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Isotopic Evidence for Garden Hunting and Resource Depression in the Late Woodland of Northeastern North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2020

Eric Guiry*
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Mayor's Walk, Leicester, LE17RH, UK
Trevor J. Orchard
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, Ontario, L5L 1C6, Canada (trevor.orchard@utoronto.ca)
Suzanne Needs-Howarth
Affiliation:
Perca Zooarchaeological Research, Toronto, Canada; The Archaeology Centre, University of Toronto, 19 Ursula Franklin Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2S2, Canada (suzanne.needs.howarth@utoronto.ca)
Paul Szpak
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario, N K9L 0G2, Canada (paulszpak@trentu.ca)
*
(eguiry@lakeheadu.ca, corresponding author)

Abstract

Resource depression and garden hunting are major topics of archaeological interest, with important implications for understanding cultural and environmental change. Garden hunting is difficult to study using traditional zooarchaeological approaches, but isotopic analyses of animals may provide a marker for where and when people exploited nondomesticated animals that fed on agricultural resources. To realize the full potential of isotopic approaches for reconstructing garden hunting practices—and the impacts of agriculture on past nondomesticated animal populations more broadly—a wider range of species, encompassing many “ecological perspectives,” is needed. We use bone-collagen isotopic compositions of animals (n = 643, 23 taxa, 39 sites) associated with the Late Woodland (~AD 900−1650) in what is now southern Ontario to test hypotheses about the extent to which animals used maize, an isotopically distinctive plant central to subsistence practices of Iroquoian-speaking peoples across the region. Results show that although some taxa—particularly those that may have been hard to control—had substantial access to maize, most did not, regardless of the animal resource requirements of local populations. Our findings suggest that this isotopic approach to detecting garden hunting will be more successful when applied to smaller-scale societies.

Le déclin des ressources et la chasse en milieux cultivés sont des sujets d'un grand intérêt archéologique, avec des implications importantes pour la compréhension des changements culturels et environnementaux. La chasse en milieux cultivés est difficile à étudier en utilisant des approches zooarchéologiques traditionnelles, mais les analyses isotopiques des animaux peuvent fournir un marqueur pour savoir où et quand les gens exploitaient des animaux non-domestiqués qui se nourrissaient de produits agricoles. Pour entrevoir le plein potentiel des approches isotopiques pour reconstruire les pratiques de chasse dans les milieux cultivés — et les impacts de l'agriculture sur les populations animales non-domestiquées du passé de manière plus large — un plus large éventail d'espèces, englobant de nombreuses « perspectives écologiques », est nécessaire. Nous utilisons les compositions isotopiques du collagène des ossements d'animaux (n = 643, 23 taxons, 39 sites) associés à la période du Sylvicole supérieur (v. 900−1650 après J.-C.) dans ce qui est maintenant le sud de l'Ontario, afin de tester des hypothèses quant à l'ampleur avec laquelle les animaux ont utilisé le maïs, une plante isotopiquement distincte au cœur des pratiques de subsistance des peuples de langue iroquoienne de la région. Les résultats montrent que bien que certains taxons — en particulier ceux qui peuvent avoir été difficiles à contrôler — avaient un accès substantiel au maïs, la plupart n'en avaient pas, quels que soient les besoins en ressources animales des populations locales. Nos résultats suggèrent que cette approche isotopique de la détection de la chasse dans les milieux cultivés sera plus efficace lorsqu'elle sera appliquée à des sociétés à plus petite échelle.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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