Sourcing nonnative mammal remains from Dos Mosquises Island, Venezuela: new multiple isotope evidence

Abstract

Archeological excavations of Amerindian sites on Dos Mosquises Island, Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela, uncovered a wide range of evidence reflecting seasonal exploitation of local resources and multiple ritual depositions of large quantities of ceramic figurines, lithics, and faunal remains. Zooarchaeological analysis revealed the presence of modified and unmodified bones and teeth from numerous imported mammal species. Local geographic and environmental conditions preclude permanent establishment of terrestrial mammal populations and as such, there are no native mammalian taxa on the island itself or the surrounding oceanic archipelago. The presence of these faunal remains on Dos Mosquises can be attributed to the intentional movement of animal resources from the mainland to Los Roques by indigenous groups in the Late Ceramic Age (~AD 1200-1500). Despite attributions to a mainland source region, little else is known about the origins of these unique specimens. Here, we apply strontium (87 Sr/ 86 Sr), oxygen (δ 18 O), and carbon (δ 13 C) isotope analyses of tooth enamel from various archeologically recovered taxa including deer, peccary, tapir, ocelot, margay, opossum, fox, and weasel to investigate their geographic origins via comparisons with macro-regional models of precipitation δ 18 O and bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr results are highly variable both for the overall assemblage and between specimens within the same taxa, indicating origins from different geochemical environments of mainland South America. The combined archeological and isotopic evidence are consistent with origins within the late pre-colonial Valencioid Sphere of Interaction which encompassed the Lake Valencia Basin, surrounding regions, and several offshore island groups including Los Roques archipelago.

Re-thinking the Migration of Cariban-Speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to North-Central Venezuela (AD 800)

“…From an archaeological perspective, the late pre-Hispanic inhabitants of north-central Venezuela were integrated within the Valencioid Sphere of Interaction as defined by Antczak and Antczak (1999;see also Guzzo Falci et al 2017;Laffoon et al 2016). They were associated with the western segment of northern Cariban-speakers, and linked to the protohistoric Caraca Amerindians (Antczak 1999;Biord 2001).…”

A Multi-Isotope Investigation of Human and Dog Mobility and Diet in the Pre-Colonial Antilles

“…More recently, a broader range of biomolecular methods and approaches have been applied to the Caribbean faunal record to investigate various topics pertaining to patterns of animal paleomobility. These latter include genetic (Kimura et al 2016) and isotopic studies of the anthropogenic introduction of wild or commensal species ; see also Giovas, 2017) and domesticated species (Laffoon et al 2015), and the transport/exchange of animal skeletal resources and artefacts (Laffoon et al 2014, Laffoon, Sonnemann et al 2016. However, to our knowledge, no studies to date have explicitly explored correspondences and contrasts between humans and animals in this region by combining strontium and carbon isotopes analyses.…”

“…For example, recent research (Mickleburgh and Laffoon 2017) has demonstrated that 'Archaic' individuals from Aruba, where multiple lines of archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence have previously suggested distinct hunter-gatherer subsistence practices and highly marine-reliant diets, also possessed extremely enriched enamel δ 13 C values (−5.3 to −3.9‰). In recent years, strontium isotope ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) approaches have also been widely applied to studies of human and animal paleomobility, and artefact provenance studies in the Caribbean (Booden et al 2008;Giovas et al 2016;Hofman et al 2012;Hoogland, Hofman, and Panhuysen 2010;Laffoon 2012Laffoon , 2013Laffoon , 2016Laffoon et al , 2014Laffoon et al , 2015Laffoon et al , 2017Laffoon, Sonnemann et al 2016;Valcárcel Rojas et al 2011). The Caribbean region is particularly well suited to the application of the strontium isotope method owing to the geological diversity (Donovan and Jackson 1994) and hence high degree of variability and spatial pattering of bedrock and bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. For this region, both large-scale empirical datasets and spatially explicit predictive models of regional isotope landscapes (isoscapes), of bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr have been developed (Bataille, Laffoon, and Bowen 2012;.…”

Oxygen isotopes in bioarchaeology: Principles and applications, challenges and opportunities

“…Similar approaches were used to identify the geographical origins of a pre-colonial deposition of faunal remains on Dos Mosquises Island, where no mammalian fauna was natively present, linking the island with the Lake Valencia Basin and suggesting the deposition of faunal remains might be linked to seasonal subsistence activities on the island by mainland communities (Laffoon et al, 2016). Long distance trade at the Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, specifically of non-local dogs, was also established using a similar multi-isotope framework (Sharpe et al, 2018 Oew that underpins the use of these methods in assigning geographical origin.…”