Pigeons were domesticated 3,500 years ago, and the birds we now call pests may have been living beside humans nearly a millennium longer than anyone thought

Today, pigeons are common in city squares and railway stations. However, before pigeons became associated with urban pests, people used them for communication, meat, fertiliser, and religious or cultural practices.

According to a study published in Antiquity and available through Cambridge University Press, pigeons were already living alongside people 3,500 years ago, pushing the earliest evidence of pigeon domestication back by nearly 1,000 years.Bones of ancient pigeons reveal an unexpected storyThe discovery was based on evidence from the Late Bronze Age site of Hala Sultan Tekke in Cyprus, an important trade centre that flourished from about 1650 to 1150 BC. The scientists used zooarchaeological, biometric and stable isotope analyses to examine 159 pigeon bones found at the archaeological site.

This allowed them to extract collagen from the bones and analyse carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, which may reflect an animal’s diet.As also reported by Phys.org, the pigeons’ diet closely matched that of humans in ancient Cyprus. The scientists say this suggests the pigeons fed on human-associated food and were living near settlements, so they may have been domesticated or in the process of domestication around 1400 BCE.

According to the researchers, the earliest archaeological evidence of pigeon domestication before this study came from Hellenistic Greece, dating to around the fourth to third centuries BCE.More than just messengersFor millennia, pigeons had far more uses than what people understand about them today. According to the Antiquity journal, humans valued pigeons as a source of meat and manure, while historical records show they later became indispensable message carriers across large distances.Messenger pigeons began to lose their usefulness after the invention of technologies such as the telegraph and telephone. The rapid growth of cities in the wake of the Industrial Revolution coincided with the proliferation of pigeons as well. Gradually, public perception changed, and birds that were once bred and nurtured began being perceived as pests. Today, anti-roosting devices are a sign of that shift in attitude.

How the scientists found this evidenceUnlike larger domestic animals, ancient pigeons are hard to study because wild and domesticated rock doves have nearly indistinguishable skeletons. Instead of relying only on bone shape, the researchers used several lines of evidence. Isotope studies demonstrated that these birds had diets extremely similar to human diets, which suggests that the two species occupied the same ecological niche. It is believed that the archaeologically found pigeons were kept by humans and could be used for consumption, along with other domestic processes in this settlement.The authors said the findings support the hypothesis that pigeons followed a commensal route to domestication. In other words, the birds were not domesticated immediately after capture; instead, they became accustomed to living near humans because of food scraps and shelter.Alternative interpretation of urban pigeonsDomestic pigeons are descendants of the wild rock dove (Columba livia), which inhabits parts of Europe, North Africa and western Asia. Other scientific research showed that domesticated pigeons are closely related to the wild population of the Middle East, which means that the eastern Mediterranean might be considered the place of domestication of these birds.The results may encourage readers to re-examine their view of these birds. According to lead author Anderson Carter, the pigeons coexisted with people for many years, highlighting a deep connection between the history of these birds and the history of humankind. Thus, contemporary city pigeons are not just annoying pests; they are the carriers of the legacy of one of the oldest relations between people and birds.Due to ongoing archaeological discoveries, the familiar pigeon may begin to receive more attention. As archaeologists continue to uncover evidence from ancient settlements, the familiar pigeon may be gaining something it has long lacked: a new appreciation for its place in human history.