Archaeologists recently found clues related to the history of geese domestication at the Tianluoshan Relics Site in Yuyao, Zhejiang province.

According to the findings, geese domestication was practiced as early as 7,000 years ago.

The findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific journals. The authors of the paper include several Japanese scholars, Jiang Leping and Sun Guoping from the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, as well as Yang Guomei from Xiao Shan Museum in Zhejiang.

The discovery means that Yuyao likely has the longest history of geese domestication in the world.

The paper also suggests that the goose is the oldest domesticated poultry species in history.

The Tianluoshan Relics Site is a Hemudu Culture site which was first discovered in 2001. It contains the remains of a Neolithic rice cultivation village.