Isotopic evidence for long-distance connections of the AD thirteenth century Promontory caves occupants
The Promontory caves (Utah) and Franktown Cave (Colorado) contain high-fidelity records of short-term occupations by groups with material culture connections to the Subarctic/Northern Plains. This research uses Promontory and Franktown bison dung, hair, hide, and bone collagen to establish local bas...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Dataset |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://zenodo.org/record/4341326 https://doi.org/10.7291/D18Q23 |
| Summary: | The Promontory caves (Utah) and Franktown Cave (Colorado) contain high-fidelity records of short-term occupations by groups with material culture connections to the Subarctic/Northern Plains. This research uses Promontory and Franktown bison dung, hair, hide, and bone collagen to establish local baseline carbon isotopic variability and identify leather from a distant source. The ankle wrap of one Promontory Cave 1 moccasin had a δ13C value that indicates a substantial C4 component to the animal's diet, unlike the C3 diets inferred from 171 other Promontory and northern Utah bison samples. We draw on a unique combination of multi-tissue isotopic analysis, carbon isoscapes, ancient DNA (species and sex identification), tissue turnover rates, archaeological contexts, and bison ecology to show that the high δ13C value was not likely a result of local plant consumption, bison mobility, or trade. Rather, the bison hide was likely acquired via long-distance travel to/from an area of abundant C4 grasses far to the south or east. Expansive landscape knowledge gained through long-distance associations would have allowed Promontory caves inhabitants to make well-informed decisions about directions and routes of movement for a territorial shift, which seems to have occurred in the late thirteenth century. We have uploaded alignments (.bam files) of these shotgun data to bison (Bison bison; NCBI GCA_000754665), cattle (Bos taurus; NCBI Btau_4.6.1), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis; NCBI CP011912.1), and two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni; NCBI5KN174222.1) genomes. We have not supplied raw shotgun data because there is a chance that ancient human DNA could be examined from these Moccasin samples and we do not have permission to study this DNA. We analyzed the FS-305 moccasin ankle wrap specimen at the UCSC Paleogenomics ancient DNA laboratory (PGL) to (1) obtain a taxonomic identification, and (2) determine the sex of the animal. Working in the sterile laboratory facilities at the PGL, we washed the sample in ultra-pure ... |
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