Insights from Increments: Advances in Geochemical and Microscopic Analyses of Hard Tissues

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Recent advances in the microscopic and geochemical study of biological hard tissues have broadened archaeological understandings of past human-environmental dynamics, especially in island and coastal settings. Hard tissues that contain macro- and micro-incremental growth structures, such as fish otoliths, corals, coralline algae, teeth, and shells serve as ideal proxies as they record local environmental conditions in their structures as they grow. In addition to past environmental information, the analysis of hard tissues reveals insights into changes to animal populations from climatic stress, as well as resource depletion. When combined with ancillary archaeological evidence, these data can provide new insights into seasonality, sea surface temperature and palaeosalinity, in addition to understanding both long- and short-term patterns of landscape and resource use. This session highlights the interdisciplinary nature of this research, connecting archaeologists, biologists, geochemists and sclerochronologists, to share their latest research and methods in hopes of propelling and strengthening future archaeological investigations of hard tissues.

Other Keywords
Stable Isotopes • Seasonality • Subsistence • Shell Middens • Paleoenvironment • Seasonal Migration • Drought • Dental Histology • Geochemistry • Woodland period

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United States of America (Country) • United Mexican States (Country) • Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Belize (Country) • Republic of Guatemala (Country) • USA (Country) • Georgia (State / Territory) • Mississippi (State / Territory) • Tennessee (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

