TY - JOUR
T1 - Tropical ancient DNA from bulk archaeological fish bone reveals the subsistence practices of a historic coastal community in southwest Madagascar
AU - Grealy, Alicia
AU - Douglass, Kristina
AU - Haile, James
AU - Bruwer, Chriselle
AU - Gough, Charlotte
AU - Bunce, Michael
N1 - Funding Information:
The archaeological investigations carried out in the Velondriake Marine Protected Area, were made possible with funding from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program , the P.E.O. Scholar Award , the Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies , the Yale MacMillan Centre for International and Area Studies and the Yale Council on Archaeological Studies . Research permissions were granted by the Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique , Autorisation Numéro 128/13-MESupReS/SG/DGRP and by the Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur l’Art et les Traditions Orales Malgaches (CEDRATOM) , under the auspices of the Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Toliara, under the direction of Dr. Barthélémy Manjakahery, Director of the CEDRATOM, and Yale University, under the direction of Dr. Roderick McIntosh, Professor of Anthropology. Local permission to carry out archaeological research was granted by the Office du Maire, Commune de Befandefa and by the Chefs de Fokontany of Andavadoaka, Nosy Ve, Antsaragnagnangy, Lamboara, Ampasilava and Salary. Permits for the export of archaeological materials for the purposes of laboratory analysis were granted by the Secretariat Général of the Ministère de l’Artisanat de la Culture et des Patrimoines, Direction Régionale de la Culture et du Patrimoine Atsimo Andrefana , Visas de Sorties Numéro 09/06-MCP/SG/DRCP.AA; Numéro 05/14-MACP/SG/DRCP.AA ; Numéro 08/14-MACP/SG/DRCP.AA in accordance with Avis Numéro 375, 02/02/1978. We acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant DP160104473 (MB).
PY - 2016/11/1
Y1 - 2016/11/1
N2 - Taxonomic identification of archaeological fish bones provides important insights into the subsistence practices of ancient coastal peoples. However, it can be difficult to execute robust morphological identification of fish bones from species-rich fossil assemblages, especially from post-cranial material with few distinguishing features. Fragmentation, weathering and burning further impede taxonomic identification, resulting in large numbers of unidentifiable bones from archaeological sites. This limitation can be somewhat mitigated by taking an ancient DNA (aDNA) bulk-bone metabarcoding (BBM) approach to faunal identification, where DNA from non-diagnostic bone fragments is extracted and sequenced in parallel. However, a large proportion of fishing communities (both past and present) live in tropical regions that have sub-optimal conditions for long-term aDNA preservation. To date, the BBM method has never been applied to fish bones before, or to fossils excavated from an exposed context within a tropical climate. Here, we demonstrate that morphologically indistinct bulk fish bone from the tropics can be identified by sequencing aDNA extracted from 100 to 300 ya archaeological midden material in southwest Madagascar. Despite the biases of the approach, we rapidly obtained family, genus, and species-level assemblage information, and used this to describe a subset of the ichthyofauna exploited by an 18th century fishing community. We identified 23 families of fish, including benthic, pelagic, and coral-dwelling fishes, suggesting a reliance on a variety of marine and brackish habitats. When possible, BBM should be used alongside osteological approaches to address the limitations of both; however, this study highlights how genetic methods can nevertheless be a valuable tool for helping resolve faunal assemblages when morphological identification is hindered by taphonomic processes, lack of adequate comparative collections, and time constraints, and can provide a temporal perspective on fish biodiversity in the context of accelerated exploitation of the marine environment.
AB - Taxonomic identification of archaeological fish bones provides important insights into the subsistence practices of ancient coastal peoples. However, it can be difficult to execute robust morphological identification of fish bones from species-rich fossil assemblages, especially from post-cranial material with few distinguishing features. Fragmentation, weathering and burning further impede taxonomic identification, resulting in large numbers of unidentifiable bones from archaeological sites. This limitation can be somewhat mitigated by taking an ancient DNA (aDNA) bulk-bone metabarcoding (BBM) approach to faunal identification, where DNA from non-diagnostic bone fragments is extracted and sequenced in parallel. However, a large proportion of fishing communities (both past and present) live in tropical regions that have sub-optimal conditions for long-term aDNA preservation. To date, the BBM method has never been applied to fish bones before, or to fossils excavated from an exposed context within a tropical climate. Here, we demonstrate that morphologically indistinct bulk fish bone from the tropics can be identified by sequencing aDNA extracted from 100 to 300 ya archaeological midden material in southwest Madagascar. Despite the biases of the approach, we rapidly obtained family, genus, and species-level assemblage information, and used this to describe a subset of the ichthyofauna exploited by an 18th century fishing community. We identified 23 families of fish, including benthic, pelagic, and coral-dwelling fishes, suggesting a reliance on a variety of marine and brackish habitats. When possible, BBM should be used alongside osteological approaches to address the limitations of both; however, this study highlights how genetic methods can nevertheless be a valuable tool for helping resolve faunal assemblages when morphological identification is hindered by taphonomic processes, lack of adequate comparative collections, and time constraints, and can provide a temporal perspective on fish biodiversity in the context of accelerated exploitation of the marine environment.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jas.2016.10.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2016.10.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84991669551
VL - 75
SP - 82
EP - 88
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science
SN - 0305-4403
ER -