An application of zooms to identify archaeological avian fauna from Teotihuacan, Mexico

Maria C. Codlin (Corresponding author), Katerina Douka, Kristine K. Richter

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

The remains of aquatic birds often represent the best surviving evidence for prehispanic lake exploitation in highland Central Mexico, an important center of urban development with vast lacustrine resources. Yet unlike the sustained focus on turkey husbandry in Mesoamerican research, the economic importance of ducks and other lacustrine birds has received little attention. The diversity of birds in Central Mexico presents challenges to species identification from skeletal remains. To overcome these challenges, we present a new application of ZooMS, a collagen-based identification technique, to identify archaeological avian fauna from Teotihuacan. We develop the first database of avian biomarkers to include specimens across multiple taxonomic groups and apply ZooMS on 295 bone fragments to identify fragmentary and unidentified avian remains from the Tlajinga district of Teotihuacan. Our results indicate that ZooMS has good potential to identify avian fauna to below family level and that the residents of Tlajinga exploited a range of aquatic birds.
Original languageEnglish
Article number105692
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Archaeological Science
Volume148
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 106018 Human biology

Keywords

  • ZooMS
  • Teotihuacan
  • Aves
  • Birds
  • Collagen
  • Aquatic
  • SPECIES IDENTIFICATION
  • TLAJINGA DISTRICT
  • BASIN
  • RESOURCES
  • REMAINS
  • BONE

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'An application of zooms to identify archaeological avian fauna from Teotihuacan, Mexico'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this