scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Assessing Diet and Seasonality in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands: An Evaluation of Coprolite Specimens as Records of Individual Dietary Decisions

01 Jan 2012-Journal of Archaeological Science (Academic Press)-Vol. 39, Iss: 1, pp 145-162
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands is presented as records of individual dietary decisions, and the resultant menus reflected in these clusters are evaluated with reference to a diet-breadth model for the known staple resources of the canyonlands.
About: This article is published in Journal of Archaeological Science.The article was published on 2012-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 39 citations till now.

Summary (10 min read)

Jump to: [Introduction][The Hinds Cave Assemblage and Optimal Foraging Theory][Optimal Foraging Theory][A Model of Lower Pecos Diet Breadth][A Brief History of Coprolite Research][Biochemical Analysis of Coprolites][AMS C-14 Radiocarbon Dating of Coprolites][Summary][Defining the Lower Pecos Canyonlands][Paleoenvironmental Overview for the Lower Pecos Canyonlands][Human Habitation and Cultural Chronology of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands][Early Archaic Period][Middle Archaic Period][Late Archaic Period][Late Prehistoric Period][Historic Period (350 B.P. to Present)][Environmental Background][Photosynthesis and Stable Isotopes][Carbohydrate Storage and Food Value][Seasonality of Resource Use and Ethnohistoric Accounts][Ethnographic Data from the Greater Southwest][Ethnohistoric Subsistence Patterns][Ethnographic Expectations and the Archaeological Record][Excavation Units][Research on Hinds Cave Collections][Excavation Context of the Coprolite Specimens Analyzed in the Current Study][Reference Collections][Sub-Sampling Coprolites][Laboratory Procedures and Analysis][Data from Previous Coprolite Studies][Statistical Analysis][Data from the Current Study][Other Coprolite Studies from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands][Skeletal Stable Carbon Isotopes from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands][Diet and Seasonality in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands][Future Research Directions] and [Conclusion]

Introduction

  • The dietary patterns recorded in the coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands demonstrate a seasonally variable diet-breadth that incorporated low-ranked resources during times of seasonal scarcity as well as a monolithic dependence on high-ranked resources when they were available in the local landscape.
  • This dissertation would not have been possible without their guidance and support during my graduate career.

The Hinds Cave Assemblage and Optimal Foraging Theory

  • The Hinds Cave excavation presents an excellent opportunity to study prehistoric subsistence with diet breadth models for several reasons.
  • The temporal depth of this site, along with the well documented paleoenvironmental record for the Lower Pecos canyonlands, provides an ideal context for the accurate assessment of change in subsistence across the Holocene.
  • A number of prior studies of the site’s assemblage dealt directly with issues of subsistence.
  • 1) complementary research into coprolites, organic residues, and experimental plant processing and 2) incredible organic preservation make the Hinds Cave assemblage a good candidate for assessing subsistence strategies with testable predictions generated from diet breadth models, also known as These two factors.

Optimal Foraging Theory

  • Optimal foraging theory was developed by evolutionary ecologists interested in addressing a number of issues relating to animal subsistence (Macarthur and Pianka 1966; Pianka 1974; Smith and Winterhalder 1985).
  • Perhaps this is due to the limited inferences that can generally be derived from a macrobotanical assemblage resulting from depositional and preservational biases.
  • A number of scholars have addressed the limitations of applying human behavioral ecology, specifically optimal foraging theory, to archaeological data sets (Gremillion 2002; Murray 2002; Yesner 1985).
  • Diet breadth models are among the most widely utilized optimal foraging models in ecology and anthropology (Winterhalder and Smith 2000).
  • Kaplan and Hill (1992) suggest that these simple approaches can be elaborated in a number of ways, either to incorporate more complex models of resources or to account for human behavioral complexity.

A Model of Lower Pecos Diet Breadth

  • The following model uses the data from Dering (1999) with some additions and modifications.
  • Because neither of these resources would produce a large amount of vegetal refuse, the higher cooked return values of lechuguilla have been used for both.
  • The returns for two mixed resource earth ovens are also presented, one half sotol and half lechuguilla and the other composed of equal parts of all four resources.
  • 25 CHAPTER III SUBSISTENCE AND COPROLITES IN ARCHAEOLOGY.
  • This section is organized into three broad categories of analysis: macroscopic, microscopic, and biochemical.

A Brief History of Coprolite Research

  • The study of fecal material has a long history in such diverse disciplines as medicine, biology, paleontology, and archaeology (Fry 1985; Sutton et al. 2010).
  • Following the development of this rehydration technique, Callen and others began a systematic study of the pollen, plant and animal macrofossils, and parasitological remains recovered from these unique human (Bryant 1969, 1974b, c, 1975; Callen 1963; Callen and Martin 1969; Colyer 1965; Dickson et al.

