[H-TT18] Development and application of environmental traceability methods

[HTT18-12] Elucidation of the habitat and domestication of ancient Chinese geese, 7000 years ago, using oxygen isotope analaysis of bone phosphate.

*Yu Itahashi¹, Masaki Eda², Hiroki Kikuchi³, Guoping Sun⁴, Kaihsuan Hsu², Takashi Gakuari⁵, Minoru Yoneda⁶, Leping Jiang⁴, Guomei Yang⁷, Shinichi Nakamura⁵ (1.University of Tsukuba, 2.Hokkaido University, 3.Lanzhou University, 4.Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 5.Kanazawa University, 6.The University of Tokyo, 7.Xiao Shan Museum)

Keywords:Oxygen isotope, Migratory bird, Bird tracking, Domestication of goose, Apatite Phosphate

Reconstruction of bird migration using oxygen isotope composition (δ¹⁸O) is a commonly used technique in ecological studies. The δ¹⁸O of precipitations varies geographically, correlating with latitude, altitude, and distance from oceans caused by isotope effects associated with evaporation and condensation processes of meteoric water. Because the oxygen in animal body tissues comes mainly from the water contained in drinking water and food, the δ¹⁸O of animal body tissues are correlated with the δ¹⁸O of the local meteoric water and precipitation. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the habitat area of the target animal by the δ¹⁸O of animal body tissues. In the migrant birds, it is used as a tracer determining the place of origin different from the area where the individual was captured. In some ecological studies for modern samples, feathers are often used as a measurement part, while in archaeological samples, carbonates and phosphates of bone or teeth are often used.
In this study, we measured δ¹⁸O for goose bones from Tianluoshan—a 7000-year-old rice cultivation village in the lower Yangtze River valley, China. In the site, histological analysis revealed that some of the bones were derived from locally bred chicks, although no wild goose species breed in southern China. Reconstructing the habitat of geese individuals from the Tianluoshan site by measuring the δ¹⁸O of phosphate in the bones, we try to identify whether they were a migrant bird or a resident bird that inhabited through the year around the Zhejiang Province. The geochemical evidence suggests that geese at Tianluoshan village were the resident birds, and also possibly at an early stage of domestication. These findings indicate that goose domestication dates back 7000 years, making geese the oldest domesticated poultry species in history.