Archaeological Rat Diets Reflect Settlement Density: An Isotopic Investigation of Historical Rat Bones from Urban and Rural Sites in Upper Canada

Summary

Over the past 1000 years, rats have spread out globally to become among the most ubiquitous and prolific pests in the world. While the global success of rats is largely owed to their ability to exploit human societies for food, shelter, and transportation, there has been relatively little research exploring rat behavior in urban contexts, where rat populations have been most successful. In this study, I use stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of archaeological rat (Rattus sp., n=87) bone collagen from 10 nineteenth-century urban and rural sites around the historical city of York (now Toronto) in Upper Canada (now Ontario, Canada) to assess past rat diet and foraging behavior. Rat stable isotope values show significant differences in dietary composition and diversity between urban and rural sites. Results from analyses of rats are interpreted within a framework of isotopic data from domestic animals including cats, dogs, and raccoons to better understand how different anthropogenic habitats influence the urban ecology of rats. These findings highlight the potential for using isotopic analyses of archaeological fauna to explore ecological and commensal relationships between humans and animals in urban spaces through time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20835