Fish and maize: Bayesian mixing models of fourteenth- through seventeenth-century AD ancestral Wendat diets, Ontario, Canada

Robert S Feranec,John P Hart

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-53076-7

Abstract

Freshwater and marine fish have been important components of human diets for millennia. The Great Lakes of North America, their tributaries and smaller regional freshwater bodies are important Native American fisheries. The ethnohistorical record, zooarchaeological remains, and isotopic values on human bone and tooth collagen indicate the importance of fish in fourteenth- through seventeenth-century ancestral Wendat diets in southern Ontario, which is bordered by three of the Great Lakes. Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) was the primary grain of Native American agricultural systems in the centuries prior to and following sustained European presence. Here we report new Bayesian dietary mixing models using previously published δ13C and δ15N values on ancestral Wendat bone and tooth collagen and tooth enamel. The results confirm previous estimates from δ13C values that ancestral Wendat diets included high proportions of maize but indicate much higher proportions of fish than has previously been recognized. The results also suggest that terrestrial animals contributed less to ancestral Wendat diets than is typically interpreted based on zooarchaeological records.

Highlights

Various lines of evidence indicate freshwater and marine fish have been important components of human diets for millennia[1,2,3]
Phytoliths and starch recovered from directly AMS-dated charred cooking residues adhering to the interiors of pottery sherds indicate that maize was introduced into the lower Great Lakes region, presumably including southern Ontario, by ca. cal
Consumers of maize and their consumers have δ13C values that are higher than consumers of predominantly C3 photosynthetic pathway plants and their consumers. δ13C analyses of human bone collagen and apatite suggest that maize consumption began to increase gradually in southern Ontario by ca. cal

Summary

Introduction

Various lines of evidence indicate freshwater and marine fish have been important components of human diets for millennia[1,2,3]. Over the course of the fourteenth through the beginning of the seventeenth centuries AD, ancestral Wendat communities moved northward from the north shore of Lake Ontario, and eventually converged on an area between the south shore of Georgian Bay to the north and Lake Simcoe to the south (Fig. 1)[23]. Using a linear mixing model with δ13C values they estimate that maize contributed >50% of ancestral Wendat diets during those centuries, and perhaps as much as 65%28 They suggest that elevated δ13C values may reflect the consumption of freshwater fish because fish bone from ancestral Wendat archaeological sites have δ13C values that range mostly between −21‰ and −16‰28. Given that δ15N values of ancestral Wendat individuals are generally >10‰, Pfeiffer et al, like others[27,30], suggest that ancestral Wendat diets included high-trophic-level freshwater fish

Methods

Results

Conclusion