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Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 1020e1024

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Journal of Archaeological Science


journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas

New archaeozoological evidence for the introduction of the guinea pig to Europe
Fabienne Pigire a, *, Wim Van Neer a, b, Ccile Ansieau c, Marceline Denis d
a

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 29 Rue Vautier, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Laboratory of Animal Biodiversity and Systematics, Ch. Debriotstraat 32, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
c
Service Public de Wallonie, DGO-4, Service de lArchologie (Hainaut), Place du Bguinage 16, B-7000 Mons, Belgium
d
Recherches et Prospections Archologiques en Wallonie asbl, rue A. Jottard 19, B-5300 Andenne, Belgium
b

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 24 February 2011
Received in revised form
23 November 2011
Accepted 25 November 2011

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 rst European archaeozoological nd dated with
certainty on the basis of both the archaeological context and a radiocarbon dating of its bone. This nd
conrms 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 iconographic 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 prolic animal after its introduction in Europe.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Archaeozoology
Cavia
Post-medieval times
Domestication
Stable isotopes
Social classes

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 (Mller-Haye, 1984). The systematics of the
genus Cavia has recently been undergoing revision as the number of
species occurring in the wild needed further clarication, as well as
the origin of the domesticated form (Woods, 2005). The commonly
held view (Herre and Rhrs, 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 Rhrs (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 SalazarBravo, 2010, 384). Archaeological data indicate that domestication
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 32 2 627 44 35; fax: 32 2 627 41 13.
E-mail address: Fabienne.Pigiere@naturalsciences.be (F. Pigire).
0305-4403/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.11.021

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
sacricial animals in religious ceremonies (Sandweiss and Wing,
1997). When the Spaniards arrived in South America in the rst
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 Mller-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

F. Pigire et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 1020e1024

1021

found at Hill Hall Manor in Essex, in what seems to be a context


securely dated e on the basis of the archaeological data e to around
AD 1574-5 (Hamilton-Dyer, 2009, 346). The house was owned by Sir
Thomas Smith, who held a high position at the court as the ambassador to France, suggesting that there is a relationship between the
status of this household and the presence of the guinea pig. A second
discovery, consisting of a maxilla and another skull fragment, has
been mentioned from an early 19th c. AD context at the Royal London
Hospital (Morris, 2010). These remains are linked with the anatomy
school that was attached to the hospital. We were unable to trace any
additional European nds. The guinea pig is not retained in BoneInfo,
the Dutch system that gathers the scientic and grey archaeozoological literature from The Netherlands (Lauwerier and de Vries,
2004). The species is also absent from France according to an inquiry
made to the Inventaires archozoologiques et archobotaniques de
France (I2AF) (Ccile Callou, pers. comm.; cf. Callou et al., 2011). Thus
far, no faunal remains seem to have been identied either in Spain
(Arturo Morales, pers. comm.) or Portugal (Simon Davis, pers. com.).
2. Archaeological nds from the town of Mons
(Belgium, Hainaut)
In 2007, the archaeological heritage division of the Service
Public de Wallonie, in collaboration with the association
Recherches et Prospections archologiques en Wallonie, carried
out archaeological investigations prior to the construction of an
underground parking in the rue Jean Lescarts in Mons (Fig. 1). The
excavations revealed a living quarter at the margin of the town
centre, dating from medieval times until today, with evidence for
commercial and artisanal activities in the neighbourhood (Ansieau
and Denis, 2009). In the 16th and 17th centuries AD, an increased
urbanisation occurred and habitation by both middle and lower
class can be observed: market halls, abbey shelters, notables residences and modest houses coexist in the same sector (Regnard,
2007; Denis, 2008). The contexts studied in this paper include
high quality glassware and ceramics, which conrm that the
inhabitants of this domestic quarter belong to the middle class.
In total, eight guinea pig bones have been discovered at this site
that can all have belonged to a single individual. All the bones come
from the hand-collected assemblage; the sieved samples did not
yield any additional material. Six of the bones were found in the ll of
a cellar while the remaining two came from an adjacent cess-pit. The
cess-pit was constructed after the cellar and partially dug into it. The
boundary between the two contexts was not always clear during the
excavation which explains why some material from the cellar may
have ended up with the cess-pit material. It is most probable that all
the guinea pig bones originated from the cellar. The high quality of
numerous artefacts discovered in these two contexts seems to indicate a quite privileged citizen: armorial sandstones, majolica tableware, faon de Venise glasses and painted stained-glass windows
were found. Based on this archaeological material, a date to the end of
the 16th e beginning of the 17th c. AD can be proposed for the ll in
which the guinea pig remains were found. In order to conrm the
dating of the remains of the animal, its left tibia was submitted for
radiocarbon dating that yielded an age of 370  25BP (KIA-43023) or
cal. AD 1440e1530 (57.8%) and AD 1550e1640 (37.6%). Since the
range indicated by the rst peak can be rejected because it predates
the arrival of the Spaniards in Peru, the radiocarbon date corroborates
the dating given by the archaeological context.

Fig. 1. Location of the town of Mons and the excavated site.

Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS). In the cellar, part of the right


fore limb (scapula, humerus, radius, ulna) and both right and left tibia
have been discovered. All bones have their epiphyses fused and seem
to belong to the same adult individual (Fig. 2). A complete skull and
the right part of a pelvis with a similar state of preservation were
present in the cess-pit and seem to come from the same individual.
None of the bones show traces of processing. Taking into account also
the excellent state of preservation of the bones and the completeness
of the various skeletal elements, these remains can be safely
considered to represent a carcass rather than food refuse.

3. Identication, description and isotopic analysis of the


guinea pig from Mons
The identication of the guinea pig bones from Mons has been
carried out using the reference skeletons of the Royal Belgian

Fig. 2. The partial skeleton of the guinea pig from Mons, Belgium. The scale bar is 1 cm.

1022

F. Pigire et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 1020e1024

Table 1
Measurements (in mm) on the skull and post-cranial elements of the guinea pig from
Mons compared to those of a female, domestic specimen from the RBINS modern
collection. The measuring distances are those dened by von den Driesch (1976).
Mons

98083M01

Skull

1
3
4
9
13

63.8
57.5
36.1
16.2
24.6

65.5
59.0
e
16.9
27.9

Scapula

HS
SLC
GLP
LG
BG

(37.1)
4.9
8.0
6.5
5.0

37.0
4.9
7.6
6.1
4.6

Humerus

GL
GLC
Bp
Dp
SD
Bd

38.1
37.0
8.0
9.5
3.1
7.8

39.4
38.0
9.0
9.9
3.2
7.2

Radius

GL
Bp
SD
Bd

31.1
4.9
2.5
5.1

30.6
4.4
2.3
4.8

Ulna

GL
SDO
DPA

40.0
4.2
4.1

39.0
4.1
4.9

Pelvis

SC
LAR

5.0
6.1

5.1
5.9

Tibia

GL
Bp
SD
Bd

46.9
9.0
3.0
5.5

47.5
9.8
3.1
5.8

The bone measurements have been taken according to the


methods of von den Driesch (1976). The individual from Mons has
bone dimensions that are similar to those of a female adult domestic
guinea pig from the modern reference collection (Table 1). Wing
(1977, 843e844) compared some skull characteristics of the domestic
guinea pig and of the following wild taxa: Cavia tschudii, Cavia aperea
and Cavia porcellus anolaimae. For each of them, the percentage
frequencies are listed of the type of naso-frontal suture (straight or
M-shaped) and of the fronto-parietal suture (curved or straight), and
the presence or absence of the palatal spine is also indicated (Table 2).
In the archaeological specimen from Mons, the palatal spine is
absent, the shape of the fronto-parietal suture is curved and the nasofrontal suture is straight (Fig. 3). These traits allow to attribute the
guinea pig from Mons to the domestic form (Table 2). A morphological criterion that has been described for the pelvis to distinguish
the wild from the domestic form (IJzereef,1978,170) also points to the
domestic form. The notch of the ischium of the specimen from Mons
is deeply hollowed as described for the domestic guinea pig and its
prole is similar to that of the domestic specimens of the RBINS
collection. However, the reliability of this criterion has been questioned by Brothwell (1983, 117), arguing that the inuence of sexual

dimorphism and pregnancy still needs to be evaluated on a larger


sample.
The following isotopic values were obtained for the bone collagen
of the cavia from Mons: d15N 7.2&, d13C 22.5&, C/N 3.3.
The d15N values fall in the lower range of Peruvian archaeological
specimens dating between the 6th and 16th c. AD (Finucane et al.,
2006; Williams, 2005). The d13C values, however, differ signicantly (Fig. 4). Whereas the South American guinea pigs have high
d13C values reecting a maize based diet, the specimen from Mons
falls in the range of C3 plant consumers. The carbon values are
comparable to those seen in the bone collagen of European hare
(Lepus europaeus) from Neolithic sites in Europe (Bsl et al., 2006)
and Anatolia (Lsch et al., 2006). The fact that the d15N values of the
guinea pig from Mons are somewhat similar to those of the guinea
pigs from Peru and 15N-enriched compared to those of the hare
could suggest that they had access to human food refuse.
The d13C isotopic values hence indicate that the guinea pig from
Mons was locally raised and that it does not represent an animal that
was brought in directly from South America soon after which it died.
Cavia are reputed for their great adaptability and it is no surprise that
the animal could quickly establish itself in northern Europe given its
fast reproduction capacities. The animals reach sexual maturity at
about 3 months of age, and there is a short gestation period of about
68 days (Rood and Weir, 1970).
4. Discussion
The remains of the guinea pig from the Rue Jean Lescarts site at
Mons conrm that the animal was introduced to Europe soon after
the conquest of South America. It is the rst European discovery that
can be attributed with certainty to this older period on the basis of
both the archaeological context and a direct radiocarbon dating of
a skeletal element. As mentioned above, the body of the guinea pig
was deposited at the end of the 16th e beginning of the 17th c. AD in
the backyard of a middle class residence. During the Renaissance, the
town of Mons beneted from an impressive town planning development and a relative prosperity due to local production of high
quality items and commercial exchange (Pirard, 2006). It is possible
that the increase of commercial activities and trade allowed a quite
privileged population to acquire such exotic animals. The occurrence
of guinea pig in a late 16th century context of a manor at Hill Hall,
Essex, owned by a member of the royal court, suggests that it was
a prestigious animal. However, the nds from Mons indicate that the
middle class was also able to purchase guinea pigs, which could be
related to the rapid spread of this prolic animal after its introduction
in Europe, making it accessible to several classes of the population.
The early descriptions of guinea pig from Europe strongly
indicate that the Europeans took back with them the domestic form
of the guinea pig and not the wild cavy. There are descriptions of
animals with multi-coloured and white hair, which are typical
traits of domestication (Weir, 1974, 444). Moreover, for the Spanish
Low Countries, several depictions exist of guinea pigs with multicoloured hair in the 17th c. paintings, as for example the Garden
of Eden (1610e1612) and the Entry of the Animals into Noahs Ark

