Journal article
The Dogs of Tsenacomoco: Ancient DNA Reveals the Presence of Local Dogs at Jamestown Colony in the Early Seventeenth Century
American antiquity, Vol.89(3), pp.341-359
07/2024
DOI: 10.1017/aaq.2024.25
Appears in UI Libraries Support Open Access
Abstract
Multiple studies have demonstrated that European colonization of the Americas led to the death of nearly all North American dog mitochondrial lineages and replacement with European ones sometime between AD 1492 and the present day. Historical records indicate that colonists imported dogs from Europe to North America, where they became objects of interest and exchange as early as the seventeenth century. However, it is not clear whether the earliest archaeological dogs recovered from colonial contexts were of European, Indigenous, or mixed descent. To clarify the ancestry of dogs from the Jamestown Colony, Virginia, we sequenced ancient mitochondrial DNA from six archaeological dogs from the period 1609-1617. Our analysis shows that the Jamestown dogs have maternal lineages most closely associated with those of ancient Indigenous dogs of North America. Furthermore, these maternal lineages cluster with dogs from Late Woodland, Hopewell, and Virginia Algonquian archaeological sites. Our recovery of Indigenous dog lineages from a European colonial site suggests a complex social history of dogs at the interface of Indigenous and European populations during the early colonial period.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Dogs of Tsenacomoco: Ancient DNA Reveals the Presence of Local Dogs at Jamestown Colony in the Early Seventeenth Century
- Creators
- Ariane E. Thomas - Univ Iowa, Dept Anthropol, Iowa City, IA 52242 USAMatthew E Hill Jr - University of Iowa, AnthropologyLeah Stricker - Jamestown Rediscovery, Jamestown, VA USAMichael Lavin - Jamestown Rediscovery, Jamestown, VA USADavid Givens - Jamestown Rediscovery, Jamestown, VA USAAlida de Flamingh - University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignKelsey E. Witt - Clemson UniversityRipan S. Malhi - University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignAndrew Kitchen - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- American antiquity, Vol.89(3), pp.341-359
- DOI
- 10.1017/aaq.2024.25
- ISSN
- 0002-7316
- eISSN
- 2325-5064
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Number of pages
- 19
- Grant note
- 1R35GM128946-01 / NIH; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dissertation Writing Fellowship University of Iowa Center for Advancement Student Impact Grant 10354 / Wenner-Gren Foundation's Dissertation Fieldwork Grant University of Iowa Graduate &Professional Student Government Research Grant University of Iowa's Graduate College Iowa Recruitment Fellowship
- Language
- English; Spanish
- Electronic publication date
- 05/22/2024
- Date published
- 07/2024
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology; International Programs
- Record Identifier
- 9984634946802771
Metrics
79 Record Views