Culley, C;
Janzen, A;
Brown, S;
Prendergast, ME;
Wolfhagen, J;
Abderemane, B;
Ali, AK;
... Crowther, A; + view all
(2021)
Collagen fingerprinting traces the introduction of caprines to island Eastern Africa.
Royal Society Open Science
, 8
(7)
, Article 202341. 10.1098/rsos.202341.
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Abstract
The human colonization of eastern Africa's near- and offshore islands was accompanied by the translocation of several domestic, wild and commensal fauna, many of which had long-term impacts on local environments. To better understand the timing and nature of the introduction of domesticated caprines (sheep and goat) to these islands, this study applied collagen peptide fingerprinting (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry or ZooMS) to archaeological remains from eight Iron Age sites, dating between ca 300 and 1000 CE, in the Zanzibar, Mafia and Comoros archipelagos. Where previous zooarchaeological analyses had identified caprine remains at four of these sites, this study identified goat at seven sites and sheep at three, demonstrating that caprines were more widespread than previously known. The ZooMS results support an introduction of goats to island eastern Africa from at least the seventh century CE, while sheep in our sample arrived one–two centuries later. Goats may have been preferred because, as browsers, they were better adapted to the islands' environments. The results allow for a more accurate understanding of early caprine husbandry in the study region and provide a critical archaeological baseline for examining the potential long-term impacts of translocated fauna on island ecologies.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Collagen fingerprinting traces the introduction of caprines to island Eastern Africa |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.202341 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202341 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | zooarchaeology, livestock, Iron Age, biomolecular archaeology, ZooMS, anthropogenic impacts |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10133415 |
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