Biochemical Analysis of Coprolites

  • The dietary data derived from the macroscopic and microscopic residues of coprolites is unparalleled in the archaeological record.
  • Coprolites have a complex chemical composition (Wales and Evans 1988).
  • This technique has been primarily employed in medico-legal settings for characterizing bloodstains, but it can be applied to any research involving protein detection.
  • 47 This relationship between dietary δ13C values and the resulting δ13C values of feces is even more complex, since fecal material represents a combination of indigestible dietary residue, the bacterial flora of the gastrointestinal tract, and cells of multiple tissue types of the animal under consideration (Sutton et al. 2010).

AMS C-14 Radiocarbon Dating of Coprolites

  • Coprolite specimens can be directly dated using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon methods (Dean 2004; Gilbert et al.
  • This is particularly important in the Lower Pecos canyonlands, where many sites still contain coprolite specimens that have been disturbed and impacted by artifact collectors, looting and animal grazing.
  • This previously neglected data set can be temporally associated using AMS radiocarbon dating.
  • While coprolites do provide enough carbon to be dated directly using traditional radiocarbon methods (Williams-Dean 1978), there is the potential of external contamination and admixture of components within the specimen.

Summary

  • Coprolites are among the most biologically complex evidence of past human activity recovered in the archaeological record.
  • One specimen can yield multiple lines of congruent evidence on an individual’s dietary choices, as well as information on seasonality of site occupation, overall health, parasite load, potential sex through sterol analysis, and even individual identity through mtDNA.
  • 51 CHAPTER IV THE LOWER PECOS CANYONLANDS.
  • The third phase entails primarily academic excavations and laboratory analysis of existing museum collections done after the completion of the Amistad Reservoir.
  • The chapter concludes with a chronological reconstruction of human occupation in the region derived from the eighty years of archaeological research.

Defining the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

  • The Lower Pecos canyonlands were originally recognized as a unique archaeological research area based on the several styles of rockart that occur in rockshelters and other protected settings of the region (Jackson 1938; Kirkland 1939).
  • These gravels are frequently associated with prehistoric lithic quarry sites (Dering 2002) The soils in the Lower Pecos region are dominated by outcrops of limestone bedrock and associated weathered material (Golden et al. 1982).
  • Following the Bailey eco-region system, the Lower Pecos is in the Chihuahuan Desert province (321), although the northern portion extends into the Southwest Plateau and Plains Dry Steppe province (315) According to the Omernik eco-region classification, the Lower Pecos includes parts of the Chihuahuan Basins and Playas (24A), the Semi-arid Edwards Bajada (31B), and the Semi-arid Edwards Plateau (30B).

Paleoenvironmental Overview for the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

  • The similarities in human exploitation of the Lower Pecos canyonlands across the Holocene has been attributed to the fairly stable ecological conditions in the region (Bryant and Holloway 1985; Turpin 1991a).
  • During the post-glacial period (10,000 years B.P. to present) there has been a shift from a mosaic of woodlands, parklands and scrub grasslands to an environment dominated by scrub grasslands (Bryant and Holloway 1985).
  • Pollen data are available from Bonfire Shelter, the Devils Mouth Site, Eagle Cave, and two different excavation areas in Hinds Cave (Bryant 1977c; Dering 1979).
  • Overall, the Stockton Stage is a continuation of the xeric trend started in the Sanderson Stage.

Human Habitation and Cultural Chronology of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

  • Most cultural reconstructions suggest a remarkably similar use of the region by human cultures across the Holocene (Bement 1989; Collins 1974; Hester et al.
  • The populations occupying this area practiced a conservative foraging adaptation to the semi-arid environment (Sobolik 1996b).
  • 84 The large amount of archaeological research in this geographically constrained area has yielded a very robust collection of radiocarbon dates (Turpin 1991b, 2004).
  • All dates are presented as uncalibrated radiocarbon years before present (B.P.).

Early Archaic Period

  • This broadly defined subperiod encompasses the entire Early Archaic Period and provides archaeological evidence for the florescence of many of the cultural traits that have come to define the Lower Pecos canyonlands (Table 4).
  • The earliest coprolites analyzed from the region date from this period (Stock 1983; Williams-Dean 1978) and, along with other evidence of plant use including macrobotanical remains and earth oven cooking features (Dering 1979; Sobolik 1991), show a human population engaged in a subsistence pattern and material culture focused on Chihuahuan desert plant resources such as lechuguilla and sotol.
  • These skeletons exhibit temporary nutritional stress that may be seasonal in nature, but have no evidence of prolonged malnourishment (Alvarez 2005a, b; Marks et al. 1988; Sobolik 1991a).
  • Painted pebbles have been recovered from at least one Early Archaic context (Turpin and Middleton 1998).

Middle Archaic Period

  • This is the earliest projectile point style that has a regional distribution that coincides with the geographic boundaries of the Lower Pecos canyonlands (Turpin 2004).
  • It is important to note that the macrobotanical studies of Dering 90 (1979) indicate that lechuguilla was already important resource in the preceding Viejo subperiod, although there is a marked increase during the Middle Archaic .
  • Boyd has convincingly argued that these panels have parallels with the Huichol peyote ceremonies recorded ethnographically (Boyd 1998).
  • The desertification of the region may have led to a shift in settlement and mobility patterns, as populations focused around the reliable water in the major drainages (Turpin 2004).

