Coastal and Island Archaeology (Other Keyword)
251-275 (277 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Landscape Learning for a Climate-Changing World" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The movement of early agriculturalists from the South American continent during the Early and Late Ceramic Ages (500 BCE–1500 CE) marked a significant transformation of the cultural landscapes of the Caribbean archipelago. These arriving groups expressed a strong cultural identity in their ceramic materials, settlement...
Tribute from the Underworld: The Historical Ecology of the Maya Postclassic Fish Trade with Otoliths from Mayapán and Caye Coco (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Preliminary results are presented for the analysis of fish otoliths from the Maya Postclassic sites of Mayapán in Mexico, and Caye Coco in Belize. Fish otoliths are used investigate seasonality of fish harvest for the inland fish trade, and to contrast the diversity, trophic levels, and population structure of fish between both the archaeology sites, and...
The Tricky Business of Dating Shell Middens and Improving Regional Chronologies (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Middens to Museums: Papers in Honor of Julie K. Stein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fifteen years ago, Julie Stein spearheaded research into the often problematic task of dating shell middens and interpreting their accumulation. By examining paired charcoal-shell dates from the San Juan Islands, Stein and colleagues refined the local marine reservoir correction (ΔR) associated with radiocarbon-dated shell,...
The Under-Represented Mullet in SW Florida’s Archaeological Assemblages (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mullets (Mugil spp.), especially the striped mullet (Mugil cephalus), because of their predictable mass-schooling behavior, are obvious candidates as having been surplus food for the socio-politically complex, Calusa fisher-gatherer-hunters. Moreover, López de Velasco, writing in about 1570, stated that there was in southwest Florida waters a "great fishery of...
The Underwater Search for the Remains of the Spanish Manila Galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Pacific Maritime History: Ships and Shipwrecks" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper covers the underwater remote sensing and diver search for the remains of the Spanish Manila galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos, also known as the Beeswax Wreck, off the Oregon coast. The all-volunteer Maritime Archaeological Society has conducted a multiyear remote sensing survey and diving expeditions to search the area near the...
Unearthed Burial from Rising Sea Levels: A Collaborative Community Approach for Tackling Climate Change in the Torres Strait Islands, Australia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Crucial Issues in United States Department of Defense Cultural Resources Management " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Torres Strait Islands, Australia, covers 50,000 km2 and includes 300 islands, with only 17 home to community settlements. Although regional maritime culture includes seascapes rich in cosmological and spiritual meaning, many sites that constitute cultural identity are under threat due to rising sea...
Update on Research at the Site of Waterfall Bluff, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at Waterfall Bluff, South Africa, document evidence of occupation in a persistent coastal context from MIS3 to the Middle Holocene. Remains of marine mollusks and fish show for the first time that coastal foraging was a component of some hunter-gatherer...
Use of Faunal Analysis to Examine Seismic Disturbance at 45WH10 in Birch Bay, Washington (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Faunal analysis and taphonomic observations of marine invertebrates in a legacy collection from 45WH10 in Birch Bay, Washington, demonstrated a shift in taxonomic abundance that we hypothesize may be indicative of seismic activity such as an earthquake-induced tsunami. Samples from three units showed a significant shift in the abundance of Nucella...
Using Barn Owl (Tyto alba) Pellets to Build Environmental Profiles: A 1,500-Year-Old Record from Barn Owl Cave, Santa Barbara Island, California, USA (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeology has a long history of applying proxy data to reconstruct past environmental conditions. Archaeological deposits, however, represent an anthropocentric view of the past, one biased by human selection and decision-making. This research focuses on excavation and analysis of owl-generated,...
Using Traditional and Nontraditional Isotopic Tracers of Diet and Mobility of Brazilian Shell Mound Populations (ca. 8000–1000 years BP) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of shell mounds can shed light on human occupation and adaptations at coastal environments worldwide. In South America, human groups occupied the territory close to the Atlantic Ocean for millennium (ca. 8000 to ⁓1000 years BP), building hundreds of shell mounds, some with impressive dimensions. After 2000 BP, it is assumed that these populations...
The Utility of Public LiDAR Data for Detecting and Documenting Low-Relief Archaeological Sites: A Case Study from the Pockoy Island Shell Rings, Charleston County, South Carolina (2018)
This paper evaluates the utility of high-resolution LiDAR-derived elevation data for remotely surveying difficult-to-access coastal areas to identify possible archaeological sites, which can then be targeted for further investigation. To determine the effective limits of the elevation data to visualize low-relief structures, locations of previously-recorded Archaic and Woodland-period shell rings along the lower Atlantic coast were examined. Thirty-four rings were identified, including two...
Utilization of Fish Resources at the Hopoate Site on Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga (2018)
Analysis of archaeological fish remains from the Hopoate site, on Tongatapu in the Pacific Island Kingdom of Tonga, identified 18 different families. Significant change in relative abundance was evident in Lethrinidae (emperors) and Acanthuridae (surgeonfish, unicornfish), two families common as food fish in Tonga. Frequencies of the families were compared between the early settlement period (~2850-2900 cal BP) and the subsequent Plainware/Aceramic period. Larger-bodied Lethrinidae, which are...
