The Origins Of Domestic Turkeys Can Be Traced Back To Mayan And Aztec Cultures

The oldest evidence of domestic turkeys in ancient Mexico has been studied by an international team of researchers from the University of York, the Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico, Washington State University, and Simon Fraser University.

"Turkey bones are rarely found in domestic refuse in Mesoamerica, and most of the turkeys we studied had not been eaten – some were found buried in temples and human graves, perhaps as companions for the afterlife," Dr Aurélie Manin, Marie Skodowska-Curie Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said. This corresponds to what we know about the iconography of the time, in which turkeys are represented as gods and occur as calendar symbols in Aztec

"Archaeological evidence reveals that in pre-Columbian communities, meat from deer and rabbit was a more common meal choice; turkeys are also thought to have been preserved for their increasingly important symbolic and cultural significance."

"Even though humans in this region of the world had been practicing agriculture for roughly 10,000 years, the turkey was the first animal, other than the dog, that people in Mesoamerica started to take under their control," said Dr. Camilla Speller of the University of York.

"Turkeys would have been an excellent choice for domestication because there were few other animals of proper temperament available, and turkeys would have been lured to human settlements in search of scraps."

The researchers studied the remains of a cousin of the common turkey, the brilliantly plumed Ocellated turkey. In an unexpected surprise, the researchers discovered that the diets of these more ornamental birds were mostly made up of wild plants and insects, implying that they were never domesticated and were left to roam freely.

To recreate the diets of the turkeys, the researchers examined the carbon isotope ratios in their bones. They discovered that turkeys were eating more crops developed by humans, such as corn, in the centuries leading up to Spanish exploration, meaning that the birds were being farmed more intensively.

Surprisingly, the gradual intensification of turkey farming does not appear to be linked to an increase in human population size, as one might expect if turkeys were raised just for food.

The researchers were also able to confirm that modern European turkeys have Mexican origins by analyzing the DNA of the birds.

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