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The subject of domestication is very interesting to study because it informs researchers when and how human ancestors switched from being nomadic hunters to settled town and eventually city dwellers. In a new study looking into the domestication of pigs by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, researchers found that pigs were domesticated around 500 years earlier than previously believed. The new date of pig domestication in Europe is now 4600 BC.

In this study, the researchers performed DNA analyses and used tooth morphology comparison methods on 63 pigs. These pigs were found on the Ertebølle settlement in northern Germany. The people of the Ertebølle culture were known to be hunters because they had domesticated dogs that helped them hunt down game. From these tests, the researchers found that the pigs from Near Eastern and European ancestry were very similar to the pigs found with the Neolithic farmers of Central Europe. The researchers believe that one of the most plausible explanations was that these hunter-gatherers traded for the domesticated pigs.

"It would have been hard [for the hunter-gatherers] not to be fascinated by the strange-looking spotted pigs owned by farmers living nearby," study co-author Greger Larson, an archeologist at Durham University in the UK, said according to the National Geographic.

"It should come as no surprise that the hunter-gatherers acquired some eventually, but this study shows that they did very soon after the domestic pigs arrived in northern Europe."

"This is really the first evidence that we have for the Ertebølle culture having domesticated animals at this early date," said study co-leader Ben Krause-Kyora, a biochemist and archeologist at Germany's Christian-Albrechts University.

The researchers were able to conclude that these pigs were domesticated after they observed that the pigs were smaller in size than the standard boar that lived within this region. Smaller sizes tend to hint at domestication due to the fact that the animals' growth becomes independent on humans. On top of the size factor, the researchers also found variations in the MCIR gene. This gene indicated that the pigs had more varied colored coats, which were spotted. These variations have also been tied to domestication.

The research team is now planning on using next-generation DNA sequencing in order to compare complete genomes of these pigs to modern day breeds. The study was published in Nature Communications.