European Hunter-gatherers may have owned pigs as early as 4600 BC, and may have gotten them from nearby farmers.
Researchers found evidence that early farming communities may have shared knowledge and animals (such as pigs) with their hunter-gatherer neighbors, a University of Durham press release reported.
A complicated spreading of animals that took place between 6000 and 4000 BC have helped researchers find clues to the history of personal livestock and pets.
"Mesolithic hunter-gatherers definitely had dogs, but they did not practice agriculture and did not have pigs, sheep, goats, or cows, all of which were introduced to Europe with incoming farmers about 6000BC. Having people who practiced a very different survival strategy nearby must have been odd, and we know now that the hunter-gathers possessed some of the farmers' domesticated pigs," Lead author, Dr Ben Krause-Kyora, from Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, said.
Previous evidence of hunter-gatherers owning animals has been "circumstantial," according to researchers.
Researchers disagree over the extent of contact between Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers.
The team broke ground on the debate by analyzing DNA from the bones and teeth of 63 pigs from the ancient days of Northern Germany. They found the pigs had come in a variety of colors and patterns, which could have attracted the ancient people to them.
"Humans love novelty, and though hunter-gatherers exploited wild boar, it would have been hard not to be fascinated by the strange-looking spotted pigs owned by farmers living nearby. It should come as no surprise that the hunter-gatherers acquired some eventually, but this study shows that of the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, said.
It is still unknown whether the curious hunter-gatherers received the pigs by trading with the more-advanced farmers, or if they chased down and captured animals that had escaped from their previous captors.
