Because humans seem to have had omnivorous ancestors, birds were probably a significant item in the human diet well before historic time. Many kinds of birds can be caught readily, and young adults are generally considered to be superior fare (Cott 1946). Additionally, the eggs of many kinds of birds are highly prized (Cott 1954). In the case of pigeons, the rock pigeon (Columba livia) is known to have frequented regions inhabited by our ancestors more than 300,000 years ago (Tchernov 1968).

At present, the domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus) and their eggs are extremely important in diets across the globe. Indeed, the husbandry of chickens is economically unequaled by that of any other bird. But the economic and dietary importance of domestic fowl is a relatively recent development and in large part reflects changes brought about by twentieth-century biology.

The domestic fowl, derived from Asian species of the genus Gallus, was introduced to the West and became known to people of the Mediterranean Near East only a little more than 2,500 years ago (Wood-Gush 1985).This was perhaps 3,000 years after rock pigeons were domesticated in southwestern Asia (Sossinka 1982) and long after they had become important in human diets. However, because pigeons also figured in early religions of the eastern Mediterranean region, the fact that they were domesticated birds does not explicitly address their use as food. Thus, the dual role pigeons have played in human affairs needs to be distinguished whenever possible.