The Burmese hare as a palaeoecological indicator: A stable isotope analysis from archaeological sites in Thailand

IF 0.9 2区历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeological Research in Asia Pub Date : 2025-03-30 DOI:10.1016/j.ara.2025.100614

Larkin Chapman , Cyler Conrad , Caitlin S. Ainsworth , Cholawit Thongcharoenchaikit , Emily Lena Jones

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Abstract

Although abundant in mainland southeast Asian landscapes, the Burmese hare, Lepus peguensis, is rare in the paleozoological record: only 49 specimens of this cryptic species have been recovered from archaeological contexts and virtually none from paleontological deposits. Due to this rarity, little is known about the hare in prehistory, despite the fact that it may, like other leporid taxa, provide valuable paleoecological information. In this paper, we present a pilot dataset of stable isotope values for the Burmese hare. We sampled five specimens from two late prehistoric archaeological sites in Thailand, Non Nok Tha and the Bang Site, as well as one 20th century biological sample. The variation seen in our pilot results demonstrates the value of stable isotope analyses of Burmese hare remains as a potential ecological indicator and highlights a promising avenue for future research. We advocate searching for more hares in the paleozoological record to better explore both anthropogenic and climatic change in mainland Southeast Asia.

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来源期刊

Archaeological Research in Asia ARCHAEOLOGY-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

13.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Archaeological Research in Asia presents high quality scholarly research conducted in between the Bosporus and the Pacific on a broad range of archaeological subjects of importance to audiences across Asia and around the world. The journal covers the traditional components of archaeology: placing events and patterns in time and space; analysis of past lifeways; and explanations for cultural processes and change. To this end, the publication will highlight theoretical and methodological advances in studying the past, present new data, and detail patterns that reshape our understanding of it. Archaeological Research in Asia publishes work on the full temporal range of archaeological inquiry from the earliest human presence in Asia with a special emphasis on time periods under-represented in other venues. Journal contributions are of three kinds: articles, case reports and short communications. Full length articles should present synthetic treatments, novel analyses, or theoretical approaches to unresolved issues. Case reports present basic data on subjects that are of broad interest because they represent key sites, sequences, and subjects that figure prominently, or should figure prominently, in how scholars both inside and outside Asia understand the archaeology of cultural and biological change through time. Short communications present new findings (e.g., radiocarbon dates) that are important to the extent that they reaffirm or change the way scholars in Asia and around the world think about Asian cultural or biological history.