Rat (Rattus spp.) bone collagen stable isotope values are often assumed to reflect an average of food stuffs that were available to archaeological populations. This paper considers the feasibility of using stable isotope evidence from rat remains as a source of proxy information for human food-related social, economic, and sensorial behaviors. First, a literature review of archaeological and modern ecological rat isotope work reveals that, while rat dietary signatures are often a reasonable proxy for human food waste, they will not always record an unbiased average of foods which are available in a given environment. Second, an overview of ethological, biological, and environmental factors that can influence rat diets is given from the perspective of archaeological bone chemistry, to help identify factors that require explicit and critical consideration when rat stable isotope data is taken as a proxy for human food-related behaviors. Finally, rat stable isotope values are considered to provide new evidence about the social and economic responses of an important historical English fishing community at Ferryland (CgAf-02) to conflict and political turmoil at the turn of the eighteenth century. These results also highlight how information on rat diets can provide a counterpoint to other common faunal isotope approaches that focus on dogs and pigs as a proxy for human dietary behaviors.

No abstract

A pesquisa arqueológica na província mais oriental do Canadá se beneficiou de uma longa e expansível história de parcerias com as comunidades. Tal deve-se, em parte, ao mandato excepcional da Memorial University, assim como ao engajamento forte do departamento de arqueologia em trabalhar com indivíduos e organizações locais durante escavações. A partir de três casos de estudos da província de Terra Nova e Labrador, este artigo revela as motivações, as experiências, os desafios, como os resultados que podem surgir das parcerias comunidade-universidade, e atesta do potencial da arqueologia em contribuir localmente de forma vantajosamente.

His research interests include the early North Atlantic fisheries, material culture, and vernacular studies.

Memorial University, located in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, was created in 1925 to help build a better future for the people of Canada’s easternmost province, whose largely rural fishing communities were rapidly transforming through industrialization and urbanization. Mandated by a “special obligation to the people of the province,” university archaeologists embraced applied, community-based projects which encouraged local solutions to the social and economic issues arising from the transformation to modernity. Today, community archaeology remains integral to our research program and the majority of our research is undertaken in partnership with rural and Indigenous populations who continue to be marginalized both geographically and economically. Two case studies describe how archaeological resources are being used to promote economic and social justice, as well as reconciliation, and how archaeology has the potential to make valuable local contributions that change lives in the present.