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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缅甸野兔作为古生态指标：来自泰国考古遗址的稳定同位素分析

尽管缅甸野兔（Lepus peguensis）在东南亚大陆的景观中非常丰富，但在古动物学记录中却很罕见：从考古背景中只发现了49个这种神秘物种的标本，而从古生物沉积物中几乎没有发现过。由于这种稀有性，人们对野兔在史前的了解很少，尽管它可能像其他leporid类群一样，提供有价值的古生态信息。在本文中，我们提出了缅甸野兔稳定同位素值的试点数据集。我们从泰国的两个史前晚期考古遗址Non Nok Tha和Bang Site采集了五个标本，以及一个20世纪的生物样本。在我们的试点结果中看到的变化表明了缅甸野兔稳定同位素分析作为潜在生态指标的价值，并突出了未来研究的有希望的途径。我们主张在古动物记录中寻找更多的野兔，以更好地探索东南亚大陆的人为和气候变化。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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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.