rockessence
Member
Posts: 1000
From: WA USA
Registered: Feb 2004
posted 03-13-2005 09:39
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Here is an article that supports the idea (asserted in the Bock saga) that domestication of animals was carried out from the Aser by envoys at the end of Ice-time around 9000 years ago.
Pigs domesticated 'many times'
Pigs were domesticated independently at least seven times around the
globe, a new study has found. The discovery was made by linking the
DNA of tame porkers with their wild relatives. Researchers found
farmed pigs in several locations were closely related to wild boar in
the same region, suggesting local domestication. This challenges the
notion that boar were tamed just twice before being transported
throughout the world.
"Many archaeologists have assumed the pig was domesticated in
no more than two areas of the world, the Near East and the Far East,
but our findings turn this theory on its head," said Keith Dobney, of
the University of Durham, UK. "Our study shows that domestication
also occurred independently in Central Europe, Italy, Northern India,
South East Asia and maybe even Island South East Asia."
Archaeological evidence suggests the pig was first domesticated
9,000 years ago in Eastern Turkey. They were also domesticated in
China at around the same time. Until now, archaeologists generally
assumed that after their initial domestication in these two
locations, tame pigs were transported - through trade and human
migration - around the world. In many ways, this is the simplest
explanation: as farming methods spread during the Neolithic, new
innovations and domestic animals were thought to have been passed
through the human population. But it seems the truth is a little more
far fetched. Instead of importing tame pigs, people from several
different countries domesticated the animals themselves.
"There is definitely something a bit weird about it," said
co-author Greger Larson, of Oxford University, UK. "Maybe people
really didn't bring pigs with them during the agricultural sweep as
part of the Neolithic. "Maybe instead of bringing pigs with them they
were domesticating wild boar only."
However, because the researchers have not been able to date the
recently discovered centres of domestication, it is unclear whether
the idea of taming pigs was had independently, or whether it was
transferred between communities. The team found that all domestic
pigs in Europe are descended from European wild boar - and not Near
Eastern boar - which means farmers travelling west from Turkey were
not bringing significant numbers of pigs with them. But that does not
mean they did not bring the good idea of pig domestication with them.
Nonetheless, it raises questions about the process of animal
domestication, and the spread of agricultural ideas.
"Domestication probably isn't just one guy having an ingenious
idea and looking at a wild boar and saying, 'I can get a domestic pig
out of that'," Dr Larson said. "It could be that domestication is
almost a natural consequence of people settling down to farm. "These
findings are forcing the question about the origins of domestication
across all animals."
Source: Science, BBC News (11 March 2005)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4337435.stm 