New archaeozoological evidence for the introduction of the guinea pig to Europe Fabienne Pigière a, * , Wim Van Neer a, b , Cécile Ansieau c , Marceline Denis d a Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 29 Rue Vautier, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium b Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Laboratory of Animal Biodiversity and Systematics, Ch. Debériotstraat 32, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium c Service Public de Wallonie, DGO-4, Service de l’Archéologie (Hainaut), Place du Béguinage 16, B-7000 Mons, Belgium d Recherches et Prospections Archéologiques en Wallonie asbl, rue A. Jottard 19, B-5300 Andenne, Belgium article info Article history: Received 24 February 2011 Received in revised form 23 November 2011 Accepted 25 November 2011 Keywords: Archaeozoology Cavia Post-medieval times Domestication Stable isotopes Social classes abstract The remains are described of a guinea pig dated to the end of the 16th e beginning of the 17th c. AD. The animal was discovered at a site in Mons, Belgium, and is the first European archaeozoological find dated with certainty on the basis of both the archaeological context and a radiocarbon dating of its bone. This find confirms that the guinea pig was introduced to Europe soon after the conquest of South America. The morphological and metrical analyses performed on the skeletal remains are in agreement with the icono- graphic and literary sources indicating the domestic status of the animals imported to Europe. While a previous discovery in England suggested that the guinea pig was a prestigious animal, the present study argues that it was accessible to several classes of the population which may be related to the rapid spread of this prolific animal after its introduction in Europe. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Domestication of the guinea pig and its introduction to Europe The domestic guinea pig or cuy is a medium-sized rodent of the infraorder Hystricognathi belonging to the Caviidae family which has South American origins (Müller-Haye, 1984). The systematics of the genus Cavia has recently been undergoing revision as the number of species occurring in the wild needed further clarification, as well as the origin of the domesticated form (Woods, 2005). The commonly held view (Herre and Röhrs, 1990, 36) that the wild ancestor of the guinea pig is Cavia aperea, has been contradicted by recent molecular analyses (Dunnum and Salazar-Bravo, 2010, 384; Spotorno et al., 2006, 2007). It is now believed that the most likely ancestor is Cavia tschudii tschudii. According to the nomenclatural rules proposed by Herre and Röhrs (1990) for the domestic animals, the domestic guinea pig e described as Cavia porcellus by Linnaeus in 1758 e should hence be labelled Cavia tschudii f. porcellus. The current distribution of the wild ancestor includes coastal and highland Peru, highland Bolivia, northern Chile, and northern Argentina. Molecular analysis shows that the populations of Cavia t. tschudii from the coastal region around Ica in Peru were the most probable sources for guinea pig domestication (Dunnum and Salazar- Bravo, 2010, 384). Archaeological data indicate that domestication may have started in the Andes as early as 5000 BC, and that it was well established there by 2500 BC (Morales, 1994, 130; Sandweiss and Wing, 1997 , 47). The animal was an important source of meat for the Amerindian peoples (Morales, 1994), who also used them as sacrificial animals in religious ceremonies (Sandweiss and Wing, 1997). When the Spaniards arrived in South America in the first half of the 16th century, they found guinea pigs exhibiting the colour polymorphism typical of the domestic form (Weir, 1974, 444). The fast propagation of the domestic form is illustrated by the fact that, in 1547, Oviedo mentioned the presence in Santo Domingo of an animal called ‘cori’, which appears to correspond to the guinea pig (Cabrera, 1953, quoted by Müller-Haye, 1984, 255). Since the guinea pigs are not indigenous to the Caribbean, the Spaniards must have brought in the animals from Peru which they conquered in 1532. It is believed that the guinea pig was also introduced to Spain soon after the conquest of Peru. Then, the animal would have quickly spread throughout Europe. The Swiss naturalist scientist Konrad Gesler described the guinea pig in his Historia Animalium already as early as 1554 (Benecke, 1994, 438). It is likely that multiple introductions occurred since also Dutch navigators seem to have played a role in the import of the animal to Europe from the 16th century AD onwards (Wagner and Manning, 1976, 2). Archaeological data providing insight into the chronology of guinea pig introduction to Europe are still very rare. Thus far only two archaeological discoveries, both from England, have been reported that do not represent recently buried pets. A partial skeleton has been * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ32 2 627 44 35; fax: þ32 2 627 41 13. E-mail address: Fabienne.Pigiere@naturalsciences.be (F. Pigière). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas 0305-4403/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.11.021 Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 1020e1024