Innovating Methodologies through Tracing the Origin of Animal Domestication

Through the process of domestication, humans intensified their use of animal populations and fundamentally altered their respective interactions with the environment. Studying faunal domestication through the archaeological record thus provides critical insights into past subsistence systems and human-environment relationships. Through expanded domestication research, archaeologists are better positioned to develop more sophisticated models comparing the process of animal management and domestication across regions. This research contributes to advancing research and refining methodological approaches in many fields including evolutionary biology, animal science, and archaeology. The biotechnological and analytical techniques used in the project, including genetic, isotopic, and morphometric analyses, are continually developed and refined in archaeological research. Finally, the project provides opportunities for hands-on laboratory training in archaeological chemistry for student researchers, and the research results are presented widely to reach both academic and public audiences. The researchers analyze archaeological faunal remains from an area located between the two currently recognized origin centers of ancient domestication. Through combined genetic, isotopic, and morphometric analyses, the investigators reconstruct past husbandry practices, and determine whether the region’s domestic fauna were adopted from other regions, or whether they represent a novel domestic lineage derived from local wild animal populations. The proposed work thus contributes to a more holistic understanding of faunal domestication and diffusion, and to more detailed reconstructions of trade, economy, and both ritual and subsistence use throughout ancient North America. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.