animals including goat, sheep, and cow were domesticated starting around 11,000 years ago. Among birds, the chicken was domesticated in East Asia, seemingly for cockfighting, some 7,000 years ago.
Jun 19, 2021 · Dating the beginning of animal and plant domestication relies on the recognition of observable modifications of the morphologies of seeds and animal bones from archeological sites, testifying to the occurrence of plants and animals already transformed by an ongoing domestication process.
