Abstract
The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) represents one of the few domestic animals of the New World. While current research points to distinct domestication centres in the Southwest USA and Mesoamerica, several questions regarding the number of progenitor populations, and the timing and intensity of turkey husbandry remain unanswered. This study applied ancient mitochondrial DNA and stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) analysis to 55 archaeological turkey remains from Mexico to investigate pre-contact turkey exploitation in Mesoamerica. Three different (sub)species of turkeys were identified in the archaeological record (M. g. mexicana, M. g. gallopavo and M. ocellata), indicating the exploitation of diverse local populations, as well as the trade of captively reared birds into the Maya area. No evidence of shared maternal haplotypes was observed between Mesoamerica and the Southwest USA, in contrast with archaeological evidence for trade of other domestic products. Isotopic analysis indicates a range of feeding behaviours in ancient Mesoamerican turkeys, including wild foraging, human provisioning and mixed feeding ecologies. This variability in turkey diet decreases through time, with archaeological, genetic and isotopic evidence all pointing to the intensification of domestic turkey management and husbandry, culminating in the Postclassic period.
Highlights
Few animals have been fully domesticated in the New World
Ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses indicate that one maternal lineage predominates within the archaeological population of domestic turkeys from the Southwest that is distinct from that of the local Merriam’s wild turkey (M. g. merriami) [19]
The archaeological turkey samples analysed in this study were obtained from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City (INAH), the Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY), the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos (CEMCA) and the University of Calgary (UofC)
Summary
Few animals have been fully domesticated in the New World. Among them, the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) (hereafter referred to as the common turkey), represented an important resource in both Mesoamerica and the Southwest (SW) USA. In the SW USA, ancient turkey husbandry began around 200–500 CE [4,10] and has been studied using a variety of analytical approaches, in particular osteological analyses Pathological features and pollen found in coprolites indicate that turkeys were usually not ‘free-range’, but often enclosed in pens or corrals, and provisioned with human staples, mostly maize. Ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyses indicate that one maternal lineage predominates within the archaeological population of domestic turkeys from the Southwest that is distinct from that of the local Merriam’s wild turkey The geographical origin of the Southwest domestic lineage is still unclear, the predominance of a single maternal lineage indicates long-term continuity in turkey husbandry for over a millennium in this region
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