There is one other way we can look at the timing of the historical record
to infer the ferret was actually domesticated at the time, and resulted
in a lineage of domestication that has stretched to modern times.  If you
drop a pebble in a pond, the ripples move out in a predictable pattern.
Cultural ideas spread similarly, although the simile comparing it to
ripples in a pond is misleading.  The reports of the use of ferrets
follow a predictable pattern of cultural exchange, starting in
southeastern Europe with the early Greeks, to south central Europe
with the Romans, to southwestern Europe (Balearic Islands, Spain), to
northwestern Europe (Britain), and then into central Europe (Germany,
France).  This migration pattern initially follows ancient Phoenician
and Greek trade routes, and then later follows Roman ones.  This is not
a pattern of independent invention, but of trade and commerce.  Because
the pattern of the historic records suggests a continuous migration, you
can infer ownership was also continuous.
 
There is another way to look at the early Greek records, and that is in
the context of other events.  Domestication is always for a purpose, so
it follows the domestication of the ferret must have been to serve a
particular need.  We know the ferret was not domesticated to hunt rabbits
because at the time rabbits were limited to the Iberian Peninsula,
ranging from modern Spain and Portugal towards Morocco.  It wasn't to
hunt rats because they wouldn't be in Europe until around the 1200s.  If
domestication wasn't for ferreting (rabbiting), nor for ratting, the only
other possible uses would have been for food, fur, or mousing.  There are
no known reports of polecats having been used as food, although I am sure
it did happen on occasion; as a domesticated animal, a Greek wouldn't
have eaten a ferret unless it had been sacrificed to the gods.  Fur has
obvious uses (the Homeric reference is to ferret or marten fur), and it
is likely many of the polecat bones that have been recovered are related
to this use.  However, farming polecats is a modern invention and would
have been uneconomical thousands of years ago (it is only economical now
because of the high price of fur coats as luxury items).  That leaves
mousing; could the ferret have been domesticated to protect grain stores
from rodents?
 
Interestingly, the Greek colonies became major agricultural producers
roughly in the period around 600 BC to 500 BC, partially due to the
introduction of crop rotation.  This is a period of time that is at the
end of the Archaic Period of ancient Greek civilization, just before the
Classic Period.  Remember the four Greeks of ferret domestication?  They
were Homer (800 BC), Aesop (600 BC), Aristophanes (425 BC), and Aristotle
(350 BC).  You have a Homeric reference that to me sounds more like they
were talking of the fur of a wild animal.  Aesop seems to be talking
about an animal humans would have experienced or known.  Aristophanes
seems to be talking about a common animal associated with human homes.
And Aristotle is talking either about a ferret or a polecat.  As you move
towards the present, the association seems to be more and more human
centered.  What you have is a period of time when agricultural surpluses
are common, are economically important, and an animal is becoming more
and more associated with people.  It seems to me that people were
breeding a mouser.  If you compare this to the ancient Egyptians, they
already had cats so there was no economic incentive for domestication,
the timing of domestication is off to the agricultural record, and there
are no records that show an association with people at any time.
 
With all this evidence, the bottom line is that ferrets can be reliably
traced back to the Roman era, so they have been --at the minimum--
domesticated for roughly 2000 years.  Because we understand by
implication that an indefinite period of time was needed to drive
domestication of polecats to ferrets, it is a reasonable assumption that
domestication was initiated during the Greek Classical Period or before.
Aesop and Homer references to the ferret are problematic, so the best
current guess would be a domestication time to at least Aristophanes,
about 450 BC.
 
Therefore, it is my opinion ferrets were domesticated about 2400 years
ago, give or take 200 years.
 
Bob C  [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 4732]