Not a limitless resource: ethics and guidelines for destructive sampling of archaeofaunal remains

Publisher's version (útgefin grein)With the advent of ancient DNA, as well as other methods such as isotope analysis, destructive sampling of archaeofaunal remains has increased much faster than the effort to collect and curate them. While there has been considerable discussion regarding the ethics of destructive sampling and analysis of human remains, this dialogue has not extended to archaeofaunal material. Here we address this gap and discuss the ethical challenges surrounding destructive sampling of materials from archaeofaunal collections. We suggest ways of mitigating the negative aspects of destructive sampling and present step-by-step guidelines aimed at relevant stakeholders, including scientists, holding institutions and scientific journals. Our suggestions are in most cases easily implemented without significant increases in project costs, but with clear long-term benefits inthe preservation and use of zooarchaeologicalmaterial.his work was supported by the Icelandic Research Fund grant no. 162783-051, Finnish Academy grant no. SA286499, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SkłodowskaCurie grant agreement no. 749226 and Estonian Research Council grant nos. PRG29 and IUT 20-7.Peer Reviewe

Extinct insular oryzomyine rice rats (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae) from the Grenada Bank, southern Caribbean

The Lesser Antillean island chain in the eastern Caribbean formerly supported a diverse rodent fauna including multiple endemic genera of oryzomyine rice rats. The Caribbean rice rats are now all extinct, with most island populations known only from Holocene palaeontological and zooarchaeological material and with many remaining taxonomically undescribed. Rice rat material is reported from several pre-Columbian Ceramic Age (late Holocene) archaeological sites on the Grenada Bank, including sites on Grenada and Carriacou, but the taxonomic identity and diversity of the Grenada Bank rice rats has remained uncertain. We provide a morphology-based description of rice rats from Grenada and Carriacou, and analyze their phylogenetic and biogeographical affinities to other Caribbean and mainland Neotropical oryzomyines. We recognize two taxa from the Grenada Bank: we describe the new species Megalomys camerhogne from Pearls (Grenada), representing the largest-bodied member of the extinct endemic Caribbean genus Megalomys, and we refer smaller-bodied oryzomyine material from Pearls and Sabazan (Carriacou) to the widespread extant Neotropical species Zygodontomys brevicauda. Body size variation within Megalomys correlates with island bank area and might thus reflect historical rather than modern biogeography. Zygodontomys specimens from the Grenada Bank fall within the upper end of size variation in extant populations and may constitute an example of ‘island gigantism’, but it is possible that occurrence of this widespread species on the Grenada Bank might reflect prehistoric human-mediated translocation. We predict further endemic Caribbean rice rat taxa remain to be discovered, including a possible species of Megalomys on the neighbouring island of St. Vincent

Mollusc harvesting in the Pre - European contact Pacific Islands: investigating resilience and sustainability

Mollusc shells, which are often quite numerous in archaeological sites throughout the Pacific Islands, offer good proxies for assessing environmental change as well as human impact. Documented changes in species size, richness, and abundance have often been interpreted as evidence of resource abuse by shellfish gatherers. While this may be valid in some cases, archaeologists need to consider other variables to explain change (or stability) in shell distribution. A better understanding of ecological and biological (life history) characteristics associated with shell midden deposits, as well as greater awareness of ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological data on the interaction between people and varieties of marine resources, may result in a reinterpretation of past human behavior. A growing interest in indigenous resource management among contemporary Pacific Island communities has led some archaeologists to seek tangible evidence of community resilience and sustainable use of resources in the past. This chapter draws primarily from direct observations and semi-structured interviews among mollusc gatherers in Kiribati, eastern Micronesia, and examines selected case studies of archaeological shell deposits from the Pacific Islands that could shed new light on marine resource management to complement the more widespread research conclusions that depict human impact in largely negative terms