Abstract
AbstractAnalysis of individual animal bodies can provide numerous useful insights in archeology, including how humans provisioned such animals, which in turn informs on a variety of other past behaviors such as human dietary patterns. In this study, we conducted stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analysis of collagen and keratin from four types of tissues from a dog burial at the Ust’-Polui site in the Iamal region of Arctic Russia. Ust’-Polui is an Iron Age site located on the Lower Ob River, a major northern fishery characterized by extreme seasonal shifts in fish presence. During a 6-month period stretching over the coldest months of the year, fish are nearly entirely absent in the Lower Ob River. Despite this, the stable isotope compositions of the dog’s bone and dentine collagen and hair and nail keratin all indicate a monotonous diet focusing on local fish. This pattern indicates the dog was provisioned year-round with fish. This was likely accomplished by mass harvesting of fish using nets or traps. Such fish were then processed and frozen for consumption during the non-fishing season. These findings suggest that people in the Ust’-Polui region also relied to some extent on fish throughout the year. Stored fish likely provided a dietary buffer for uneven returns from reindeer and bird hunting, both of which also are well-evidenced at the site.
Funder
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Archeology,Anthropology,Archeology
Reference67 articles.
1. Adrianov VS (1936) Raskopki u Sale-Kharda v 1935. Sovetskaia Arkheologiia 1:278
2. Ambrose SH (1990) Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. J Archaeol Sci 17(4):431–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(90)90007-R
3. Arnall L (1960) Some aspects of dental development in the dog—I. Calcification of crown and root of the deciduous dentitions. J Small Anim Pract 1:169–173. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5827.1960.tb06078.x
4. Alison J.T. Harris, Deirdre A. Elliott, Eric J. Guiry, Matthew Von Tersch, Lisa Rankin, Peter Whitridge, Michelle Alexander, Gunilla Eriksson, Vaughan Grimes, (2020) Diversity in Labrador Inuit sled dog diets: Insights from δ13C and δ15N analysis of dog bone and dentine collagen. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 32:102424
5. Bachura OP, Kosintsev PA, Gimranov DO, Korona OM, Nekrasov AE, Panteleev AP (2017) Ust’-Polui: khoziaistvennaia deiatel’nost’ naseleniia i prirodnoe okruzhenie. In: Gusev AV, Fedorova NV (eds) Ust’-Polui: materialy i issledovaniia. Arkheologiia Arktiki, vol. 4, Part 1, Deloviaia Pressa, Ekaterinburg, pp 81-99
Cited by
6 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献