The Domestication of Animals and Food Crops! ❌

Presented on this page are various studies dealing with the origins, and initial domestication of common animals and agriculture produce, and how they were dispersed to other regions of the world. It is important to highlight these as it reveals that human population groups even thousands of years ago were quite interconnected and dynamic. 

List of Animals and their Region of Domestication:
Donkeys - Northeast Africa
The latest research from Todd Evelyn, T et al. (2022) holds that they were first domesticated from the African Wild Donkey in Eastern Africa by pastoralists some 5000-7000 years ago, and have been used mainly as a working animal since that time. Modern subpopulations from the Horn of Africa represent the descendants of the earliest donkeys, where they would later rapidly spread to Eurasia, becoming distinct populations.
The genomic history and global expansion of domestic donkeys | Science

European Wild Ass

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.17440


Camels - South Arabia or Somalia
In 2003, in a review it was indicated that the camel based on osteological evidence was domesticated around 3000 BCE around Somalia. 
Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader - Google Books
However, a genomic study from 2016, which genotyped and used world-wide sequencing of modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), suggested that they were initially domesticated in the southeast Arabian Peninsula, with the Bactrian type later being domesticated around Central Asia according to Ming, Liang et al. (2020).
Ancient and modern DNA reveal dynamics of domestication and cross-continental dispersal of the dromedary | PNAS
Whole-genome sequencing of 128 camels across Asia reveals origin and migration of domestic Bactrian camels | Communications Biology (nature.com)
In 2019 
https://x.com/hallaboutafrica/status/1126462723188043776

Horses - Central Asia

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07597-5.epdf?sharing_token=7i1hVKW9VByuT4z6gZ-KztRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OGtkMf0ZmPuuspzkNBliCiDPao0PkQ71Ps5onwX845P0tVVqXxrEKk0m8MDiMxEEqCJGvs2vXaI6L1wMpTeBUFnSTpo1tByO82GLbMDaAsmaHEip6N6HB5ulCTIZndVLE%3D

Goats & Sheep - West Asia

https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/41/10/msae158/7826489?login=false


Migration of pastoralism into Africa. Map diagrammatically depicts the... | Download Scientific Diagram (researchgate.net)
*Wild Barbary Sheep at one point was domesticated in Libya, but the origins of all breeds used today are from the Middle-East.

Dogs - Europe

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46124-y

Cattle - West Asia, South Asia, and the Sudan
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10963-017-9112-9
The genetic prehistory of domesticated cattle from their origin to the spread across Europe - PMC (nih.gov)
Cattle May Have Been Domesticated in the Central Nile Valley - Archaeology Magazine
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0141170
https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004254

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08112-6.epdf?sharing_token=ykJHoc2we5EeiM2F-k2sttRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O4woVJZQHixNyygLcW_ak0aAzYXffrPCd774q2zEszcZm6TuaoR81A3lS45dM5v5EfSy7mF9b3EVpxO0POoTurBcsDFR-zoqTKVGEVb_hG5pnTwzkvFHeOtXCl79BaofQ%3D

Cats
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4723238/

Water Buffalo - West Asia and South Asia

Pigs - China

Chicken - China

List of Agricultural Crops and their Region of Domestication:
Wheat & Barley - West Asia

Coffee Bean - Ethiopia

Millet - West Africa
The center of diversity, and suggested area of domestication, for this crop is in the Sahel Zone of West Africa. Recent archaeobotanical research has confirmed the presence of domesticated pearl millet on the Sahel zone of northern Mali between 2500 and 2000 BC. While India is the largest producer and exporter, it would arrive in India from across Africa, and potentially via the Red Sea during Indus Valley Trade networks. The second largest producer of Millet are West African nations, where the crop has its origins.
Crops and Culture: Dispersal of African Millets to the Indian Subcontinent and its Cultural Consequences | Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology (nepjol.info)
On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India: a View from the Butana Group of the Far Eastern Sahel | African Archaeological Review (springer.com) 

Sorghum - Sudan or 
West Africa
Earliest Evidence of Domesticated Sorghum Discovered | Sci.News 

Rice - East Asia

Maize - South America

Cassava - South America

Watermelons - Sudan or West Africa
Genome Sequencing of up to 6,000-Year-Old Citrullus Seeds Reveals Use of a Bitter-Fleshed Species Prior to Watermelon Domestication - PMC (nih.gov)

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2204095-dna-from-mummys-tomb-reveals-ancient-egyptian-origins-of-watermelon/


-Yam -Sorghum -Pearl and Finger Millet -Coffee -Cowpea beans -Oil Palm -Watermelon

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