'Turkeys were domesticated for worship, not just for eating'

Turkeys were not only prized for their meat but also for their cultural significance in rituals and sacrifices, according to a study which uncovered the origins of the earliest domestic turkeys in ancient Mexico.
Researchers, including those from the University of York in the UK and the Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico, studied the remains of 55 turkeys which lived between 300 BC and 1500 AD.
The birds had been discovered in Mesoamerica - an area stretching from central Mexico to Northern Costa Rica within which pre-Columbian societies such as the Mayans and Aztecs flourished.
Analysing the ancient DNA of the birds, the researchers were able to confirm that modern European turkeys descended from Mexican ancestors.

The researchers also measured the carbon isotope ratios in the turkey bones to reconstruct their diets.
They found that the turkeys were gobbling crops cultivated by humans such as corn in increasing amounts, particularly in the centuries leading up to Spanish exploration, implying more intensive farming of the birds.

Interestingly, the gradual intensification of turkey farming does not directly correlate to an increase in human population size, a link you would expect to see if turkeys were reared simply as a source of nutrition.
"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," said Marie Sklodowska from the University of York.

"This fits with what we know about the iconography of the period, where we see turkeys depicted as gods and appearing as symbols in the calendar," said Sklodowska, lead author of the paper published in the journal Royal Society Open.
The archaeological evidence suggests that meat from deer and rabbit was a more popular meal choice for people in pre- Columbian societies; turkeys are likely to have also been kept for their increasingly important symbolic and cultural role.
The fact that some of the turkey bones were uncovered outside of the natural range of the species also suggests that there was a thriving turkey trade in live birds along Mesoamerica's expanding trade routes.

"Even though humans in this part of the word had been practicing agriculture for around 10,000 years, the turkey was the first animal, other than the dog, people in Mesoamerica started to take under their control," said Camilla Speller from the University of York.
"Turkeys would have made a good choice for domestication as there were not many other animals of suitable temperament available and turkeys would have been drawn to human settlements searching for scraps," said Speller.