The Archaeofaunal Dimension of Preceramic Human-Environment Dynamics in the Highlands of Southwestern Honduras

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Animal Bones to Human Behavior" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The study of the Preceramic period (ca. 11,000–5,000 cal BP) in Mesoamerica has focused on the transition from a foraging way of life toward agriculture, plant domestication, and sedentism. Yet we know little about the processes and contexts that drove this transition, particularly the relationship between foragers and animal prey. In this paper I present the results of my dissertation research, which evaluated Preceramic subsistence and mobility by analyzing the animal remains recovered from the El Gigante rockshelter, a multicomponent site in southwestern Honduras that was occupied episodically for 11,000 years. My research shows El Gigante’s earliest inhabitants returned to this landscape periodically as part of a broader seasonal round despite declines in the availability of high-ranked prey (i.e., deer). These behavioral changes suggest the highlands of southwestern Honduras were more climatically and environmentally stable than the neighboring lowlands, making them more suitable for repeated occupation. Equally as important, my research, when coupled with existing and ongoing investigations of the site’s macrobotanical assemblage, found that the persistent use and purposeful modification of this landscape resulted in an increase in the abundance of desired species, including a number of fruit trees and deer, which had positive long-term effects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Animal Bones to Human Behavior   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32269