Tao and his colleagues published an article on a very rare 17th-century late Ming Dynasty chicken coop discovered during an archaeological excavation in Zhengzhou, China. Its structure is consistent with historical records, providing empirical evidence for the study of chicken raising techniques and urban life.
The earliest evidence of human utilization and domestication of chickens dates back to the early Neolithic period, but very few chicken-raising structures have been found to survive in archaeological records, due to the specific nature of their physical structure. In 2023, during a salvage archaeological excavation in Zhengzhou, China in which Tao participated, a chicken coop dating to the late Ming Dynasty (c. early 17th century) was discovered. The square-shaped structure had six niche-like openings in the west wall, with some eggshell fragments found inside them, reflecting the construction and use of poultry houses in the late Ming. The structure of this coop also closely matches descriptions of chicken coops in the mid-Qing Dynasty (c. 1787) treatise on chicken raising, "Ji Pu" (鸡谱, Manual of Chicken Raising). This discovery provides empirical evidence for the study of poultry farming techniques, daily life in residential areas, and the continuity of urban history. Tao and his collaborators recently published a report and preliminary research on this chicken coop in Popular Archaeology (dà zhòng kǎo gǔ, 大众考古), a Chinese journal aimed at both academic and general audiences.
Read Yuqing Tao's graduate student profile: https://www.haa.pitt.edu/people/yuqing-tao