Greece1650–1050 BC · Hala Sultan Tekke, Larnaca District, Cyprus
Pigeons in a Bronze Age harbour city on Cyprus may have been semi-domesticated
A new study of rock dove bones from Hala Sultan Tekke, near Larnaca, suggests the birds lived close to people in the Late Bronze Age and may have had a ritual role.
In brief 3 key points
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- Researchers re-examined bones of at least 55 rock doves from Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus.
- Bone measurements and isotope analysis suggest the pigeons may have been semi-domesticated.
- The authors think the birds may also have had a symbolic or ritual role.
Pigeons living in a Late Bronze Age harbour city on Cyprus may have been semi-domesticated, according to a new study of their bones. The birds come from Hala Sultan Tekke, near modern Larnaca. The authors date the Late Bronze Age to 1650–1050 BC. They also think the pigeons may have had a symbolic or ritual role.
The study is published in the journal Antiquity. The bones were identified with the reference collection of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology in the Netherlands. The authors argue that their results challenge the common view of pigeons as mere urban dwellers.
A trading city on a lost bay
Hala Sultan Tekke lies on the south-eastern coast of Cyprus, at the edge of the Larnaca Salt Lake. Today the lake is enclosed. In the Late Bronze Age it was an open, semi-protected bay, and the city prospered on trade across the Mediterranean.
By around 1200–1150 BC the city had been destroyed twice. The bay had also silted up, cutting it off from the sea. The city was quickly abandoned, at the time of the 'Crisis Years' that hit many Mediterranean societies.
Excavations at the site produced a large collection of bird bones. Most come from ducks and other waterfowl, which fits a wetland on an important migratory route. Rock doves (Columba livia), the species of the common pigeon, come second. Only two other Late Bronze Age sites in the region have a similarly high share: Athienou, also on Cyprus, and Tell Qatna in Syria.
When the bones were first studied, a 1983 report by Jonsson suggested the pigeons were domestic. That idea rested on the many fledgling bones and on the birds' connection with the cult of Aphrodite. Cyprus was later identified as the goddess's birthplace, and she was fond of pigeons.
The wider history of pigeon domestication is poorly known. Bones from caves in Gibraltar suggest Neanderthals and modern humans used the birds as far back as 67,000 years ago. Clear evidence of domestication appears only in the first millennium BC, when people built stone structures for nesting pigeons. Bird images from Iraq may hint at an earlier start, around 4,500 years ago.
The earliest bones so far identified as domestic come from Hellenistic Nea Helos in Greece, dated to the 4th–1st centuries BC. Genetic studies show modern domestic pigeons are most closely related to wild pigeons of the Middle East. On Cyprus, pigeon and dove figurines became common from the Middle Bronze Age, 1950–1650 BC.
Looking beyond bone size
Proving domestication from bones is hard. Wild and domestic pigeons have almost identical skeletons. Pigeons vary in shape and size more than any other bird, depending on their surroundings and how people keep them. Wild and tame birds also interbreed often.
So the team studied diet, environment and context as well as size. They examined 183 bones from the pigeon and dove family. Of these, 159 were rock dove, 22 could not be identified to species and two were Eurasian collared dove. The rock dove bones came from at least 55 birds.
About 72% of the identifiable rock dove bones were from wings and 27% from legs. Fragile bones from the body and skull could not be confidently identified as pigeon. The material was too fragmented and eroded. The researchers also recorded age at death and looked for cut marks, burning and gnawing.
They measured 154 long bones with a dial calliper. All fell within the size range of rock doves, which rules out wood pigeons and smaller doves. Complete wing and thigh bones were compared with finds from other ancient sites in the region. They were also compared with wild, feral and domestic pigeons from Western Europe in the Natural History Museum London.
The team also carried out stable isotope analysis on 37 pigeons. This method measures forms of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen, which reflect what an animal ate and how it lived. Samples were prepared in Groningen and analysed at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.
Taken together, the authors argue, the results point to a close relationship between the pigeons and the city's people. They state both main conclusions with care. The birds may have been semi-domesticated, and they may have had a symbolic or ritual role.
No isotope data had previously been published for Hala Sultan Tekke. The team therefore compared the pigeon values with isotope datasets from other Bronze Age sites on Cyprus.
Sources (2)
Peer-reviewed paperfrom Groningen Institute of Archaeology and Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
- Uncovering the lives of rock doves (Columba livia) in Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus | Antiquity | Cambridge Core (Bluesky buzz)
- >Uncovering the lives of rock doves (Columba livia)... (Antiquity)
Paper: Uncovering the lives of rock doves (Columba livia) in Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus. Antiquity 100(412), 2026. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10351
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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