Turkey husbandry and use in Oaxaca, Mexico: A contextual study of turkey remains and SEM analysis of eggshell from the Mitla Fortress

Abstract

Recent excavations of two domestic residences at the Mitla Fortress, dating to the Classic to Early Postclassic period (ca. AD 300-1200), have uncovered the remains of juvenile and adult turkeys (both hens and toms), several whole eggs, and numerous eggshell fragments in domestic refuse and ritual offering contexts. Holistically, this is the clearest and most comprehensive evidence to date for turkey domestication in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. Juvenile turkeys range in age, from recently hatched poults to young juvenile birds. Medullary bone, which only forms in female birds before and during the egg-laying cycle, indicates the presence of at least one egg-laying hen. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the eggshell reveals both unhatched and hatched eggs from a range of incubation stages, from unfertilized or newly fertilized eggs to eggs nearing the termination of embryogenesis to hatched poults. We present these new data and explore turkey husbandry, consumption, and use by two residential households at the Mitla Fortress.

Bird eggs in the diet of ancient Pompeii: An SEM analysis of archaeological avian eggshell

“…The cones become increasingly pitted during embryogenesis (Beacham and Durand 2007), which is a result of the partial demineralization of the mammillary cones (Bellairs and Boyde 1969). Visible changes to the mammillary layer of the egg due to embryonic development occur about 16 days after the egg is fertilized (Lapham et al 2016). Resorption occurs in a patterned progression starting from day 18 until the egg is hatched (Beacham and Durand 2007).…”

“…This methodology was not fully investigated and documented until Sidell's core guide on the use of the SEM to identify archaeological eggshell (1993). Since then, few studies have been conducted using eggshell: so far, they include studies of turkey domestication in the American southwest (Beacham and Durand 2007;Conrad et al 2016) and Mexico (Lapham et al 2016), an analysis of the avian bone and eggshell assemblage from a historic American plantation (Lamzik 2013), a comparison of the eggshell assemblage from three occupations of a site in Leicester, England (Boyer 1999), and a comparison of the avian bone assemblage with the eggshell assemblage from a site in Orkney (Eastham 1997). Avian eggshell can also be identified using DNA analysis, more specifically using Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), and this technique is becoming more common (Oskam and Bunce 2012;Oskam et al 2011;Presslee et al 2017;Stewart et al 2013;Stewart et al 2014).…”

“…Identifying avian eggshell to more specific taxonomic categories and interpreting it in context with the rest of a site's faunal assemblage allows zooarchaeologists to use avian eggshell as a parallel line of evidence to gain a more detailed understanding of economic strategies (Beacham and Durand 2007;Lapham et al 2016;Medina et al 2011). The present study uses scanning electron microscopy to identify and interpret avian eggshell recovered from a non-elite neighborhood of pre-Roman and Roman Pompeii (c. 300 BCE-79 CE) by the Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia (PARP: PS, 2005PS, -2012.…”

Diversity of management strategies in Mesoamerican turkeys: archaeological, isotopic and genetic evidence

“…In contrast to the American Southwest, historically far less research has been dedicated to uncovering the origins and timing of Mesoamerican turkey domestication, with bioarchaeological and morphometric approaches being applied relatively recently [25][26][27][28][29][30]. Within Mesoamerica, several questions concerning the domestication process remain unanswered, including the overall chronology of human intervention as well as the number of wild progenitor populations contributing to domestic stocks [9].…”