Sourcing Elephant Ivory from a Sixteenth-Century Portuguese Shipwreck

Flamingh, Alida de; Coutu, Ashley N.; Sealy, Judith; Chirikure, Shadreck; Bastos, Armanda D.S.; Libanda-Mubusisi, Nzila M.; Malhi, Ripan S.; Roca, Alfred L.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.086

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Therefore, in China and India, where indigenous ivory was available and exploited, there was constant demand for imported African elephant tusks during the Middle Ages (Guérin, 2010(Guérin, , 2013. The related export to China and India continued beyond the medieval period, as illustrated by the shipwreck of the Bom Jesus, lost in 1533, while sailing on the India route with more than 100 African forest elephant tusks from West Africa aboard (de Flamingh et al, 2021). African ivory was exported not only to Asia but also around the Mediterranean basin and farther north in Europe.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Combined analyses of isotopes and peptides have also proved successful, on 7th–10th‐century AD elephant ivory from KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa (Coutu, Whitelaw, et al, 2016). More recently, broad genomic data collected from a post‐medieval unmodified ivory tooth found in Portugal, as well as from the raw ivory of the Portuguese Bom Jesus shipwreck, provided evidence for historical ivory trade between West Africa and Portugal (de Flamingh et al, 2021; Psonis et al, 2020). However, aDNA analysis is seldom applied to archeological artifacts to track raw material sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracking the origin of worked elephant ivory of a medieval chess piece from Belgium through analysis of ancient DNA

Goffette

Gonzalez

Vanmechelen

et al. 2021

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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The morphological identification of raw biological material used to produce archeological artifacts is sometimes difficult or even impossible. In recent years, newly developed biochemical techniques have allowed more reliable identification of exploited animal species, even for otherwise taxonomically undiagnostic fragments, and thus can help pinpoint the geographical origin of the raw material.However, in addition to being costly, these techniques involve destructive sampling. This explains why they are rarely applied to archeological artifacts, especially those made of precious, imported raw material or those representing intact works of art. Here, we analyzed the ancient DNA (aDNA) of a medieval chess piece made of ivory of unknown origin, recovered from a medieval settlement in Jambes (Namur), Belgium. This chess piece was broken during excavation. We took this unfortunate event as an opportunity to perform aDNA extraction, to try to answer three questions: (1) What Proboscidean species does the ivory come from?; (2) Can we establish the geographic origin of the ivory more precisely?; and (3) Does doing so help our understanding of (part of) the trade route followed by the ivory? We sequenced two short fragments of the mitochondrial genome and compared them with publicly available DNA data. This enabled the identification of the raw material as an African elephant (genus Loxodonta). Although the results cannot exclude that the ivory comes from a forest elephant, the recovered DNA sequence is currently found only among savanna elephant DNA records. The ivory likely originates from an eastern or southern African country and was therefore probably transported along the African trade route passing through the Swahili Corridor. However, the precise itinerary followed by this ivory from the African shore of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and then to the archeological site from which it was recovered, remains unknown. Such identification contributes to documenting past trade networks and long-distance exchange.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking the origin of worked elephant ivory of a medieval chess piece from Belgium through analysis of ancient DNA

Goffette

Gonzalez

Vanmechelen

et al. 2021

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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“…However, this and all previous studies on forest elephant diet have used morphological analysis, and not dDNA metabarcoding, which is more sensitive to the detection of different plant species and genotypes (Bush et al, 2019;Elbrecht et al, 2017;Meyer et al, 2020). Interestingly, a recent study found a higher C 4 isotopic signature indicative of more grasses and shrubs in West African forest elephant ivory from the 1600s, grouping closer with the isotopic signature of savanna elephant diets (de Flamingh et al, 2021). Thus, the presence of grass may have been missed in their diet to a degree that there are regional variations in their diet selection and/or their foraging behavior has shifted over time.…”

Section: Forest Elephants In the Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Diet DNA reveals novel African Forest elephant ecology on the grasslands of the Congo Basin

