Retrospective isotope analysis of ancient remains to distinguish between tamed and wild animals
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5255553 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jun Matsubayashi (0000-0003-1548-9462, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), T Tsutaya (0000-0001-5104-5223, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology), Takao Sato (0000-0002-5424-0873, Keio University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1866-9557 • E-ISSN: 1866-9565 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12520-024-02042-0 |
| OpenAlex | W4401225018 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 53 |
The origin and process of the domestication of wild animals have long fascinated scientists. However, there are no reliable methods to distinguish between tamed and wild animals. Here, we present a new method to identify tamed and wild juvenile brown bears (Ursus arctos) using retrospective isotope analysis of the femur. We used femurs from the nine bear cubs and the tibia from one domesticated dog excavated from the Nijibetsu Shuwan Kumaokuriba site, Hokkaido Islands, Japan (late 19th century-1939 AD). These bears were potentially tamed by indigenous Ainu people, and the domesticated dog was used as a reference of a tamed animal. We subdivided these bones into 10 sections along the growing axis, extracted collagen and measured the stable nitrogen isotope ratios (δ15N). The bone sections of the domesticated dog had constant δ15N values that were as high as that of salmon, suggesting that tamed animals exclusively consumed a marine diet fed to them by the Ainu. Notably, two of nine brown bear cubs showed a temporal elevation of δ15N to the similar isotope ratios of the dog tibia, which is unlikely to occur in the wild condition, strongly suggesting that they were tamed and fed by the Ainu people
Archaeology · Biology · Domestication · Geography · Isotope analysis · Juvenile · Ursus · Zoology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Ecology
Animals and their Relation to Gods, Humans and Things in the Ancient World
On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life
Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication
Evidence for domestication of the dog 12,000 years ago in the Natufian of Israel
Rethinking dog domestication by integrating genetics, archeology, and biogeography
Stable Nitrogen Isotope Ratios of Bone Collagen Reflect Marine and Terrestrial Components of Prehistoric Human Diet
Early Taming of the Cat in Cyprus
Oxygen isotopes in bioarchaeology
Reconstruction of African human diet using bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios
Diet, physiology and ecology of fossil mammals as inferred from stable carbon and nitrogen isotope biogeochemistry
Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction
Nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition of bone collagen from marine and terrestrial animals
Ontogeny/growth of (sub)modern brown bear (Ursus arctos) skeleton
Reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices using stable isotope and trace element analyses
Evidence for early cat taming in Egypt
Collagen turnover and isotopic records in cortical bone
Immigration and the Ancient City of Teotihuacan in Mexico
Detection of breastfeeding and weaning in modern human infants with carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios
A simple carbon isotope model for reconstructing prehistoric human diet
Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid‐shaft
Carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human and dog diet in the Okhotsk culture
Stable Isotope Record of Human and Sheep Enamel Carbonate from the Ancient Middle Euphrates Valley (Syria)
Bear Ceremonialism in the Northern Hemisphere
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |