Domestication of Pigs and the LBK

Was the pig a domesticate of Europe? Archaeologists have known for quite a while that the earliest domesticated swine in the world came from Turkey, from a handful of sites such as Hallam Çemi, Çayönü Tepesi, and Neval Çori, and were domesticated at least 9,000 years ago. We've also known that they were imported into Europe, like wheat and barley, goats and sheep, with the cultural group known as Linearbandkeramik.

Okay. Yes, Linearbandkeramik is a mouthful. Call it LBK for short. If it helps it means "pottery with bands of decorations", which is, not coincidentally, what their pots looked like.

But the thing is, wheat, goats, barley, and sheep are not indigenous to Europe; but pigs are. Long before pigs were domesticated, they were running around a large percentage of the world untamed and apparently untameable. So, some researchers have been of the opinion that perhaps the Europeans did domesticate their own pigs, as a separate venture from the central Asians. Well, a large international research team led by Greger Larson reports today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on genetic analysis of a multitude of pigs ancient and modern, and, according to their results all domestic pigs derive from Turkey. Hmm.

That's only part of the story, so click on through to the article Domestication of Pigs and the LBK for further information. Or, visit the brand new Illustrated Guide to Animal Domestication for more about animals and when and where they were domesticated.

• Domestication of Pigs, more sources and information
• Illustrated Guide to Animal Domestication
• Linearbandkeramik culture
• Domestication of Animals, a table of sources and information
• History of Farming