Meyer

Honig²,

Hadly

2022

Environmental DNA

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Elephants are essential ecological engineers, creating and maintaining landscape structure and ecosystem function. The recently distinguished and critically endangered forest elephant is currently classified as a selective, non‐destructive frugivorous browser that maintains forest diversity, while the savanna elephant is a mixed feeder, often pushing over trees while maintaining grasslands. The presence and diets of forest elephants on grasslands and the potential maintenance of these systems remain largely unexplored. In the ecotone between the Guinea‐Congolian forest and Sudanian‐Guinean savanna ecosystems in Garamba National Park, DRC, we investigated forest elephant diet selection as a function of sex, age, and habitat using diet DNA (dDNA) metabarcoding of non‐invasively collected dung. GPS collar data were used to determine annual habitat use. Dietary niche partitioning was assessed among megaherbivores in the grasslands. Fecal samples represented the diet of individuals within each habitat, providing valuable insight into the plant biodiversity. Ecological patterns of diet were also revealed using a taxonomically free exact sequence variance approach, highlighting useability in a poorly characterized region. In the early wet season, these typically frugivorous forest elephants were consuming mostly grasses in both the woodland and grassland habitats and showing no sexual dimorphism in diet selection when in the same habitats. However, males were greater risk‐takers, entering the human‐altered landscape to forage on fruit. The forest elephants play a distinctive role within this tropical grassland when compared to other megaherbivores and utilize the unique ecosystem throughout the year. This elephant population is exhibiting behavioral plasticity and shifting their gardening efforts to a novel resource in the grasslands as opposed to their standard role in the forests, which is key to understanding their impact as ecosystem drivers within this landscape. This shift in behavior may result in this recovering elephant population playing a functional role in the restoration and maintenance of these grasslands.

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“…Recently, a shipment of ivory was recovered after being shipwrecked for almost 500 years. de Flamingh et al (2020) found that 71% of the tusks recovered had enough nuclear and mitochondrial DNA for species and population identifications. There have even been skeletal nuDNA identifications from human remains found fully submerged in freshwater environments after 3 years (Crainic et al, 2002;Cavalcanti et al, 2017) and partial success after 4 years for nuDNA identifications in saltwater environments (Fredericks et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitochondrial DNA Evaluation and Species Identification of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) Bones After a 3-Year Exposure to Submerged Marine and Terrestrial Environments

et al. 2021

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Because Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) are critically endangered and closely related to the vulnerable olive ridleys (L. olivacea), it is essential for forensic investigations and conservation efforts to distinguish these species when only skeletal elements remain. DNA extraction and analysis by DNA sequencing of genetic markers is the only method to determine species identity reliably, yet these methods are significantly compromised when DNA becomes degraded. To evaluate the role that time and environment play in obtaining high-quality DNA sequencing data, we placed skeletal elements of a terrestrial mammal (Bos taurus) and L. kempii in a supratidal and subtidal environment for 3 years. Bi-annual sampling revealed that after 3 years, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) consistently identified each species from each environment. Our results show that mtDNA recovery from bone and identification for Kemp’s ridley sea turtles was possible up to 3 years in both environments. All sequencing data obtained was accurate and robust, but DNA sequencing results were not consistent after 664-days of exposure. Our findings led us to conclude that if sufficient DNA is extracted from bone samples, then high-quality sequence data can be obtained, and the resulting sequence data accurately reflects the reference sequence for the given gene marker. This study provides evidence that DNA can be extracted and analyzed from challenging biological substrates, like bone, when these substrates are exposed to seasonally dynamic maritime environmental conditions for up to 3-years.

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Sourcing Elephant Ivory from a Sixteenth-Century Portuguese Shipwreck

Cited by 7 publications

References 73 publications

Tracking the origin of worked elephant ivory of a medieval chess piece from Belgium through analysis of ancient DNA

Tracking the origin of worked elephant ivory of a medieval chess piece from Belgium through analysis of ancient DNA

Diet DNA reveals novel African Forest elephant ecology on the grasslands of the Congo Basin

Mitochondrial DNA Evaluation and Species Identification of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) Bones After a 3-Year Exposure to Submerged Marine and Terrestrial Environments

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