Earliest isotopic evidence in the Maya region for animal management and long-distance trade at the site of Ceibal, Guatemala

Sharpe, Ashley E.; Emery, Kitty F.; Inomata, Takeshi; Triadan, Daniela; Kamenov, George D.; Krigbaum, John

doi:10.1073/pnas.1713880115

Cited by 70 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Distinct, measurable differences exist between many of these places. There are of course other sources of information on strontium baselines in the Maya region that can be consulted (e.g., Gilli, Hodell, Kamenov, & Brenner, ; Hodell, Quinn, Brenner, & Kamenov, ; Sharpe et al, ; Thornton, , ; Miller Wolf and Freiwald, ; Suzuki, Paredes, Price, Burton, & Vides, ).…”

Section: Isotopic Proveniencingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Place of origin of the sacrificial victims in the sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Price

Tiesler

Freiwald

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: The ancient city of Chichén Itzá in the northern Yucatán of Mexico was one of the most important in the Maya area, but its origins and history are poorly understood. A major question concerns the origins of the peoples who founded and later expanded the ancient city. Hundreds of people were ritually executed and their bodies thrown into the waters of the Sacred Cenote at Chichén. Materials and methods: In this study, we use strontium and oxygen isotopes to study the place of origin of a large sample of these individuals. Isotopes are deposited in human tooth enamel. Enamel forms during the first years of life, remains largely unchanged long past death, and can provide a signature of the place of birth. If the isotope ratios in enamel are different from the place of death, the individual must have moved during his/her lifetime. Results: Comparison of our results from the cenote with information on isotope ratios across the Maya region and elsewhere suggests that the individuals in the cenote came from a number of different parts of Mexico and possibly beyond. Discussion: It is not known if all of the sacrificial victims resided in Chichén Itzá, but their suggested origins likely reflect patterns of population movement and social networks that existed between Chichén Itzá and both neighboring and distant regions.

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Section: Isotopic Proveniencingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Place of origin of the sacrificial victims in the sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Price

Tiesler

Freiwald

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…Similar approaches were used to identify the geographical origins of a pre-colonial deposition of faunal remains on Dos Mosquises Island, where no mammalian fauna was natively present, linking the island with the Lake Valencia Basin and suggesting the deposition of faunal remains might be linked to seasonal subsistence activities on the island by mainland communities (Laffoon et al, 2016). Long distance trade at the Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, specifically of non-local dogs, was also established using a similar multi-isotope framework (Sharpe et al, 2018 Oew that underpins the use of these methods in assigning geographical origin. Due to these issues, and the relatively low geographic specificity of any single isotopic system, many of the above studies highlight the benefits of using oxygen isotope analysis alongside other isotope systems, particularly when the region of possible origin cannot be constricted a priori.…”

Section: Animal Origin and Animal Products: Exchange Transport Tradementioning

confidence: 99%

Oxygen isotopes in bioarchaeology: Principles and applications, challenges and opportunities

Pederzani

Britton

2019

Earth-Science Reviews

182

161

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Oxygen isotope analyses of skeletal remains (18 O/ 16 O, δ 18 O) are a powerful tool for exploring major themes in bioarchaeology (the study of biological archaeological remains) and can aid in the reconstruction of past human-environment interactions, socio-cultural decisions and individual life histories. Making use of the preserved animal and human tooth and bone commonly found at archaeological sites, applications include the reconstruction of palaeoclimate and palaeoseasonality; animal husbandry and management practices; human and animal lifetime mobility and provenance; and cultural practices such as breastfeeding, weaning and even past culinary preparation techniques. With a range of other uses across the natural, physical, chemical and biological sciences, oxygen isotope analyses are also highly cross-disciplinary, with developments in the field of isotope bioarchaeology potentially feeding into other fields and vice-versa. The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of the biogeochemical background of oxygen isotope systematics from the water cycle to human and animal skeletal tissues for archaeologists and other scientists, and to explore how these have been utilised in terrestrial bioarchaeological research. In this way, we aim to provide an overview resource for stable isotope analysts in archaeology and the wider earth science community, as well as for archaeological practitioners and consumers interested in specific applications. By providing a summary of fundamental isotope mechanics alongside a review of recent developments in the field, we hope to highlight the potential of oxygen isotope bioarchaeology to not only reveal environmental and ecological aspects of the past relevant to human groups using archaeological materials, but also to illuminate past human decisions and behaviours. Current limitations and caveats of the approaches used are also explored.

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“…Traditionally, zooarchaeological documentation of animal domestication has focused on the markers of genetic change in response to human involvement in the breeding process (see discussion ; commonly-cited evidence of this process includes morphological markers (such as change in size), non-morphological indicators of management (such as demographic profiles), zoogeographic data (particularly on abundance), and other indicators of human control (such as pens). Such data are increasingly used in association with archaeogenetic data (Bradley 2006), which has led to sophisticated, multi-method investigations of domestication (e.g., Hu et al 2014;Patel and Meadows 2017;Prendergast et al 2017;Sharpe et al 2018;Thornton et al 2012;individual chapters in Zeder et al 2006). However, different societies define "domestic" differently (e.g., Lins Neto et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Makes a Dog? Stable Isotope Analysis and Human-canid Relationships at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo

Monagle¹,

Conrad²,

Jones

2018

Open Quaternary

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Domesticated animals in the prehispanic American Southwest/Mexican Northwest functioned in many roles, but these roles seem to have varied across time and space. In this study, we use bone collagen and apatite carbon (d 13 C col/ap ) and nitrogen (d 15 N) stable isotopes to investigate the role(s) of seven canids from Arroyo Hondo Pueblo (LA 12), a 14 th century site in the northern Rio Grande, New Mexico. Results indicate that in some cases, coyotes seem to have been treated like dogs; in others, dogs seem to have been treated like their wild relatives. In all cases, canids were treated differently than domestic turkeys. We conclude that ethnographic, genetic, geochemical and site-specific contextual data are required to understand the roles of dogs and wild canids in Ancestral Puebloan contexts.Social Media: New isotopic data, combined with previously published provenience and aDNA information, suggest different classifications of canids by Ancestral Puebloans at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo.

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Earliest isotopic evidence in the Maya region for animal management and long-distance trade at the site of Ceibal, Guatemala

Cited by 70 publications

References 44 publications

Place of origin of the sacrificial victims in the sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Place of origin of the sacrificial victims in the sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Oxygen isotopes in bioarchaeology: Principles and applications, challenges and opportunities

What Makes a Dog? Stable Isotope Analysis and Human-canid Relationships at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo

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