Documents

Applications of Rat Bone Collagen Stable Isotope Analysis towards Investigating Long-term Island Socio-ecosystem Dynamics: Case studies from Mangareva (French Polynesia) and Pemba Island (Zanzibar) (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Jillian Swift.
Stable isotope analysis of small commensal fauna provides a novel approach to paleoecological reconstruction and investigations of human site activities. The human translocation of rat species, especially the black rat (Rattus rattus), brown rat (R. norvegicus), and Pacific rat (R. exulans), has significantly—and often deleteriously—impacted native floral and faunal communities, particularly within island ecosystems. Rats are small-bodied omnivores with limited home ranges and highly generalized...
Assessing Stable Isotope Data from Archaeological White-tailed Deer Remains as a Palaeoenvironmental Proxy at the Site of La Joyanca, Northwestern Peten, Yucatan Peninsula (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Maria Jose Rivera Araya. Suzanne Pilaar Birch.
The sociopolitical reorganization of the Maya that took place during the Terminal Classic (AD 850–1050) has been interpreted as being correlated to regional environmental change, specifically drought. However, few climate reconstructions come from the southern Maya lowlands where the decline occurred during this period. While most paleoenvironmental reconstructions lack a local, site-related signature and instead reflect regional trends, stable isotope analyses of herbivore faunal remains have...
Early Life Stress at the Late Prehistoric/Early Contact Site of Fallen Tree: Combining Enamel Defects and Incremental Isotope Analysis of Dentin to Explore Nutrition as a Source of Stress (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Carey Garland. Laurie Reitsema.
This study examines internal enamel micro-defects and incremental isotopic data from tooth dentin to reconstruct early life stress and dietary histories of Guale individuals interred at the Late Precontact/Early Contact period site of Fallen Tree (A.D. mid-1500s) on Saint Catherines Island, Georgia. Fallen Tree presents a new point in the chronology of indigenous biocultural adaptation to Spanish missionization in the southeastern United States. Missionization is associated with increased...
Effects of Sample Pretreatment and Contamination on Bivalve Shell and Carrara Marble δ18O and δ13C Signatures (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Bernd R. Schöne. Katharina Schmitt.
Stable isotope signatures of bivalve shells serve as important proxies of past environmental conditions. However, such data can be biased as a consequence of physical and chemical pretreatment and contamination during sampling. To systematically assess these issues, homogenized aragonitic shell powder, as well as Carrara marble powder (calcite) were exposed to ultrasound, a set of different staining solutions and cleaning agents that are typically employed in bivalve sclerochronology....
Impact of Prehistoric Cooking on Proxy Signatures in Shell Midden Constituents (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Müller. Philip Staudigel. Sean Murray. Hildegard Westphal. Peter Swart.
The analysis of geochemical proxies in skeletal remains has become a standard tool in shell midden research. Sub-seasonally resolved proxy records provide information about environmental and anthropological aspects such as ancient climate conditions, fishing and foraging seasonality or site occupation pattern. However, as subsistence was the primary purpose for fishing activities in most prehistoric cultures, it is likely that many shell midden constituents were subjected to processing methods...
Making a Case for Large-scale Seasonality Studies: Preliminary Results from the ACCELERATE Project (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Niklas Hausmann. Demetrios Anglos.
The chemical composition of carbonate shell from palaeoecological and archaeological assemblages is laborious to analyse, yet the information that is locked within shell deposits worldwide contains valuable insights on past environments and human ecology. At present, studies struggle with the acquisition of sufficient amounts of data to make robust interpretations. Large amounts of information are inaccessible due to costly and time-intensive techniques. Here we aim to develop the technique of...
Reconstructing Palaeolithic Prey Migration using Oxygen and Laser Ablation Strontium Isotope Measurements in tooth enamel (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexander Pryor. Alistair Pike. Jirí Svoboda. Alexander Dudin. Clive Gamble.
This presentation reports isotopic data collected for an investigation of food storage behaviours at the European Gravettian sites of Dolní Vĕstonice-Pavlov (Czech Republic) and Late Glacial site of Kostenki 11 (Russian Federation) dated between 30,000-20,000 years ago. Our methods use strontium isotope (high-resolution measurements by laser ablation) and oxygen isotope analysis to investigate seasonal mobility of the main prey species: woolly mammoth, reindeer, horse, fox and wolf. The isotopic...
Sclerochronology of the Tiger Lucine Clam (Codakia orbicularis): Implications for Florida Keys and Northern Caribbean Archaeological Site Seasonality (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Harke.
The Tiger Lucine (Codakia orbicularis) is a large bivalve native to the West Indies. This tropical species is a common constituent of late prehistoric (AD 800-1500) shell middens in the Florida Keys, the Lucayan Archipelago, and the Greater Antilles (e.g., Jamaica). C. orbicularis’ prominence in the archaeological deposits of these regions is the predictable result of its abundance, relative ease of access, and widespread efficacy as both a subsistence resource and raw material for tools (e.g.,...
Shellfish, Seasonality and Subsistence in Sechelt Inlet: Understanding Intertidal Resources with High-resolution Bivalve Sclerochronology (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Natasha Leclerc. Terence Clark. Gary Coupland. Bernd R. Schöne. Meghan Burchell.
This paper presents the results of annual growth pattern analysis and geochemical analysis of live-collected and archaeological shells from the Sechelt Inlet, southern British Columbia. Annual growth line analysis of butter clams (Saxidomus gigantea) from three sites in this region revealed an intensive pattern of shellfish collection relative to other large village sites on the Pacific Northwest Coast. This variability suggests there may also be differences in seasonal collection patterns. To...
Stable Oxygen Isotope δ18O Analysis of Crocus Clam (Tridacna crocea) from Palau, Micronesia: Evaluating a Proxy for Sea-surface Temperature Reconstruction (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Jew. Taylor Dodrill. Scott Fitzpatrick.
For thousands of years and on a global scale, shellfish have been a key resource for peoples living in island and coastal environments. Not only were they critical food resources, but can act as records of paleoenvironmental conditions. In this study, we evaluated whether the crocus clam (Tridacna crocea) could satisfactorily record ambient water temperature via the incorporation of oxygen isotope ratios into the calcium carbonate matrix during shell growth. Modern Tridacna crocea were collected...
Warm or Cold Season of Capture? Oyster Middens from Block Island, Rhode Island (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only David Leslie. Kevin McBride.
Previous research on Block Island, Rhode Island, indicates that during the Woodland Period, the island was likely occupied year-round and maritime resources accounted for a significant portion of peoples’ diets. Native American sites on the island include semi-permanent villages near the Great Salt Pond and fishing, temporary seasonal, and task specific camps away from villages. Season of occupation for these sites is important to frame our understanding of a developing maritime economy. Several...