Late Archaic Period

  • This period is associated with a major mesic shift in the region, first noted in Bryant (1966d) as the Frio Interval, and characterized by a shift away from a desert environment towards a grassland.
  • These patterns suggest a reorganization of subsistence during this subperiod, away from low yield desert succulents and towards the large herds of bison now available in the region (Dibble 1965, 1970; Dibble and Dessamae 1968; Turpin 2004).
  • 2004) has also correlated the rock art style known as Red Linear with this subperiod, also known as Turpin (1990.
  • This period has been seen as a time of great cultural change in the region, as new resource distributions and human migration forced the extant human populations to adjust (Turpin 2004).
  • The dominant point style of this subperiod is the Shumla dart point, which has many similarities with points from earlier contexts in the modern Mexican states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon (Turpin 2004).

Late Prehistoric Period

  • This subperiod, characterized by the introduction of the bow and arrow to the region, is poorly understood due to the lack of well-stratified contexts (Turpin 2004).
  • This is partly due to the frequent disturbance of upper levels of rockshelter deposits by grazing and looting activities.
  • Most of the more common Red Monochrome style pictographs occur in isolated, high overhangs with little cultural debris, avoiding many of the larger rockshelters with large panels of Pecos River style art (Kirkland and Newcomb 1967; Turpin 2004).
  • Only one of these sites has been excavated (Turpin and Bement 1989).

Historic Period (350 B.P. to Present)

  • Very little is known archaeologically about the historic period in the Lower Pecos canyonlands.
  • There are a number of rock art sites that incorporate European elements such as horses and crosses (Boyd 1998; Kirkland and Newcomb 1967; Turpin 1982) or have affinities to Plains Indian art styles (Turpin and Bement 1989), but the 95 material record is scarce.
  • The following chapter describes some ecological characteristics of these major staple resources relevant to their harvest and consumption as a food resource.
  • Archaeological research in the Lower Pecos canyonlands has demonstrated that these three plant resources were important food resources for human populations during most of the Holocene (Bousman and Quigg 2006; Bryant 1974b; Sobolik 1991a; Williams-Dean 1978).

Environmental Background

  • Agave was a vital resource across much of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the northern deserts of modern-day Mexico (Flannery 1986b); (Gentry 1982).
  • Members of this genus were cultivated prehistorically in both the Mesoamerican Highlands and the deserts of the greater Southwest.
  • Only 4% of the plant’s dry biomass is underground, again highlighting both the plant’s preference for shallow soils as well as the importance of the caudex and leaf bases for water and nutrient storage.
  • The genus is dioecious, suggesting that the entire population should flower in unison to maximize reproductive potential (Bogler 1994).
  • There are at least 52 species or distinguishable varieties of prickly pear found across Texas (Weniger 1984).

Photosynthesis and Stable Isotopes

  • Stable carbon isotopes studies of animal tissue have been shown to successfully reflect the isotopic composition of diet (Deniro and Epstein 1978; Schwartz and Schoeninger 1991; Smith et al. 2002; Sponheimer et al. 2003b).
  • The CO2 in this gas space dissolves into cell sap and diffuses to the chloroplast.
  • This step, unlike the previous diffusionary processes, is irreversible, and is the major determinant in fractionation of 13C (O'leary 1988).
  • Many CAM plants also engage directly in C3 photosynthesis using RuBisCo during the late afternoon, when water loss from open stomates is lower (Phase IV) (Griffiths 1992).

Carbohydrate Storage and Food Value

  • All three of these plant resources (lechuguilla, sotol, and prickly pear) store the majority of their caloric content as carbohydrates (Lopez and Urias-Silvas 2007b; Mancilla-Margalli and Lopez 2006).
  • The type of fructans found in plants are species specific and highly influenced by the environmental conditions and developmental stage of the plant (Sims 2003; Sims et al. 2001).
  • Ethnohistoric and ethnographic literature corroborate the preference native groups displayed for harvesting sotol and agave resources at this time in their life history (Castetter et al. 1938; De Leon 1971).
  • Their fermentation is an important process, since it favors the maintenance and development of the bacterial flora as well as colonic epithelial cells (García Peris et al., 2002).

Seasonality of Resource Use and Ethnohistoric Accounts

  • This section is a gathering of ethnohistorical source material documenting the use of lechuguilla, prickly pear and sotol as foods in Texas and the surrounding region.
  • According to Cabeza de Vaca, this resource was the major dietary staple of these groups for three months in late summer/early fall (Krieger 2002; Thoms 2008b).
  • An early settler of the modern-day state of 119 Nuevo Leon, Alonso de Leon recounted many ethnographic details of native populations living near the western margin of the Tamulipan Plains Biotic province from 1580 to 1649 (De Leon 1971).
  • This account 122 extends the recorded seasonal use of tunas as a staple to the western margins of the Tamulipan plains.
  • First, it indicates that the pattern of prickly pear dependence described for the Tamulipan plains by earlier accounts may also be an important component of the subsistence strategy of Native groups in the Edwards Plateau.

