Ancient DNA-based sex determination of bison hide moccasins provides evidence for selective hunting strategies by Promontory Cave occupants

• Main Authors: Shirazi, Sabrina, Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen, Oppenheimer, Jonas, Metcalfe, Jessica, Found, Rob, Ives, John, Shapiro, Beth
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2021
• Subjects: Subarctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7291/D17T1F

The thirteenth-century human occupants of Promontory Cave, Utah, distinguished themselves from surrounding Fremont populations by being successful hunting specialists of bison in a region normally peripheral for that species. The hunters' success is evident from the abundance of faunal remains excavated from the dry caves, which has facilitated zooarchaeological study of bison hunting strategies. The dry cave conditions also preserved hundreds of worn moccasins, which are of particular interest because of the Canadian-Subarctic style in which they are made and for their potential to reveal more about hunting strategies of their wearers. Here, we isolate ancient DNA from 38 Promontory Cave 1 (42BO1) moccasin and hide fragments and use these data to determine the species and sex of animals used to construct the moccasins. We found moccasins were mainly made from bison and most (87%) were females. The strong female bias in our data, which we demonstrate is a significant departure from sex ratios in present-day bison herds, suggests that the occupants of the cave were purposefully targeting female bison for moccasin manufacture. Our study is the first to our knowledge to determine faunal sex ratios from an assemblage of archaeological leather and highlights another potential avenue for ancient DNA technologies to augment what can be learned from the archaeological record. Raw data is not uploaded as it could contain human DNA of the Promontory Cave occupants. Only alignments of the hide samples to cattle, deer, and sheep are uploaded here. Funding provided by: Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: 410-2010-0480 Funding provided by: Research Council of Canada Insight Grant* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: 435-2012-0140 Funding provided by: NSF DEB* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: 1754451