Chickens and eggs are among the most common foods on modern Korean tables. Understanding their history can enrich our understanding of Korean food culture, agriculture, and animal domestication. It has been widely assumed that chickens dispersed from China to Japan through Korea; however, the role of the Korean Peninsula has remained largely unknown.
Now, a team of researchers led by Kyungcheol Choy, a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Hanyang University ERICA, has addressed this knowledge gap. Their findings were made available online on December 27, 2025, and published in Volume 69 of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports on February 1, 2026.
This work marks the first biomolecular study to identify ancient chickens on the Korean Peninsula using the Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) technique.
Prof. Choy remarks: "In our study, we confirmed not only the presence of chickens but also their management during the Proto-Three Kingdoms period, roughly 2,000 years ago. Furthermore, we applied the stable isotope analysis to bone collagen and confirmed that ancient chickens were managed in Korea during this era."
In this way, the most important contribution of this work is the first application of ZooMS to avian remains in Korean archaeology, which opens several practical applications.
First, it improves species identification in archaeological fieldwork. Bird bones recovered from Korean sites are often heavily fragmented, making it challenging to distinguish domestic chickens from wild pheasants using traditional morphological methods alone. ZooMS can identify a species from as little as 2 mg of bone by analyzing collagen peptides and amino acid sequences.
Second, the combined use of ZooMS, radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope analysis provides a powerful multi-proxy approach. In this study, elevated nitrogen isotope values in chickens revealed that they were being fed and managed by humans. The same approach can be applied to other domestic animals such as pigs, cattle, dogs, and horses, to help understand the development of livestock husbandry.
Third, identifying the historical origins of chickens contributes to discussions about livestock diversity and the conservation of indigenous breeds, and the long-term relationship between agriculture and animal domestication. This provides significant insights for modern food systems and biodiversity research.
"The significance of this study goes well beyond a single archaeological site. It lays the methodological groundwork for rewriting the history of human-animal relationships in East Asia," highlights Prof. Choy.
By extending the proposed approach to other Korean sites over the next 5 to 10 years, researchers will be able to reconstruct when and through which routes domestic chickens entered the peninsula and were transmitted to Japan. Moreover, this research offers a science-based answer to questions about the presence and history of chickens in Korea. These findings can be utilized in museum exhibitions and educational programs.
Ultimately, the present study marks a starting point for establishing biomolecular archaeology within Korean zooarchaeology. The same methodological framework can be applied not only to other domesticated animals, but also to questions about ancient human diet, migration, disease, and even environmental change. In that sense, what begins as a study of a few chicken bones from a single site has the potential to transform the investigation of the human past in this region.
Reference
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105561
About Hanyang University ERICA
Hanyang University ERICA (Education Research Industry Cluster at Ansan) is a prominent research-focused campus established in 1979 in Ansan, South Korea. ERICA offers undergraduate and graduate programs. ERICA is renowned for its active industry-university cooperation, offering students hands-on experience through partnerships with various industries. This ensures that graduates are well-prepared to meet societal needs and excel in their respective fields. With state-of-the-art facilities and a supportive learning environment, Hanyang University ERICA empowers students to pursue their passions and contribute meaningfully to society, staying true to the university's founding philosophy of "Love in Deed and Truth."
Website: https://www.hanyang.ac.kr/web/eng/erica-campus1
About the author
Prof. Kyungcheol Choy is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Hanyang University ERICA. His research group focuses on reconstructing past human diets, subsistence strategies, and human–environment interactions through biomolecular and geochemical approaches, such as stable isotope analysis, bone chemistry, and paleoproteomics. The group applies these methods to a diverse range of archaeological questions, from prehistoric agriculture and animal domestication on the Korean Peninsula to long-term human adaptation in Arctic and subarctic environments. Their recent work integrates ZooMS (collagen peptide mass fingerprinting), radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope analysis to investigate the introduction and management of domestic animals in ancient Korea.