Ethnographic Data from the Greater Southwest

  • Agaves are widely used as a food resource by native groups across the majority of arid North America (Basehart 1974; Beals 1973; Bean and Saubel 1972; Castetter et al.
  • Castetter and Bell (1938) present data from observations of several different native groups which give a good deal of data on the seasonality, harvest selection, and processing of agave.
  • Mid-19th century Anglo-American accounts cited by Castetter and Bell (1938) indicate that this resource was the major staple of many bands, including Apache and Southern Comanche, across most of the cold season and occasionally as a year round staple (Castetter et al. 1938).
  • This has not been considered in the development of the diet-breadth models presented in Chapter II.
  • The tunas of these species were an important food resource across most of modern-day Mexico and the Greater Southwest.

Ethnohistoric Subsistence Patterns

  • There is ample evidence that prickly pear tunas were an important component of the seasonal round across Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and the South Texas Plain (Duaine 1971; Krieger 2002; Salinas 1990).
  • The Lipan Apache were one of the Athabascan speaking groups who pushed down into Texas and the Southwest from the Great Plains during the 16th and 17th centuries (Opler 2001).
  • The importance of the prickly pear to the Lipanes in the Edwards Plateau can be seen in the aforementioned 18th century accounts from Wade (2003).
  • The groups along the Rio Grande and the Rio Concho occupied permanent farming communities of some size (Hickerson 1994).
  • While there are some references to wild plant foods such as mescal and mesquite (Hickerson 1994: 37, 40, 43, 133), most references to food in the accounts compiled by Hickerson (1994) indicate that bison and cultivated crops were the dietary mainstays of the Jumano.

Ethnographic Expectations and the Archaeological Record

  • Reconstructing the importance of specific food resources in the archaeological record is a daunting task.
  • These specimens provide a wealth of knowledge about prickly pear processing, allowing researchers to ask questions about the importance of pounding or grinding the tuna seeds as a source of oil and starch, or various methods of heat processing reflected in the seeds, fiber and epidermal cells recoverable from these specimens.
  • Several thousand coprolites were recovered from a variety of contexts during the two field seasons spent excavating the site (Shafer and Bryant 1977).
  • Before excavation, both vertical and horizontal controls were established for the site.

Excavation Units

  • The first major area, designated as Area A, was selected as the primary focus of the plant macrofossil sampling strategy.
  • Following a similar procedure to that used in block A, the initial excavation units were narrow trenches designed to expose the stratigraphy of a larger excavation block.
  • Area C was a small excavation unit (1x1.5 m2) placed near the center of the rockshelter.
  • This unit was excavated to explore the depth of cultural deposits near Area B.
  • This fiber deposit consisted of distinctive lenses and indicates a pattern of re-use of this area of the site for plant processing and consumption over multiple occupations.

Research on Hinds Cave Collections

  • While there is as yet no synthesis of the Hinds Cave excavation by Texas A&M University, more has been published about this excavation than any other in the Lower Pecos canyonlands.
  • Previous Coprolite Studies from Hinds Cave Four previous studies have been conducted on coprolites recovered from Hinds Cave (Edwards 1990; Reinhard 1989; Stock 1983; Williams-Dean 1978).
  • Each of these studies has added to their knowledge of diet and nutritional health of the hunter-gatherer groups that populated the canyonlands.

Excavation Context of the Coprolite Specimens Analyzed in the Current Study

  • Thirty coprolites from three different contexts were examined in this analysis.
  • These particular lenses were chosen for analysis for two reasons: first, these coprolites are the oldest specimens sampled from area B, which had high concentrations of coprolites throughout its matrix and has been interpreted as a re-used latrine feature throughout the Holocene (Shafer and Bryant 1977).
  • The dates associated with 156 these specimens also fills in the temporal gap between Stock’s (1983) specimens from Areas C and D and the study conducted by Williams-Dean (1978) on the largest lens in area B, lens 13; second, these smaller lenses could be the latrine residue of individual site occupations.
  • Final elevations for this lens range from 96-118 cm below datum.
  • The development of these reference collections was a necessary step in fully evaluating the dietary components recovered as well as the ultimate goal of this study, assessing diet-breadth and seasonality of deposition.

Reference Collections

  • Previous studies have identified the major plant staples of the human populations inhabiting the Lower Pecos canyonlands as lechuguilla caudex, sotol caudex, prickly pear nopales, prickly pear tunas and wild onion bulbs (Bousman and Quigg 2006; Brown 1991; Danielson and Reinhard 1998; Dering 1999; Huebner 1991; Riley 2008; Sobolik 1988b; Sobolik 1991a, 1996a).
  • This reference data were compared to existing publications available on fiber analysis, generally, and several of these taxa specifically (Arruda and Melo-De-Pinna 2010; Bell and King 1944; Catling and Grayson 1998; Mayorga-Hernandez 2004; Mclaughlin and Schuck 1991; Olivotto 1996; Pando-Moreno 2008).
  • This section presents an overview of the starch reference collection developed over the course of this research following a brief review of the microscopic methods useful in starch grain analysis.
  • The refractive index of a birefringent specimen varies with the direction of passage, causing one of the components to be retarded relative to the other component.

