Earliest Mexican Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in the Maya Region: implications for pre-Hispanic animal trade and the timing of turkey domestication.

ABSTRACT: Late Preclassic (300 BC-AD 100) turkey remains identified at the archaeological site of El Mirador (Petén, Guatemala) represent the earliest evidence of the Mexican turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) in the ancient Maya world. Archaeological, zooarchaeological, and ancient DNA evidence combine to confirm the identification and context. The natural pre-Hispanic range of the Mexican turkey does not extend south of central Mexico, making the species non-local to the Maya area where another species, the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), is indigenous. Prior to this discovery, the earliest evidence of M. gallopavo in the Maya area dated to approximately one thousand years later. The El Mirador specimens therefore represent previously unrecorded Preclassic exchange of animals from northern Mesoam

SUBMITTER: Thornton EK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3414452 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature