Turkeys were first domesticated over 2,000 years ago by Indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica, with a separate domestication event later in what is now the U.S. Southwest. By the early 1500s, Spanish explorers were already taking these domesticated birds from Mexico back to Europe.

Quick Scoop

  • The earliest confirmed domestication of turkeys occurred in central Mesoamerica (areas of present-day Mexico and surrounding regions) more than 2,000 years ago.
  • Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests at least two distinct domestication events: one in Mesoamerica and another among Indigenous cultures in the U.S. Southwest as early as around 200 BCE–500 CE and up to about 900 CE.
  • Native American groups originally kept turkeys mainly for their feathers, bones, and ceremonial significance, with meat becoming more important over time.
  • By about 1519, Spaniards were transporting domesticated Mexican turkeys to Europe, where they quickly became established as a farm bird and later returned with English colonists to North America.

In other words, when people ask “when were turkeys domesticated,” the best short answer is: more than two millennia ago in Mesoamerica, with an additional domestication in the ancient U.S. Southwest several centuries CE.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.