The Archaeology of Herring: A 10-Year Effort to Overcome Technical Challenges, Part 2

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Zooarchaeological Methods" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Pacific herring were an abundant and important component of the coastal ecosystems of western North America for millennia; today, many populations have been decimated as a result of commercial or reduction fisheries. Focusing on genomic data, our hypothesis was that population and phenological diversity was higher in ancient herring than today. Documenting the temporal and spatial populations structure of modern herring was essential for understanding the genetic diversity, population size, and spawning behavior of ancient herring. Through the genomic analysis of over 1,300 modern herring from 23 distinct spawning sites spanning 1,600 km of the Pacific northwest coast, 6,718 informative SNPs across the genome were identified, revealing population structure based on spawning time and geographic region. Seven SNPs associated with spawning time were targeted in archaeological bones to elucidate the use of herring from different spawning groups in Puget sound by Coast Salish people for over 900 years. Currently, we are applying hybridization capture and whole genome sequencing to Puget sound and Alaskan sites to track changes in population size and genetic diversity over 2,500 years. Collaborations between modern fisheries scientists and archaeologists have been key for advancing research on this culturally and ecologically important forage fish.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Advances in Zooarchaeological Methods   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35744.0