Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic
Abstract Analysis of individual animal bodies can provide numerous useful insights in archeology, including how humans provisioned such animals, which in turn informs on a variety of other past behaviors such as human dietary patterns. In this study, we conducted stable carbon ( δ 13 C) and nitrogen...
Published in: | Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3/fulltext.html |
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crspringernat:10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3 2023-05-15T14:59:26+02:00 Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic Losey, Robert J. Guiry, Eric Nomokonova, Tatiana Gusev, Andrei V. Szpak, Paul Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences volume 12, issue 8 ISSN 1866-9557 1866-9565 Archeology Anthropology Archeology journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3 2022-01-14T15:42:03Z Abstract Analysis of individual animal bodies can provide numerous useful insights in archeology, including how humans provisioned such animals, which in turn informs on a variety of other past behaviors such as human dietary patterns. In this study, we conducted stable carbon ( δ 13 C) and nitrogen ( δ 15 N) isotope analysis of collagen and keratin from four types of tissues from a dog burial at the Ust’-Polui site in the Iamal region of Arctic Russia. Ust’-Polui is an Iron Age site located on the Lower Ob River, a major northern fishery characterized by extreme seasonal shifts in fish presence. During a 6-month period stretching over the coldest months of the year, fish are nearly entirely absent in the Lower Ob River. Despite this, the stable isotope compositions of the dog’s bone and dentine collagen and hair and nail keratin all indicate a monotonous diet focusing on local fish. This pattern indicates the dog was provisioned year-round with fish. This was likely accomplished by mass harvesting of fish using nets or traps. Such fish were then processed and frozen for consumption during the non-fishing season. These findings suggest that people in the Ust’-Polui region also relied to some extent on fish throughout the year. Stored fish likely provided a dietary buffer for uneven returns from reindeer and bird hunting, both of which also are well-evidenced at the site. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic ob river Springer Nature (via Crossref) Arctic Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12 8 |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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language |
English |
topic |
Archeology Anthropology Archeology |
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Archeology Anthropology Archeology Losey, Robert J. Guiry, Eric Nomokonova, Tatiana Gusev, Andrei V. Szpak, Paul Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic |
topic_facet |
Archeology Anthropology Archeology |
description |
Abstract Analysis of individual animal bodies can provide numerous useful insights in archeology, including how humans provisioned such animals, which in turn informs on a variety of other past behaviors such as human dietary patterns. In this study, we conducted stable carbon ( δ 13 C) and nitrogen ( δ 15 N) isotope analysis of collagen and keratin from four types of tissues from a dog burial at the Ust’-Polui site in the Iamal region of Arctic Russia. Ust’-Polui is an Iron Age site located on the Lower Ob River, a major northern fishery characterized by extreme seasonal shifts in fish presence. During a 6-month period stretching over the coldest months of the year, fish are nearly entirely absent in the Lower Ob River. Despite this, the stable isotope compositions of the dog’s bone and dentine collagen and hair and nail keratin all indicate a monotonous diet focusing on local fish. This pattern indicates the dog was provisioned year-round with fish. This was likely accomplished by mass harvesting of fish using nets or traps. Such fish were then processed and frozen for consumption during the non-fishing season. These findings suggest that people in the Ust’-Polui region also relied to some extent on fish throughout the year. Stored fish likely provided a dietary buffer for uneven returns from reindeer and bird hunting, both of which also are well-evidenced at the site. |
author2 |
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Losey, Robert J. Guiry, Eric Nomokonova, Tatiana Gusev, Andrei V. Szpak, Paul |
author_facet |
Losey, Robert J. Guiry, Eric Nomokonova, Tatiana Gusev, Andrei V. Szpak, Paul |
author_sort |
Losey, Robert J. |
title |
Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic |
title_short |
Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic |
title_full |
Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into Iron Age food preservation strategies in the Russian Arctic |
title_sort |
storing fish?: a dog’s isotopic biography provides insight into iron age food preservation strategies in the russian arctic |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3/fulltext.html |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic ob river |
genre_facet |
Arctic ob river |
op_source |
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences volume 12, issue 8 ISSN 1866-9557 1866-9565 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01166-3 |
container_title |
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
8 |
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1766331548786753536 |