Data from: Reconstructing Asian faunal introductions to eastern Africa from multi-proxy biomolecular and archaeological datasets

Human-mediated biological exchange has had global social and ecological impacts. In sub-Saharan Africa, several domestic and commensal animals were introduced from Asia in the pre-modern period; however, the timing and nature of these introductions remain contentious. One model supports introduction to the eastern African coast after the mid-first millennium CE, while another posits introduction dating back to 3000 BCE. These distinct scenarios have implications for understanding the emergence of long-distance maritime connectivity, and the ecological and economic impacts of introduced species. Resolution of this longstanding debate requires new efforts, given the lack of well-dated fauna from high-precision excavations, and ambiguous osteomorphological identifications. We analysed faunal remains from 22 eastern African sites spanning a wide geographic and chronological range, and applied biomolecular techniques to confirm identifications of two Asian taxa: domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) and black rat (Rattus rattus). Our approach included ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis aided by BLAST-based bioinformatics, Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) collagen fingerprinting, and direct AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon dating. Our results support a late, mid-first millennium CE introduction of these species. We discuss the implications of our findings for models of biological exchange, and emphasize the applicability of our approach to tropical areas with poor bone preservation.

人类介导的生物交换已对全球产生了广泛的社会与生态影响。在撒哈拉以南非洲地区，前现代时期有多种家养及伴生动物从亚洲引入；然而，此类引入的时间节点与本质仍存在学术争议。一类模型主张这些物种于公元一千纪中叶后传入东非沿海区域，另一类模型则认为其引入时间可追溯至公元前3000年。这两种截然不同的推断，对于理解远距离海上连通性的起源，以及引入物种所带来的生态与经济影响，均具有关键的研究价值。鉴于高精度考古发掘中缺乏精确测年的动物群遗存，且骨骼形态学鉴定存在歧义，解决这一长期存在的学术争论亟需开展新的研究工作。本研究分析了覆盖广泛地理与年代跨度的22处东非遗址的动物群遗存，并运用生物分子技术确认了两个亚洲类群：家鸡（Gallus gallus）与黑鼠（Rattus rattus）。我们的研究手段涵盖：借助基于BLAST的生物信息学辅助的古代DNA（ancient DNA，简称aDNA）分析、质谱动物考古学（Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry，简称ZooMS）胶原指纹分型技术，以及直接加速器质谱（Accelerator Mass Spectrometry，简称AMS）放射性碳定年法。本研究结果支持这类物种于公元一千纪中后期传入的结论。我们讨论了本研究发现对生物交流模型的启示，并强调了该研究方法在骨骼保存状况较差的热带地区的应用潜力。