Correction for Frantz et al., Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe
Significance Archaeological evidence indicates that domestic pigs arrived in Europe, alongside farmers from the Near East ∼8,500 y ago, yet mitochondrial genomes of modern European pigs are derived from European wild boars. To address this conundrum, we obtained mitochondrial and nuclear data from modern and ancient Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses indicate that, aside from a coat color gene, most Near Eastern ancestry in the genomes of European domestic pigs disappeared over 3,000 y as a result of interbreeding with local wild boars. This implies that pigs were not domesticated independently in Europe, yet the first 2,500 y of human-mediated selection applied by Near Eastern Ne…
Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence in Mediterranean coastal environments: an isotopic study of the diets of earliest directlyt-dated humans from Sicily
Abstract The subsistence of hunter-gatherers in the Mediterranean Basin has been the object of few studies, which have not fully clarified the role of aquatic resources in their diets. Here we present the results of AMS radiocarbon dating and of isotope analyses on the earliest directly-dated human remains from Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The radiocarbon determinations show that the Upper Palaeolithic (Epigravettian) humans from Grotta di San Teodoro (15 232–14 126 cal. BP) and Grotta Addaura Caprara (16 060–15 007 cal. BP) date to the Late-glacial and were possibly contemporary. The diets of these individuals were dominated by the protein of large terrestrial mamma…
Early Holocene ritual complexity in South America: the archaeological record of Lapa do Santo (east-central Brazil)
Early Archaic human skeletal remains found in a burial context in Lapa do Santo in east-central Brazil provide a rare glimpse into the lives of hunter-gatherer communities in South America, including their rituals for dealing with the dead. These included the reduction of the body by means of mutilation, defleshing, tooth removal, exposure to fire and possibly cannibalism, followed by the secondary burial of the remains according to strict rules. In a later period, pits were filled with disarticulated bones of a single individual without signs of body manipulation, demonstrating that the region was inhabited by dynamic groups in constant transformation over a period of centuries.
Dental calculus is not equivalent to bone collagen for isotope analysis: a comparison between carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bulk dental calculus, bone and dentine collagen from same individuals from the Medieval site of El Raval (Alicante, Spain)
Palaeodietary reconstruction using the carbon and nitrogen isotope values of bone and dentine collagen is a well-established method and the biochemical processes involved are well known. Researchers have recently explored using bulk samples of dental calculus as a substitute for bone and dentine collagen in dietary analyses, because calculus can be sampled without causing damage to the teeth, and may be useful in situations where more destructive analyses are not possible, or where collagen is poorly preserved. Several questions remain about the use of bulk calculus as a source of carbon and nitrogen isotope data, however. It is not yet clear how much of an individual¿s life span dental cal…
Stable isotope analysis of well-preserved 120,000-year-old herbivore bone collagen from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Neumark-Nord 2, Germany reveals niche separation between bovids and equids
Abstract Herbivores from the Neumark-Nord 2 archaeological site, Germany, were analysed for bone collagen stable carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) isotope ratios in order to investigate feeding ecology at this early Last Interglacial (Eemian) shallow-lake site. Of 42 faunal samples selected, 23 yielded collagen, demonstrating remarkable preservation for material of this age. The results indicate clear inter-specific differences in δ 15 N and δ 13 C values, notably between equids ( Equus ) and bovids ( Bos/Bison ), with mean difference Δ 15 N of + 2‰ measured in the bovids compared to the equids. The potential reasons for these differences are explored, including physiology, herbivore fe…