Ancient People of Teotihuacan May Have Bred Cottontails, Jackrabbits
Humans living Teotihuacan, a sacred pre-Columbian city that
flourished between 1 CE and 600 CE and was once the largest in the
Americas, may have bred and managed leporids (cottontails and
jackrabbits) for food, fur and bone tools.
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| The Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Image credit: Ricardo David Sanchez / CC BY-SA 3.0. |
Human-animal relationships often involve herbivore husbandry and have played critical roles in the history and development of complex societies.
The co-evolution of Eurasian and African societies with cattle, such as cows, goats and sheep, has resulted in their domestication for transportation, meat, and secondary products, and in drastic transformations to natural landscapes.
However, fewer large mammals suitable for husbandry were available in Pre-Columbian North and Central America, and their absence has led some to explore constraints on the growth of New World cities.
A team of researchers led by University of California, San Diego scientist Andrew Somerville looked for evidence of small animal husbandry in Teotihuacan. Located in the northeast of the Basin of Mexico, the ancient city covered 7.7 square miles (20 square km) and possessed a population of approximately 100,000 residents.
Dr. Somerville and his colleagues performed stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of 134 leporid bone specimens from Teotihuacan and 13 modern wild specimens from central Mexico to compare their potential diets and ecology.
Compared to modern wild specimens, the team found that Teotihuacan cottontail and jackrabbit specimens had carbon isotope values indicating higher levels of human-farmed crops, such as maize, in their diet.
The specimens with the greatest difference in isotope values came from a Teotihuacan complex that contained traces of animal butchering and a rabbit sculpture.
While the ancient animals included in this study could have consumed at least some farmed crops through raiding of fields or wild plants, the scientists suggest their findings indicate that Teotihuacan residents may have provisioned, managed, or bred cottontails and jackrabbits for food, fur, and bone tools, which could be new evidence of small mammal husbandry in Mesoamerica.
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| Illustration of stone rabbit sculpture from the Oztoyahualco 15B
apartment compound, Teotihuacan, Mexico. Image credit: Somerville A.D. et al / Manzanilla / Fernando Botas. |
“Because no large mammals such as goats, cows, or horses were available for domestication in pre-Hispanic Mexico, many assume that Native Americans did not have as intensive human-animal relationships as did societies of the Old World,” Dr. Somerville said.
“Our results suggest that citizens of the ancient city of Teotihuacan engaged in relationships with smaller and more diverse fauna, such as rabbits and jackrabbits, and that these may have been just as important as relationships with larger animals.”
The team’s findings were published online in the journal PLoS ONE on August 17, 2016.
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