Sub-Sampling Coprolites

  • There is an unresolved debate among coprolite researchers on the proper amount of specimen to sub-sample (Callen and Cameron 1960; Dean 2006; Reinhard 1989; Reinhard and Bryant 1992; Sutton and Reinhard 1995).
  • This approach is useful in that the same specimen can be freshly sub-sampled for each type of analysis utilized in the study.
  • Studies have demonstrated that pollen samples taken along the axis of colonic orientation of a coprolite are not similar and represent different mixtures of pollen types (Dean 2006).
  • Three specimens from lens 10b had three sub-samples taken for examination (Table 11).
  • The staple resources consumed by each individual are apparent across all three sub-samples but none of the sub-samples represent the entire dietary menu contained in the specimen.

Laboratory Procedures and Analysis

  • Ten specimens were selected from the coprolite assemblages of the three lenses described in Chapter V.
  • The resulting material was collected and sub-sampled for phytolith, starch, and pollen analysis .
  • The samples were placed in a solution of 5% Calgon (Sodium hexametaphosphate) overnight in order to deflocculate the sample and disperse any aggregated components.
  • The sample was then centrifuged for 10 minutes, decanted, and inverted to dry.
  • The sides of the tube were washed with 95% ethanol and water was added to the sample, being careful not to break the surface tension of the zinc bromide solution.

Data from Previous Coprolite Studies

  • All of the samples in three previous studies of Hinds Cave quantified macrofossils using a visual-estimation of percentage-volume (Edwards 1990; Stock 1983; Williams-Dean 1978).
  • This was converted into the ordinal scale taken from Sobolik (1991a) to minimize inter-researcher error in estimation and assure comparatibility to the data from Sobolik (Table 14).
  • The data from Frightful Cave is presented as percentage-weight and the Parida Cave studies presents the data only as ubiquity.
  • All of them were included in the current analysis to generate the most robust coprolite record of paleodiet possible for the Lower Pecos canyonlands.
  • All of the coprolite datasets included in this study are presented in appendices C and D. 195.

Statistical Analysis

  • Each coprolite represents a combination of dietary items that can generally be considered to represent a meal (Fry, 1985) or perhaps several meals (Sutton and Reinhard, 1995), both relatively focused windows into an individual’s dietary decisions.
  • This approach serves three purposes; (1) it evaluates the assigned group membership of each specimen; (2) it identifies the important variables in defining clusters; and (3) it provides a visual representation of cluster association.
  • The results of these data are used to address some aspects of diet-breadth, but this is limited by the lack of phytolith, epidermal, and fiber cell identification in all of these studies.
  • Frightful Cave is located nearly 200 miles to the south of Hinds Cave, in the well-watered Cuatro Cienegas basin in the center of the modern state of Coahuila, Mexico.

Data from the Current Study

  • The categorized macrofossil data of the thirty specimens included in my current study are presented in Tables 15-17.
  • Cluster 1 (n=15) is characterized by high amounts of lechuguilla epidermal tissue and the presence of onion epidermal tissue.
  • Prickly pear seeds are present at a higher level than cluster 1, but well below the mean for all specimens.
  • The mean values of each component are presented by cluster in Table 26.
  • The remaining four specimens contain larger, solitary starch granules that are likely derived from geophytes, although this remains tentative.

Other Coprolite Studies from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

  • This small study of coprolites (n=11) from Parida Cave was primarily focused on the analysis of pollen grains in the specimens (Riskind 1970).
  • Cluster 2 (n=9) is primarily grouped based on higher levels of prickly pear epidermal tissue, onion seed pods, and an unknown fiber type.
  • Function 2 is positively correlated with unknown fiber and unknown epidermal tissue and negatively correlated with prickly pear seeds and charcoal.
  • The second cluster reflects a diet focused on nopales and an unknown fibrous resource that may be sotol or an agave species.

Skeletal Stable Carbon Isotopes from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

  • A total of 31 human burials from the Lower Pecos canyonlands and surrounding region have staple carbon isotope data from bone collagen samples (Table 55) (Bement 1994; Bousman and Quigg 2006; Huebner 1991; Skinner 1978).
  • These data suggest a population with a well-mixed diet with a primary focus on CAM/C4 plant resources.
  • The overall picture of diet across the Archaic from the two groups of data suggest that populations on the Edwards Plateau increasingly relied on C3 plant resources in their diet, while the Lower Pecos hunter-gatherer populations were principally dependent on CAM/C4 plant resources.
  • The following chapter evaluates the coprolite specimens with reference to diet-breadth and seasonality.

Diet and Seasonality in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

  • The data from the coprolite studies presented above is used to assess the diet- breadth model developed in this current study.
  • Most specimens with high levels of tuna seeds [Stock Cluster 2 (n=10), Williams Dean Cluster 3 (n=19), and Edwards Cluster 2 (n=7)] have relatively low levels of other constituents, which reinforces the ethnohistoric record of the seasonal dominance of cactus tuna as a mid-summer resource (De Leon 1971; Krieger 2002; Taylor 1972; Wade 2003).
  • Cluster membership seems to be due to the absence of high levels of prickly pear cactus seeds and epidermal tissue.
  • This indicates that there continue to be unidentified elements in the subsistence strategy practiced by the huntergatherer populations occupying the Lower Pecos canyonlands during the Holocene.

