Browsing by Author "Crowther, Alison"

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    Collagen fingerprinting traces the introduction of caprines to island Eastern Africa
    (The Royal Society, 2021) Culley, Courtney; Janzen, Anneke; Brown, Samantha; Prendergast, Mary E.; Wolfhagen, Jesse; Abderemane, Bourhane; Ali, Abdallah K.; Haji, Othman; Horton, Mark C.; Shipton, Ceri; Swift, Jillian; Tabibou, Tabibou A.; Wright, Henry T.; Boivin, Nicole; Crowther, Alison
    The human colonization of eastern Africa's near- and offshore islands was accompanied by the translocation of several domestic, wild and commensal fauna, many of which had long-term impacts on local environments. To better understand the timing and nature of the introduction of domesticated caprines (sheep and goat) to these islands, this study applied collagen peptide fingerprinting (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry or ZooMS) to archaeological remains from eight Iron Age sites, dating between ca 300 and 1000 CE, in the Zanzibar, Mafia and Comoros archipelagos. Where previous zooarchaeological analyses had identified caprine remains at four of these sites, this study identified goat at seven sites and sheep at three, demonstrating that caprines were more widespread than previously known. The ZooMS results support an introduction of goats to island eastern Africa from at least the seventh century CE, while sheep in our sample arrived one–two centuries later. Goats may have been preferred because, as browsers, they were better adapted to the islands' environments. The results allow for a more accurate understanding of early caprine husbandry in the study region and provide a critical archaeological baseline for examining the potential long-term impacts of translocated fauna on island ecologies.
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    Iron Age hunting and herding in coastal eastern Africa: ZooMS identification of domesticates and wild bovids at Panga ya Saidi, Kenya
    (Elsevier, 2021) Culley, Courtney; Janzen, Anneke; Brown, Samantha; Prendergast, Mary E.; Shipton, Ceri; Ndiema, Emmanuel; Petraglia, Michael D.; Boivin, Nicole; Crowther, Alison
    The morphological differentiation of African bovids in highly fragmented zooarchaeological assemblages is a major hindrance to reconstructing the nature and spread of pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa. Here we employ collagen peptide mass fingerprinting, known as Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), coupled with recently published African ZooMS reference datasets, to identify domesticates and wild bovids in Iron Age assemblages at the cave site of Panga ya Saidi in southeast Kenya. Through ZooMS we have identified all three major African livestock—sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus) and cattle (Bos taurus)—at the site for the first time. The results provide critical evidence for the use of domesticates by resident foraging populations during the Iron Age, the period associated with the arrival of food production in coastal Kenya. ZooMS results show that livestock at Panga ya Saidi form a minor component of the assemblage compared to wild bovids, demonstrating the persistence of hunting and the secondary role of acquiring livestock in hunter-gatherer foodways during the introduction of agro-pastoralism. This study sheds new light on the establishment of food production in coastal eastern Africa, particularly the role of interactions between hunter-gatherers and neighbouring agro-pastoral groups in what was a protracted regional transition to farming.
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    Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history
    (Springer Nature, 2022) Yu, He; Jamieson, Alexandra; Hulme-Beaman, Ardern; Conroy, Chris J.; Knight, Becky; Speller, Camilla; Al-Jarah, Hiba; Eager, Heidi; Trinks, Alexandra; Adikari, Gamini; Baron, Henriette; Böhlendorf-Arslan, Beate; Bohingamuwa, Wijerathne; Crowther, Alison; Cucchi, Thomas; Esser, Kinie; Fleisher, Jeffrey; Gidney, Louisa; Gladilina, Elena; Gol’din, Pavel; Goodman, Steven M.; Hamilton-Dyer, Sheila; Helm, Richard; Hillman, Jesse C.; Kallala, Nabil; Kivikero, Hanna; Kovács, Zsófia E.; Kunst, Günther Karl; Kyselý, René; Linderholm, Anna; Maraoui-Telmini, Bouthéina; Marković, Nemanja; Morales-Muñiz, Arturo; Nabais, Mariana; O’Connor, Terry; Oueslati, Tarek; Quintana Morales, Eréndira M.; Pasda, Kerstin; Perera, Jude; Perera, Nimal; Radbauer, Silvia; Ramon, Joan; Rannamäe, Eve; Sanmartí Grego, Joan; Treasure, Edward; Valenzuela-Lamas, Silvia; van der Jagt, Inge; Van Neer, Wim; Vigne, Jean-Denis; Walker, Thomas; Wynne-Jones, Stephanie; Zeiler, Jørn; Dobney, Keith; Boivin, Nicole; Searle, Jeremy B.; Krause-Kyora, Ben; Krause, Johannes; Larson, Greger; Orton, David
    The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.
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    Reconstructing Asian faunal introductions to eastern Africa from multi-proxy biomolecular and archaeological datasets
    (Public Library of Science, 2017) Prendergast, Mary E.; Buckley, Michael; Crowther, Alison; Frantz, Laurent; Eager, Heidi; Lebrasseur, Ophélie; Hutterer, Rainer; Hulme-Beaman, Ardern; Van Neer, Wim; Douka, Katerina; Veall, Margaret-Ashley; Morales, Eriéndira M. Quintana; Schuenemann, Verena J.; Reiter, Ella; Allen, Richard; Dimopoulos, Evangelos A.; Helm, Richard M.; Shipton, Ceri; Mwebi, Ogeto; Denys, Christiane; Horton, Mark; Wynne-Jones, Stephanie; Fleisher, Jeffrey; Radimilahy, Chantal; Wright, Henry; Searle, Jeremy B.; Krause, Johannes; Larson, Greger; Boivin, Nicole L.
    Human-mediated biological exchange has had global social and ecological impacts. In sub-Saharan Africa, several domestic and commensal animals were introduced from Asia in the pre-modern period; however, the timing and nature of these introductions remain contentious. One model supports introduction to the eastern African coast after the mid-first millennium CE, while another posits introduction dating back to 3000 BCE. These distinct scenarios have implications for understanding the emergence of long-distance maritime connectivity, and the ecological and economic impacts of introduced species. Resolution of this longstanding debate requires new efforts, given the lack of well-dated fauna from high-precision excavations, and ambiguous osteomorphological identifications. We analysed faunal remains from 22 eastern African sites spanning a wide geographic and chronological range, and applied biomolecular techniques to confirm identifications of two Asian taxa: domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) and black rat (Rattus rattus). Our approach included ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis aided by BLAST-based bioinformatics, Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) collagen fingerprinting, and direct AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon dating. Our results support a late, mid-first millennium CE introduction of these species. We discuss the implications of our findings for models of biological exchange, and emphasize the applicability of our approach to tropical areas with poor bone preservation.