Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador
Whale bones recovered from the excavation of a 16th century Basque whaling station in Red Bay, Labrador are providing valuable data for archaeological interpretation as well as for biological studies of extant whale populations. Zooarchaeological studies on more than 2000 bones found during explorat...
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ftunivictoriaojs:oai:journals.uvic.ca:article/5356 2023-07-16T03:57:36+02:00 Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador Cumbaa, Stephen L. Brown, Moira W. White, Bradley N. 2011-06-25 application/pdf https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/zooarchaeology/article/view/5356 eng eng University of Victoria https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/zooarchaeology/article/view/5356/1865 https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/zooarchaeology/article/view/5356 Canadian Zooarchaeology / Zooarchéologie canadienne; No. 20 (2002); 6-15 1923-2535 1923-2527 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion research-article 2011 ftunivictoriaojs 2023-06-27T18:31:21Z Whale bones recovered from the excavation of a 16th century Basque whaling station in Red Bay, Labrador are providing valuable data for archaeological interpretation as well as for biological studies of extant whale populations. Zooarchaeological studies on more than 2000 bones found during exploration of the harbour, and of specific activity areas such as wharves and ovens, give insight to Basque whale hunting, flensing, oil production and carcass disposal techniques. The principal prey species, the North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and the Bowhead (Balaena mysticetus), are endangered species not native to the area today. Work now underway will compare DNA extracted from bone dust or shavings from the archaeological specimens with DNA isolated from skin samples obtained from the extant populations of these prey species. This molecular work could help determine the historic levels of genetic variation within the whale populations, the mitochondrial sequence profiles of the populations of whales hunted by the Basques, and confirm the species identification of whale bones. Article in Journal/Newspaper Balaena mysticetus Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale University of Victoria (Canada): Journal Publishing Service Flensing ENVELOPE(-45.674,-45.674,-60.690,-60.690) |
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Open Polar |
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University of Victoria (Canada): Journal Publishing Service |
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ftunivictoriaojs |
language |
English |
description |
Whale bones recovered from the excavation of a 16th century Basque whaling station in Red Bay, Labrador are providing valuable data for archaeological interpretation as well as for biological studies of extant whale populations. Zooarchaeological studies on more than 2000 bones found during exploration of the harbour, and of specific activity areas such as wharves and ovens, give insight to Basque whale hunting, flensing, oil production and carcass disposal techniques. The principal prey species, the North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and the Bowhead (Balaena mysticetus), are endangered species not native to the area today. Work now underway will compare DNA extracted from bone dust or shavings from the archaeological specimens with DNA isolated from skin samples obtained from the extant populations of these prey species. This molecular work could help determine the historic levels of genetic variation within the whale populations, the mitochondrial sequence profiles of the populations of whales hunted by the Basques, and confirm the species identification of whale bones. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cumbaa, Stephen L. Brown, Moira W. White, Bradley N. |
spellingShingle |
Cumbaa, Stephen L. Brown, Moira W. White, Bradley N. Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador |
author_facet |
Cumbaa, Stephen L. Brown, Moira W. White, Bradley N. |
author_sort |
Cumbaa, Stephen L. |
title |
Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador |
title_short |
Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador |
title_full |
Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador |
title_fullStr |
Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador |
title_full_unstemmed |
Zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on Basque whaling in 16th Century Labrador |
title_sort |
zooarchaeological and molecular perspectives on basque whaling in 16th century labrador |
publisher |
University of Victoria |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/zooarchaeology/article/view/5356 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-45.674,-45.674,-60.690,-60.690) |
geographic |
Flensing |
geographic_facet |
Flensing |
genre |
Balaena mysticetus Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale |
genre_facet |
Balaena mysticetus Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale |
op_source |
Canadian Zooarchaeology / Zooarchéologie canadienne; No. 20 (2002); 6-15 1923-2535 1923-2527 |
op_relation |
https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/zooarchaeology/article/view/5356/1865 https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/zooarchaeology/article/view/5356 |
_version_ |
1771544252409446400 |