Varied Outcomes of the Colonial Encounter in Hawaii Island's Hinterlands (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Rethinking Hinterlands in Polynesia" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Beginning in the late 18th century CE, the Hawaiian archipelago's sustained interaction with foreigners transformed the islands from independent kingdoms at the center of their world to a globalized frontier, trade entrepôt, military outpost, and, ultimately, an economic and political colony. At the same time, the seats of power and settlement...
Village Aggregation and Native Subsistence Practices at a Middle Woodland Mound Center, Gulf Coast Florida, USA (2018)
Current research at Garden Patch (8DI4), a Middle Woodland mound center with circular village construction in northern peninsular Gulf Coast Florida, provide quantitative insights into the timing and temporality of monument construction and village aggregation. Here, we combine previously modelled radiocarbon assays with new isotopic data on season of collection and habitat of exploitation. The four-phase model of site occupation when combined with the new isotopic data provide new insights into...
Weeden Island Shell Rings from the Bottom-Up: The View from Old Creek (2018)
The transition to Weeden Island mortuary and ceramic expressions along the Florida Gulf Coast also coincided with a shift in settlement. During this interval, around A.D. 600-750, earlier Swift Creek shell rings were abandoned and Weeden Island rings established nearby. In many cases, these Weeden Island shell rings were substantially larger than their predecessors, however, some anomalously small, isolated Weeden Island rings have also been recorded, such as the Old Creek Shell Ring (8Wa90) in...
Western Stemmed Technology on California's Channel Islands (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paleocoastal sites on California's Northern Channel Islands have produced hundreds of stemmed points, crescents, foliate points or knives, and other bifaces dated between ~12,250 and 8200 years ago. Although uniquely maritime in nature, these island Paleocoastal assemblages are clearly related to the...
What the Shells Tell: Interdisciplinary Malocoarchaeology and Holocene Paleoclimate in Coastal Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Symposium in Honor of Dolores Piperno" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dolores Piperno has been a trailblazer in interdisciplinary research, building on deep, innovative approaches to plant remains to answer a multitude of questions in archaeology and beyond. In this interdisciplinary spirit, I review research into Holocene paleoclimate along the Peruvian coast derived in the first instance from the study of...
When Did Early Migrants Reach Pohnpei? Human Migration, Interisland Networks, and Resource Use in Eastern Micronesia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "When the Wild Winds Blow: Micronesia Colonization in Pacific Context" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous archaeological research on islands in eastern Micronesia hint at possible early human migration from Melanesia by the descendants of Lapita groups. However, hard archaeological evidence has remained largely ephemeral. In this paper, we discuss recent findings from new archaeological excavations on Lenger, a...
White Caps and Laptops: Results from the 2019 and 2020 Surveys of Submerged Precontact Landscapes in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Global Submerged Paleolandscapes Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sea-level rise models since the last glacial maximum demonstrate that the North American landmass available for precontact human habitation was larger than at present. In the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, less than 1 m2 of the continental shelf has been sampled and tested archaeologically. Out of 106 sediment cores acquired for...
Why Screen-Size Matters for Isotopic Analysis of Archaeological Faunal Remains: A Case Study from Norton Sound, Alaska (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Zooarchaeological Methods" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) are small nearshore fish distributed throughout the Pacific and Arctic oceans and were a staple to preindustrial Indigenous fisheries of Western Alaska. Fish, mammal, and bird-bone were sampled for carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from sites in Norton Sound, Alaska, spanning 2500 BCE–1850 CE. Comparing our...
Wild Fruits and Connective Linkages in Precolumbian South Florida (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Academic reconstructions of south Florida Indigenous lifeways prior to European contact have focused primarily on the deliberate choice of these highly complex societies to rely exclusively on wild foods, even while corn agriculture was practiced in nearby parts of the peninsula....
Will Summing of Radiocarbon Dates Unlock Scales of Socio-environmental Transformations? (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Constructing Chronologies II: The Big Picture with Bayes and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Demography is a key factor in investigating the relationships between population levels, along with resource availability, environmental dynamics, social organization, and mobility. Prehistoric human activities and population levels can be modeled using summed probability distributions of calibrated radiocarbon dates...
Window of Opportunity: Administering Hurricane Sandy Archaeology in Rhode Island (2018)
Supported by the U.S. National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund Program, the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission administered surveys of coastal archaeological sites damaged by Hurricane Sandy in Rhode Island. This paper considers, from a management perspective, some of the unique constraints and challenges of this work, including incomplete property access, bureaucratic delays, and a Tribal collaboration that fell short. The insights provided by this...
Working Together for the Past: Maine's Casco Bay Islands Public Archaeology (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Maine’s island communities are the primary stewards of archaeological heritage. This project connects archaeologists, island communities, and natural and cultural heritage organizations in their shared concerns for preserving Maine’s shell midden sites, as these sites are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and development. This...
Zooarchaeological Analysis of Fish Remains from the Thousand Spring Site (CA-SNI-11), San Nicolas Island, California (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological evidence from the California Channel Islands has provided insight on the important role fish played in daily human subsistence practices. San Nicolas Island is home to a rich and diverse marine environment containing the largest kelp forest along the Southern California Bight. This study focuses on fish data from a middle to late Holocene...