The Origins of Domestication in the Mayan Lowlands

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Erin Kennedy Thornton博士和Kitty Emery博士将与美国，加拿大和墨西哥学术机构的合作者一起重新研究玛雅低地火鸡饲养的时间和过程。确定古玛雅人何时采用和/或发展了火鸡饲养的做法，对于理解玛雅人的生计系统和长途贸易联系具有重要意义。由于火鸡是美洲仅有的几种驯养动物之一，这项研究对了解新世界动物驯养和动物管理的过程也有广泛的影响。考古学家希望了解导致复杂社会系统发展的过程。 在大多数情况下，无论是在旧世界还是在新世界，动物的驯化在这一过程中发挥了重要作用。低地中美洲在这方面是不寻常的，因为目前还不清楚是否有任何非植物物种在那里驯化（而不是从其他地方引进）。 桑顿博士和埃默里博士的研究将直接解决这个问题。该项目是跨学科的：整合动物考古学，骨骼测量学，同位素和DNA分析。这些方法将被用来解决几个问题，在中美洲火鸡饲养。这项研究将评估墨西哥火鸡（Meleagris gallopavo）何时首次被引入古玛雅，以及何时被广泛采用。直到最近，非本地墨西哥火鸡被认为是在后古典时期（公元1000-1500年）引入玛雅文化地区的。最近在El Mirador（危地马拉佩滕）的晚前古典时期（公元前300年至公元100年）沉积物中发现的墨西哥火鸡挑战了这一假设，并表明该物种可能比以前认为的早了大约1000年。这项研究还将探讨古玛雅人是否保留了野生单眼火鸡（Meleagris ocellata）的圈养种群，这种火鸡原产于玛雅地区。这项研究将进一步提供跨文化比较与火鸡饲养在美国西南部，这已被确定为一个独立的中心，火鸡驯化。这种比较提供了对管理自然资源的经济和社会动机的深入了解，并将推进我们对古代北美唯一的家畜的了解。该项目将促进和发展美国、加拿大、墨西哥和伯利兹的教育和政府机构之间的国际合作。这些研究伙伴关系对几个高级项目人员很重要，他们是致力于建立专业网络的早期职业研究人员。该研究还将为来自佛罗里达大学、尤卡坦自治大学、特伦特大学、西蒙弗雷泽大学、新墨西哥州大学和纽约州立大学奥尔巴尼分校的研究生和本科生提供学术培训。通过开放存取数据存储和出版，该项目产生的数据将有助于未来的研究。例如，从现代标本中获得的DNA将添加到Meleagris gallopavo和Meleagris ocellata的现有基因序列中。该项目的动物考古学、同位素和遗传学也将通过在线数据库以及标准出版物公开提供。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Erin Kennedy Thornton and Kitty Emery, together with collaborators at academic institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico, will re-examine the timing and process of turkey husbandry in the Maya lowlands. Determining when the practice of turkey husbandry was adopted and/or developed by the ancient Maya has important consequences for understanding Maya subsistence systems and long-distance trade connections. Since the turkey is one of only a few animals domesticated in the Americas, this research also has broad ramifications for understanding the process of New World animal domestication and animal management. Archaeologists wish to understand the processes which led to the development of complex social systems. In most instances in which this occurred - both in the Old and New Worlds - the domestication of animals played a significant role in the process. Lowland Middle America is unusual in this regard since it is unclear whether any non-plant species were domesticated there (as opposed to introduced from elsewhere). Drs. Thornton's and Emery's research will directly address this issue.The project is inter-disciplinary: integrating zooarchaeological, osteometric, isotopic, and DNA analysis. These methods will be used to address several questions regarding turkey husbandry in the Mesoamerica. The research will assess when the Mexican turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was first introduced to the ancient Maya and when it was widely adopted. Until recently, the non-local Mexican turkey was thought to have been introduced to the Maya cultural region during the Postclassic period (AD 1000-1500). The recent discovery of Mexican turkeys in Late Preclassic (300 BC-AD 100) deposits at the site of El Mirador (Petén, Guatemala) challenges this assumption, and suggests that the species may have been introduced approximately 1000 years earlier than previously thought. The research will also address whether the ancient Maya maintained captive populations of the wild ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), which is native to the Maya region. The research will further provide cross-cultural comparison with turkey husbandry in the American Southwest, which has been identified as an independent center of turkey domestication. Such comparisons provide insight into the economic and social motivations for managing natural resources, and will advance our knowledge of ancient North America's only domestic animal. The project will facilitate and develop international collaboration between educational and governmental institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Belize. These research partnerships are important to several senior project personnel who are early career researchers working to establish professional networks. The research will also provide academic training for both graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Florida, Universidad Autonóma de Yucatan, Trent University, Simon Fraser University, University of New Mexico, and SUNY-Albany. Through open-access data storage and publication, the data generated from this project will contribute to future research. For example, DNA obtained from modern specimens will add to the available genetic sequences for both Meleagris gallopavo and Meleagris ocellata. The zooarchaeological, isotopic and genetic from this project will also be made publicly available through on-line databases, as well as standard publications.