Table 2
Skull characteristics of the guinea pig from Mons compared to those of the domestic and wild taxa listed by Wing (1977).
Naso-frontal suture

Domestic (n 9)
Cavia tschudii (n 40)
Cavia porcellus anolaimae (n 15)
Cavia aperea (n 9)
Mons

Fronto-parietal suture

Palatal spine

% straight

% M-shaped

% curved

% straight

% absent

% present

73
36
7
0
X

27
64
93
100

100
26
23
12
X

0
74
77
88

73
68
0
33
X

27
32
100
67

F. Pigire et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 1020e1024

1023

As to the reasons why guinea pigs were introduced to Europe at


that early period, it has been postulated that they were kept for
entertainment and as pets and that the species was not widely
adopted as a source of food in Europe, as was the case in many parts of
the Spanish colonial empire (Wagner and Manning, 1976, 2).
However, the French agronomist O. de Serres mentioned in his book
Thtre dagriculture, written in 1563, that the connins dInde
exported from Brazil were raised for consumption (Delaunay, 1962).
He also indicated that spices need to be added to improve the avour
of the guinea pig meat. Thus far, no archaeological indication for the
consumption of guinea pig has been found in Europe. The individual
from Mons and that from Hill Hall, Essex, were carcasses and it is
likely that these animals were kept as pets or curiosities. The nd
from the London Hospital, dated of the early 19th c. AD, seems to have
come from the anatomy school attached to the hospital and therefore,
resulted of a very specic activity (Morris, 2010). It was discovered in
the graves area, where dissected human and animal remains were
buried. Many of the skeletons from various animal species discovered
in this zone display knife and saw marks resulting of the dissection of
the corpses.
Finds that have been reported in South America include burials
and ritual deposits, but the archaeological visibility is low in sites
where the cavia is supposed to have been a common food item
(Valdez and Valdez, 1997). The low number of nds in European
contexts may be partly due to the fact that the guinea pig is an
animal with relatively small bones that can only be expected to be
found in post-medieval contexts, which in most European countries still receive less attention in terms of the recovery and study of
archaeozoological material.
Acknowledgements
Fig. 3. Dorsal view of the skull of the guinea pig from Mons showing the curved frontoparietal suture (a) and the straight naso-frontal suture (b).

(1613), both by Jan Brueghel the Elder. The morphological and


metrical analyses performed on the guinea pig skeleton from Mons
are in agreement with a domestic status of the animal. At the same
time, the precise identication of the founder lineage of the European guinea pig has not yet been established (Spotorno et al., 2006,
61). Molecular analysis on European specimens from post-medieval
archaeological sites has the potential of providing information on
the founder population(s) in Europe, albeit that the number of
specimens for analysis is still very small.

Fig. 4. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio results of the guinea pig of Mons compared to
those of Conchopata (AD 550e1000; Finucane et al., 2006) and PuruchucoHuaquerones (15e16th c. AD; Williams, 2005). The values for hare were obtained
from late Neolithic Pestenacker (Bsl et al., 2006) and early Neolithic Neval ori (Lsch
et al., 2006).

The present research was carried out with the nancial support of
the Service de lArchologie du Service public de Wallonie (DGO4).
The contribution of Wim Van Neer to this paper presents research
results of the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme e Belgian
Science Policy. We would like to thank the following colleagues for
providing information: Umberto Albarella (University of Shefeld),
Ccile Callou (Musum National dHistoire Naturelle, Paris), Simon
Davis (IGESPAR-UNIARQ, Universidade de Lisboa) and Arturo
Morales-Muniz (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid). The line
drawing was made by Anne-Marie Wittek (ADIA-RBINS).
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