8,000-year-old teeth provide evidence that pigs were domesticated by eating human food and waste

What is it about?

At two 8,000-year-old sites in the Lower Yangtze, scientists analyzed hardened plaque on ancient pig teeth to uncover what these animals ate. The results were surprising: the pigs had been eating cooked starchy foods and human parasite eggs—clear signs they were living closely with people. These clues, preserved in dental calculus, suggest that even pigs that still looked wild were scavenging around early farming settlements. Some may have been fed by humans, while others rooted through waste. This intimate relationship marks the beginnings of pig domestication, showing that domestication wasn’t just about taming animals—it also involved shared environments, shared food, and possibly shared germs.

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Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash

Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study shows that domestication began through daily contact—sharing food, space, and even waste. By revealing that early pigs ate cooked foods and human feces, the research highlights how animals adapted to human settlements long before they looked “domestic.” It also sheds light on how close living with animals may have contributed to the early spread of parasites and diseases—a topic still relevant today.