Future Research Directions

  • This study demonstrates the importance of exploring each of the congruent lines of evidence for dietary consumption available in a coprolite specimen.
  • While coprolites are direct indicators of diet, the limited understanding of the quantifiable relationship between the consumed food resources and the undigested residue in the coprolite prevent a direct reconstruction of the diet and, more specifically, nutrition represented by a specimen.
  • This method, derived from palynology, provides a direct measure of the amount of a resource represented in the specimen.
  • Overall, the importance and reliability of these novel methods in coprolite analysis cannot be assessed until they have been applied to more specimens with paleoethnobotanical and faunal results.

Conclusion

  • Evaluating coprolites as the direct record of individual dietary choices over a short temporal window provides an excellent framework to assess the diet-breadth, seasonality of deposition and menus observed in past human subsistence patterns.
  • Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 45:87-107.

Did you find this useful? Give us your feedback

Figures (105)
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Bayesian linear mixing model SISUS was used to reconstruct reliance on maize and intake of animal protein from the stable carbon (δ13C and nitrogen (ε15N) isotope values of 149 directly dated Basketmaker II burials as mentioned in this paper.

52 citations


Cites background or methods from "Assessing Diet and Seasonality in t..."

  • ...Yucca pollen is abundant in Archaic coprolites from the Lower Pecos canyonlands site Hinds Cave (Riley, 2012), documenting ingestion of yucca flowers since the plant does not produce airborne pollen (Williams-Dean, 1978)....

    [...]

  • ...Using another approach, Riley (2012) constructed a diet-breath model (e.g., Broughton and Grayson, 1993; Hames and Vickers, 1982; Madsen and Schmitt, 1998) to evaluate the economic importance of desert succulents common in Archaic era coprolites from Hinds Cave (see also Leach and Sobolik, 2010)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the history and current state of research in human coprolite analysis encompassing macroscopic, microscopic, and biomolecular approaches can be found in this article.

38 citations


Cites background from "Assessing Diet and Seasonality in t..."

  • ...A handful continued this type of work, notably Texas A&M University and University of Nebraska, whom still trains coprolite researchers today....

    [...]

  • ...These researchers also collaborated with parasitologists and directed research into prehistoric parasitism among Texas hunter-gatherers (Reinhard 1990)....

    [...]

  • ...Variability can also be significant within a single site, for example Sobolik (1988) reported concentration values of 6,438,455 to 1,000 grains per gram of coprolite material from coprolites recovered from the same latrine feature at Baker Cave, Texas....

    [...]

  • ...Starch grains have been recovered in varying amounts in Archaic-period human coprolites from the Lower Pecos canyonlands, Texas (Riley 2012), Inka-period human coprolites from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile (Vinton et al., 2009), late Archaic-period human and dog coprolites from the western coast of Peru (Haas et al. 2013), and middle to late-Holocene human coprolites from Antelope Cave in northwest Arizona (Reinhard et al. 2012)....

    [...]

  • ...Macrofossils, therefore, can provide a direct link to diet and even foods consumed together in “meals” (Pearsall 2015; Riley 2012; Sutton et al. 2010:51)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study provides the first comprehensive plastome phylogeny for any clade within Cactaceae, and resolved the phylogeny of the chollas, including most interspecific and intraspecific relationships.
Abstract: Premise Although numerous phylogenetic studies have been conducted in Cactaceae, whole-plastome datasets have not been employed. We used the chollas to develop a plastome dataset for phylogeny reconstruction to test species relationships, biogeography, clade age, and morphological evolution. Methods We developed a plastome dataset for most known diploid members of the chollas (42 taxa) as well as for other members of Cylindropuntieae. Paired-end, raw reads from genome skimming were reference-mapped onto a de novo plastome assembly of one species of cholla, Cylindropuntia bigelovii, and were used to build our plastome dataset, which was analyzed using various methods. Results Our plastome dataset resolved the phylogeny of the chollas, including most interspecific and intraspecific relationships. Tribe Cylindropuntieae arose ~18 mya, during the early Miocene in southern South America, and is supported as sister to the South American clade Tephrocacteae. The (Micropuntia (Cylindropuntia + Grusonia)) clade most likely originated in the Chihuahuan Desert region around 16 mya and then migrated into other North American desert regions. Key morphological characters for recognizing traditional taxonomic series in Cylindropuntia (e.g., spiny fruit) are mostly homoplasious. Conclusions This study provides the first comprehensive plastome phylogeny for any clade within Cactaceae. Although the chollas s.l. are widespread throughout western North American deserts, their most recent common ancestor likely arose in the Chihuahuan Desert region during the mid-Miocene, with much of their species diversity arising in the early to mid-Pliocene, a pattern strikingly similar to those found in other western North American desert groups.

37 citations


Cites background from "Assessing Diet and Seasonality in t..."

