Domestication Table of Plants and Animals

Animal domestication is what scholars call the process of developing the mutually useful
relationship between animals and humans. Over the past 12,000 years, humans have
learned to control their access to food and other necessities of life by changing the
behaviors and natures of wild animals. All of the animals that we use today, such as dogs,
cats, cattle, sheep, camels, geese, horses, and pigs, started out as wild animals but were
changed over the centuries and millennia into tamer, quieter animals.
Some of the ways people benefit from a domesticated animal include keeping cattle in
pens for access to milk and meat and for pulling plows; training dogs to be guardians and
companions; teaching horses to adapt to the plow or take a rider; and changing the lean,
nasty wild boar into a fat, friendly farm animal.
Different animals were domesticated in different parts of the world at different times. The
following table describes when and where different animals were turned from wild beasts
to be hunted or avoided, into animals we could live with and rely on. The table
summarizes the current understandings of the earliest likely domestication date for each
of the animal species, and a very rounded figure for when that might have happened.
Domestication Table
Animal
Dog
Sheep
Cat
Goats
Pigs
Cattle
Chicken
Guinea pig
Taurine Cattle
Zebu
Llama and Alpaca
Donkey
Horse
Silkworm
Bactrian camel
Honey Bee
Dromedary camel
Banteng

Where Domesticated
undetermined
Western Asia
Fertile Crescent
Western Asia
Western Asia
Eastern Sahara
Asia
Andes Mountains
Western Asia
Indus Valley
Andes Mountains
Northeast Africa
Kazakhstan
China
China or Mongolia
Near East or Western Asia
Saudi Arabia
Thailand

Date
~14-30,000 BC?
8500 BC
8500 BC
8000 BC
7000 BC
7000 BC
6000 BC
5000 BC
6000 BC
5000 BC
4500 BC
4000 BC
3600 BC
3500 BC
3500 BC
3000 BC
3000 BC
3000 BC

Yak
Water buffalo
Duck
Goose
Mongoose?
Reindeer
Stingless bee
Turkey
Muscovy duck
Scarlet Macaw(?)
Ostrich

Tibet
Pakistan
Western Asia
Germany
Egypt
Siberia
Mexico
Mexico
South America
Central America
South Africa

3000 BC
2500 BC
2500 BC
1500 BC
1500 BC
1000 BC
300 BC-200 AD
100 BC-AD 100
AD 100
before AD 1000
AD 1866

Plant Domestication - Table of Dates and

Places
Table of Dates and Places
The domestication of plants is one of the first steps in moving towards a full-fledged
agricultural economy, although the process is by no means a one-directional movement.
A plant is said to be domesticated when its native characteristics are altered such that it
cannot grow and reproduce without human intervention. Domestication is thought to be
the result of the development of a symbiotic relationship between the plants and humans,
called co-evolution, because plants and human behaviors evolve to suit one another.
In the simplest form of co-evolution, a human harvests a given plant selectively, based on
the preferred characteristics, such as the largest fruits, and uses the seeds from the largest
fruits to plant the next year.
The following table is compiled from a variety of sources, and detailed descriptions of
the domesticates will be added to as I get to them. Thanks again to Ron Hicks at Ball
State University for his suggestions and information.
See the Animal Domestication table for the latest on animals.
Plant
Fig trees
Emmer wheat

Where Domesticated Date

Near East
9000 BC
Near East
9000 BC

Foxtail Millet
Flax
Peas
Einkorn wheat
Barley
Chickpea
Bottle gourd
Bottle gourd
Rice
Potatoes
Beans
Squash (Cucurbita pepo)
Maize
Water Chestnut
Perilla
Burdock
Broomcorn millet
Bread wheat
Manioc/Cassava
Chenopodium
Date Palm
Avocado
Grapevine
Cotton
Bananas
Beans
Opium Poppy
Chili peppers
Amaranth
Watermelon
Olives
Cotton
Pomegranate
Hemp
Cotton
Azuki Bean
Coca
Sago Palm
Squash (Cucurbita pepo ovifera )
Sunflower
Rice
Sweet Potato

East Asia
Near East
Near East
Near East
Near East
Anatolia
Asia
Central America
Asia
Andes Mountains
South America
Central America
Central America
Asia
Asia
Asia
East Asia
Near East
South America
South America
Southwest Asia
Central America
Southwest Asia
Southwest Asia
Island Southeast Asia
Central America
Europe
South America
Central America
Near East
Near East
Peru
Iran
East Asia
Mesoamerica
East Asia
South America
Southeast Asia
North America
Central America
India
Peru

9000 BC
9000 BC
9000 BC
8500 BC
8500 BC
8500 BC
8000 BC
8000 BC
8000 BC
8000 BC
8000 BC
8000 BC
7000 BC
7000 BC
7000 BC
7000 BC
6000 BC
6000 BC
6000 BC
5500 BC
5000 BC
5000 BC
5000 BC
5000 BC
5000 BC
5000 BC
5000 BC
4000 BC
4000 BC
4000 BC
4000 BC
4000 BC
3500 BC
3500 BC
3000 BC
3000 BC
3000 BC
3000 BC
3000 BC
2600 BC
2500 BC
2500 BC

Pearl millet
Marsh elder (Iva annua)
Sorghum
Sunflower
Bottle gourd
Saffron
Chenopodium
Chenopodium
Chocolate
Coconut
Rice
Tobacco
Eggplant
Vanilla

Africa
North America
Africa
North America
Africa
Mediterranean
China
North America
Mexico
Southeast Asia
Africa
South America
Asia
Central America

2500 BC
2400 BC
2000 BC
2000 BC
2000 BC
1900 BC
1900 BC
1800 BC
1600 BC
1500 BC
1500 BC
1000 BC
1st century BC
14th century AD