Isotopic Evidence for Maya Patterns of Deer and Dog Use at Preclassic Colha

Based on our assessment of human exploitation of animals in the New World, we propose that one criterion for domestication should be dependence on humans for food, a trait that we test through isotopic analysis of faunal remains. Stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope compositions of bone collagen have been analysed for 24 dogs and 16 deer found in well-dated contexts from the prehistoric Maya lithic manufacturing community of Colha, Belize. The sample spans the Early Middle Preclassic period beginning 1000–600bc to the Terminal Late Preclassic period ending around ad250. The majority of both dogs and deer come from middens, but three dogs come from cache contexts in buildings. The degree to which humans controlled the diets of these animals varies markedly by context and time period. The diets of midden dogs demonstrate a significant increase in the amount of C4(maize-based) foods and become more herbivorous over time. Because the midden dogs were probably dependent scavengers, this phenomenon might reflect the dynamics of human dietary change as the population at Colha expanded towards the end of the Preclassic period. An increase in the homogeneity of dog diets might also be indicative of either more restrictive human control over the animals or a reduction in the variability of resources used by humans. Alternatively, because the structure associated with the midden in which the dogs were found became more ceremonial in Late Preclassic times, the dogs from this period could be reflecting a general increase in purposeful feeding for ceremonial purposes. Dogs found in special (i.e. non-midden) contexts from both the Late Middle Preclassic and Late Late to Terminal Late Preclassic periods have distinctive isotopic signatures that strongly suggest a more specific occurrence of purposeful maize feeding. Evidence is provided from ethnohistory and Maya mythology that may explain their distinctive mortuary and feeding behaviour. We infer that all of the deer in the Preclassic period contexts at Colha were wild and procured by hunting because they consumed a herbivorous C3diet.