  • ...…Thompson et  al., 1980; Jansen, 1986; Van Devender, 1987; Betancourt et al., 1990), as well as their broad prehistoric and historical use by humans (Diguet, 1928; Bravo-Hollis and SánchezMejorada, 1991; Felger and Moser, 1991; Minnis, 1991; Reinhard and Hevly, 1991; Hodgson, 2001; Riley, 2012)....

    [...]

01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The South Texas area, Region 3 of the Southwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is synthesized from archeological and bio-archeological perspectives as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The South Texas area, Region 3 of the Southwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is synthesized from archeological and bioarcheological perspectives. Three distinct geographic units within Region 3 are treated in detail: Central Texas Plateau Prairie, South Texas Plains, and Lower Pecos Canyonlands. More than 11,000 years of human adaptation are chronicled for this area, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Rio Grande along the border with northeastern Mexico. Particular attention is devoted to a consideration of the region's prehistoric record; significant problems and data gaps are outlined. For the first time, a compilation has been done of the bioarcheological resources of this region, providing analysis and initial interpretation of the human osteological remains of its early inhabitants. The Historic era has also been summarized, particularly the Native American populations and the record of the AngloEuropean immigrants who replaced them. To help characterize the prehistoric human utilization of the region, a series of adaptation types were developed and can be tested by future research.

19 citations

References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a new global map of climate using the Koppen-Geiger system based on a large global data set of long-term monthly precipitation and temperature station time series is presented.
Abstract: Although now over 100 years old, the classification of climate originally formulated by Wladimir Koppen and modified by his collaborators and successors, is still in widespread use. It is widely used in teaching school and undergraduate courses on climate. It is also still in regular use by researchers across a range of disciplines as a basis for climatic regionalisation of variables and for assessing the output of global climate models. Here we have produced a new global map of climate using the Koppen-Geiger system based on a large global data set of long-term monthly precipitation and temperature station time series. Climatic variables used in the Koppen-Geiger system were calculated at each station and interpolated between stations using a two-dimensional (latitude and longitude) thin-plate spline with tension onto a 0.1°×0.1° grid for each continent. We discuss some problems in dealing with sites that are not uniquely classified into one climate type by the Koppen-Geiger system and assess the outcomes on a continent by continent basis. Globally the most common climate type by land area is BWh (14.2%, Hot desert) followed by Aw (11.5%, Tropical savannah). The updated world Koppen-Geiger climate map is freely available electronically in the Supplementary Material Section.

10,518 citations


"Assessing Diet and Seasonality in t..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…holds for the immediate vicinity of Hinds Cave and the Lower Pecos, but quickly grades into Dry Midlatitude Steppe (BSk) and Dry Tropical Desert (BW) to the west and Moist Continental Deciduous Forest (Cfa) to the east, again suggesting the ecotonal nature of the region (Peel and Mcmahon 2007)....

    [...]

  • ...The climate of the Lower Pecos can be characterized as a dry midlatitude grassland in the Köppen climate classification system (BSh) (Peel and Mcmahon 2007)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A graphical method is discussed which allows a specification of the optimal diet of a predator in terms of the net amount of energy gained from a capture of prey as compared to the energy expended in searching for the prey.
Abstract: A graphical method is discussed which allows a specification of the optimal diet of a predator in terms of the net amount of energy gained from a capture of prey as compared to the energy expended in searching for the prey. The method allows several predictions about changes in the degree of specialization of the diet as the numbers of different prey organisms change. For example, a more productive environment should lead to more restricted diet in numbers of different species eaten. In a patchy environment, however, this will not apply to predators that spend most of their time searching. Moreover, larger patches are used in a more specialized way than smaller patches.

4,132 citations


"Assessing Diet and Seasonality in t..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Optimal foraging theory was developed by evolutionary ecologists interested in addressing a number of issues relating to animal subsistence (Macarthur and Pianka 1966; Pianka 1974; Smith and Winterhalder 1985)....

    [...]

Journal Article
TL;DR: Values for RS are similar to the amount of starch escaping digestion in the small intestine of ileostomates, and are a guide to the amounts of starch likely to enter the colon for fermentation.
Abstract: For nutritional purposes, starch in foods may be classified into rapidly digestible starch (RDS), slowly digestible starch (SDS) and resistant starch (RS). RS may be further divided into three categories according to the reason for resistance to digestion. A method is reported for the measurement of total starch, RDS, SDS, RS and three RS fractions in starchy foods, using controlled enzymic hydrolysis with pancreatin and amyloglucosidase. The released glucose is measured by colorimetry, using a glucose oxidase kit. Values for RDS and SDS in foods obtained by the method reflect the rate of starch digestion in vivo. Values for RS are similar to the amounts of starch escaping digestion in the small intestine of ileostomates, and are a guide to the amounts of starch likely to enter the colon for fermentation. Results are given for a number of starchy foods.

2,782 citations


"Assessing Diet and Seasonality in t..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Rapidly digestible starch includes most freshly cooked starchy foodstuffs and is readily digested in the small intestine (Englyst et al. 1992)....

    [...]

  • ...Nutritionists divide starch into three categories based upon the potential digestibility of the granule (Englyst et al. 1992)....

    [...]

  • ...This process of retrogradation generally occurs with the linear amylase structures rather than the branched amylopectin fraction of starch (Englyst et al. 1992; Franco et al. 1992)....

    [...]

  • ...Resistant starch includes all starch granules which are not expected to be fully digested in the small intestine, leaving a potential starch residue that may be fermented in the colon, or possibly incorporated into fecal material (Englyst et al. 1992)....

    [...]

  • ...Some starch grains are physically inaccessible due to the presence of cellulose or other indigestible material cooccurring in the starchy food (Englyst et al. 1992)....

    [...]

Book
01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: The economics of biological diversity have been studied extensively in the literature as discussed by the authors, with a focus on the maintenance of local species diversity at various spatial and temporal scales, such as landscapes and marine ecosystems.
Abstract: 1. Introduction Part I. Raw Materials and Tools: 2. General patterns of species diversity 3. The assessment of species diversity Part II. Theories of Species Diversity: Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium: 4. Equilibrium processes and the maintenance of landscape-scale species diversity 5. Non-equilibrium processes and the maintenance of local species diversity Part III. Mechanisms that Regulate Biological Diversity at Various Spatial and Temporal Scales: 6. Diversity within populations 7. Individual properties and the structure of communities and ecosystems 8. Landscape patterns: disturbance and diversity 9. Landscape patterns: succession and temporal change 10. Landscape patterns: gradients and zonation Part IV. Case Studies: Patterns and Hypotheses: 11. Case studies: endemism and invasions 12. Case studies: species diversity in marine ecosystems 13. Case studies: species diversity in fire-influenced ecosystems 14. Case studies: species diversity in tropical rain forests 15. Concluding comments: the economics of biological diversity.

2,172 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: The use of stable carbon isotopes for diet reconstruction is predicated on the assumption that the carbon isotopic composition of animal tissues is assumed to be a direct and constant function of the diet.
Abstract: The use of stable carbon isotopes for diet reconstruction is predicated on the assumption that you are what you eat. In other words, the carbon isotopic composition of animal tissues is assumed to be a direct and constant function of the diet. Is this assumption valid? Precise dietary reconstruction requires as accurate knowledge of the isotopic composition of locally available dietary resources, as well as an adequate understanding of the effects of nutrition, environment, and physiology on the diet-tissue function (van der Merwe 1982, 1989; Chisholm 1989; Norr 1990; Matson and Chisholm 1991; Tieszen 1991; Ambrose 1992). There is a systematic but poorly defined difference between the isotopic composition of the consumer tissues and that of the diet (an enrichment factor, expressed as Δ diet-tissue). Given the isotopic composition of a specific tissue, that of the diet or of other tissues may be calculated if the Δ diet-tissue difference factors are known. The dietary proportions of isotopically distinct food resources (e.g., C3 vs C4, or C3 vs marine) have thus been calculated from the δ 13C value of bone collagen (Δ13Cd-co) and bone apatite carbonate (Δ13Cd-ca). Deviations from actual or assumed average δ 13C values for dietary endmembers, and incorrect values for diet-to-tissue isotopic relationships, will lead to errors in the estimation of consumption of specific classes of resources. Experiments and observations designed to determine the diet-to-collagen stable isotope functions (Δ13Cd-co) however, have provided widely different values.

1,355 citations


"Assessing Diet and Seasonality in t..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Experimental studies have shown that the relationship between dietary δ13C values and the δ13C values of various tissues are constant, if not directly one-to-one (Ambrose and Norr 1993; Deniro and Epstein 1978; Tieszen and Fagre 1993)....

    [...]

Frequently Asked Questions (8)
Q1. What is the main focus of coprolite studies?

While the recovery of macrofossils, pollen, and parasitological data has been the main focus of coprolite studies, recent research has also extended into areas of biochemical analysis including27DNA studies (Gilbert et al. 

Other possible techniques for characterizing chemical compounds include gas chromatography (GC), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and gas chromatography- mass spectrometry (GC/MS), which also has the ability to monitor the isotope ratios of individual compounds (Degano and Colombini 2009; Evershed 1993; Gilbert et al. 

Prior to the advent of aDNA research, steroid analysis was themost commonly employed chemical technique in coprolite studies (Bull et al. 

While coprolites do provide enough carbon to be dated directly using traditional radiocarbon methods (Williams-Dean 1978), there is the potential of external contamination and admixture of components within the specimen. 

These models deal with a biological necessity, food acquisition that humans share with all other animals, perhaps another reason for the successful introduction of these models in anthropology. 

Despite having a relatively low caloric return by unit weight, prickly pear tunas have the highest caloric return rates of any resource considered in this model. 

Other microfossils have also been recovered from coprolite specimens, includingbacteria, fungal spores, diatoms, and phytoliths (Horrocks et al. 

Storage techniques such as drying and freezing, which are both traditionally used among potato cultivators in the Andes (Johns 1988, 1996), can significantly decrease starch granule digestibility (Dreher et al. 1984; Szymonska 2000).