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UNUSUAL ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDINGS OF Didelphis pernigra AND Rattus rattus IN TWO COLONIAL MONASTERIES OF ECUADOR

Abstract:

Zooarchaelogical research brings together anthropology and biology providing insights into human-animal associations through time. Here we report on two unusual zooarchaeological findings of mammals in colonial churches of Ecuador: 1) An opossum, Didelphis pernigra (Didelphidae, Didelphimorphia), found in an arrangement typical of a north Andean pre-Columbian human burial, with the body inside a clay pot and with food–a corn cob in this case. The opossum was most likely buried during the first reconstruction of the monastery del Carmen Alto, Quito, in the XVII century, around the year 1656 AD; and, 2) an introduced black rat, Rattus rattus (Rodentia, Muridae), found inside a XIX century human tomb; both bodies, human and rodent, were naturally mummified. The rat was found in the monastery de la Asunción, Guano. These findings help to understand human-mammal associations as an indigenous ritual taking place in a catholic temple, and to date the invasion of R. rattus in a small town in the Ecuadorian Andes.