What makes a dog? Stable isotope analysis and human-canid relationships at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo

Abstract

Domesticated animals in the prehispanic American Southwest/Mexican Northwest functioned in many roles, but these roles seem to have varied across time and space. In this study, we use bone collagen and apatite carbon (δ13Ccol/ap) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotopes to investigate the role(s) of seven canids from Arroyo Hondo Pueblo (LA 12), a 14th century site in the northern Rio Grande, New Mexico. Results indicate that in some cases, coyotes seem to have been treated like dogs; in others, dogs seem to have been treated like their wild relatives. In all cases, canids were treated differently than domestic turkeys. We conclude that ethnographic, genetic, geochemical and site-specific contextual data are required to understand the roles of dogs and wild canids in Ancestral Puebloan contexts. Social Media: New isotopic data, combined with previously published provenience and aDNA information, suggest different classifications of canids by Ancestral Puebloans at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo.