| Animal domestication can be divided into two periods,cultural domestication and biological domestication.In cultural domestication period,food and living environment of animals are gradually influenced by human,which can be revealed through stable isotope analysis.The domestication of water buffalo has been widely discussed through zooarchaeological and genetical methods,while the time and location of domestic water buffaloes are still not clear,and the lower Yangtze River Valley is one of the most debated areas.Here we present stable carbon(?13C)and nitrogen(?15N)isotope results of water buffalo,deer,tuna,whale,freshwater fish,crocodile and frog from the Neolithic(c.7000—5700 yr BP)site of Tianluoshan in Zhejiang Province,China,to discuss whether the domestication of water buffalo had happened in cultural domestication period.According to the results,water buffaloes have high ?13C and ?15N values(-14.8±2.9‰,8.8±1.0‰,n=46),suggesting that they were probably living in coastal salt-marsh strongly influenced by sea spray effect and primarily relied on coastal and salt-marsh plants or seaweed.Besides,with around 3‰higher ?15N value than pig/boars,and in the same trophic level with humans,buffaloes might not be mainly used for food.The stable carbon isotope values of water buffalo show obvious chronological decreasing since Layer 6(c.6500-6300 yr BP),which might be casued by the consumption of C3 foods such as rice and water chestnuts provided by human.Combined with the literatures on the relationship between water buffalo,agriculture and region,we suggest that water buffalo at Tianluoshan might start to be controlled by human since 6500BP for specific use rather than food resource,which might be labor in rice paddy or sacrifice in social and worship ceremonies.This study shows us a closer relationship between human and water buffaloes in Hemudu culture period than was previously thought,yet more work should be done to better understand it. |
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