Biological Exchange in the Anthropocene: Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Human trade, travel and transport have led to the movement of a vast number of plants, animals and pathogens, and the creation of cosmopolitan assemblages of organisms across all continents. Perhaps the best-known example of large-scale human-mediated translocation is the Columbian Exchange, which famously led to the exchange of a diverse array of domesticates, weeds and diseases between the Old and New Worlds in the decades after 1492. Archaeological and genetic research have nonetheless begun to reveal the earlier roots of biological exchange in various global contexts. This session will adopt a multidisciplinary perspective, exploring biological exchange in the Anthropocene using the latest techniques in archaeology and genetics.

Other Keywords
Zooarchaeology • Madagascar • archaeobotany • translocation • Coprolite • Horse • Migration • Trade • Contact • Biogeography

Geographic Keywords
AFRICA • Europe • Caribbean • Mesoamerica • North America-Canada

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-15 of 15)

  • Documents (15)
Documents
  1. 10,000 years of bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria): archaeology of the first global crop (2016)
  2. Anthropogenic plant translocations in the western Indian Ocean: Archaeobotanical perspectives on the Anthropocene from Madagascar and the Comoros (2016)
  3. Bio-cultural exchange and human health - past and present (2016)
  4. Biological exchange in the Swahili world: archaeofaunal and biomolecular evidence (2016)
  5. An empty gut: the recent loss of our microbial symbionts (2016)
  6. Genetic insights into commensal small mammal invasions of Madagascar in prehistory (2016)
  7. Genome analysis of medieval Yersinia pestis suggests an ancient European source population for the majority of modern plague strains (2016)
  8. Genomic insights into long-term domestic animal translocation (2016)
  9. 'I rode through the desert': equestrian adaptations in southern hemisphere arid zones (2016)
  10. Identification of early anthropogenic movements of exotic species using sedaDNA (2016)
  11. The Pre-Columbian Exchange: The Anthropogenic Zoogeography of Insular Caribbean Translocations (2016)
  12. Radiocarbon dated archaeozoological and palaeoecological evidence of initial human colonization in Madagascar (2016)
  13. Searching for pathogens in a New World colonial epidemic burial (2016)
  14. Using stable isotope analyses to assess the geographical origins of pork and beef products in a historical New World population center (2016)
  15. What plants existed in the Lesser Antilles just prior to 1492 and could they have been exploited by the island inhabitants? - new data from archaeological excavations at Anse Trabaud, Martinique (2016)