Explanipedia

The Introduction of Chickens Into Norway and Their Early Use: New Evidence From the Borgund Kaupang Open

Samuel J. Walker, Hanneke J. M. Meijer, Julia Best, Gitte Hansen · 2025

Chickens reached areas of northern Europe by the 6th to 5th century bce , but their dispersal into Scandinavia appears delayed. Here we present a thorough assessment of chicken remains recovered from Borgund, a deserted late Viking Age–Med…

Reply to Peng et al.: Chicken tessellation requires more pieces Open

Joris Peters, Dorian Q. Fuller, Evan K. Irving-Pease, Ophélie Lebrasseur, Julia Best , et al. · 2022

International audience

Redefining the timing and circumstances of the chicken's introduction to Europe and north-west Africa Open

Julia Best, Sean Doherty, Ian Armit, Zlatozar Boev, Lindsey Büster , et al. · 2022

Little is known about the early history of the chicken ( Gallus gallus domesticus ), including the timing and circumstances of its introduction into new cultural environments. To evaluate its spatio-temporal spread across Eurasia and north…

The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens Open

Joris Peters, Ophélie Lebrasseur, Evan K. Irving-Pease, Ptolemaios Dimitrios Paxinos, Julia Best , et al. · 2022

Though chickens are the most numerous and ubiquitous domestic bird, their origins, the circumstances of their initial association with people, and the routes along which they dispersed across the world remain controversial. In order to est…

Radiocarbon dating redefines the timing and circumstances of the chicken’s introduction to Europe and northwest Africa Open

Julia Best, Sean Doherty, Lindsey Büster, Ian Armit, Zlatozar Boev , et al. · 2021

Astonishingly little is known about the early history of the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). To better understand their spatiotemporal spread across Eurasia and Africa, we radiocarbon dated presumed early chicken bones. The results ind…

Estimating the age of domestic fowl (<span><i>Gallus gallus domesticus</i></span>L. 1758) cockerels through spur development Open

Sean Doherty, Alison Foster, Julia Best, Sheila Hamilton‐Dyer, James Morris , et al. · 2021

Determining the age of bird remains after the cessation of growth is challenging due to the absence of techniques such as tooth eruption and wear available for mammals. Without these techniques, it is difficult to reconstruct hunting strat…

The role of birds at Çatalhöyük revealed by the analysis of eggshell Open

Beatrice Demarchi, Samantha Presslee, Jorune Sakalauskaite, Román Fischer, Julia Best · 2020

Incubated eggs in a Roman burial? A preliminary investigation on how to distinguish between the effects of incubation and taphonomy on avian eggshell from archaeological sites Open

Benjamin M. Sichert, Philippe Rentzel, Beatrice Demarchi, Julia Best, Arianna Negri , et al. · 2019

Snail Cave rock shelter, North Wales: a new prehistoric site Open

Geoffrey M. Smith, Elizabeth Anne Walker, Julia Best, David Jenkins, F.M.B. Lynch , et al. · 2019

An evaluation of Snail Cave, a rock shelter on the eastern side of the Great Orme in 2011 revealed a sequence of deposits, which despite some disturbance by burrowing animals, showed evidence of Mesolithic activity in the late ninth and ea…

Counting Roman chickens: Multidisciplinary approaches to human-chicken interactions in Roman Britain Open

Mark Maltby, Martyn Allen, Julia Best, B. Tyr Fothergill, Beatrice Demarchi · 2018

Hens, Health and Husbandry: Integrated Approaches to Past Poultry-keeping in England Open

B. Tyr Fothergill, Julia Best, Alison Foster, Beatrice Demarchi · 2017

This paper sheds new light on aspects of Roman and Anglo-Saxon chicken (Gallus gallus) husbandry and health through integrating analyses of chicken skeletal remains and eggshell from five archaeological sites in England (Fishbourne Roman P…

The identification of poultry processing in archaeological ceramic vessels using in-situ isotope references for organic residue analysis Open

André Carlo Colonese, Alexandre Lucquin, Eduardo Petersen Guedes, Richard M. Thomas, Julia Best , et al. · 2017

Multi-method Analysis of Avian Eggs as Grave Goods: Revealing Symbolism in Conversion Period Burials at Kukruse, NE Estonia Open

Tõnno Jonuks, Ester Oras, Julia Best, Beatrice Demarchi, Raivo Mänd , et al. · 2017

Eggshells are unusual finds in the Iron Age of eastern Europe (500 BC–1200 AD) deserving extra attention in terms of analysis as well as interpretation. This paper discusses two rare eggshell finds, discovered in female burials at the conv…

The identification of archaeological eggshell using peptide markers Open

Samantha Presslee, Julie Wilson, Jos Woolley, Julia Best, Douglas Russell , et al. · 2017

Avian eggshell survives well in alkaline and neutral soils, but its potential as an archaeological resource remains largely unexplored, mainly due to difficulties in its identification. Here we exploit the release of novel bird genomes and…

Seeing Beyond the Science: Multi-Strand Approaches to Human-Chicken Interactions Open

Julia Best, Beatrice Demarchi, Sam Presslee, Naomi Sykes, Ester Oras , et al. · 2016

Questioning new answers regarding Holocene chicken domestication in China Open

Joris Peters, Ophélie Lebrasseur, Julia Best, Holly Miller, Tyr Fothergill , et al. · 2015

Xiang et al. (1) assert that chickens were domesticated on the North China plain 10,000 y ago. Although a great deal remains unknown about the temporal and geographic origins of poultry husbandry, this claim is extraordinary. We welcome th…

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