Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Coastal and island environments have long been important habitats for humans and their fossil ancestors. However, these environments are also delicate ecosystems that are susceptible to damage or alteration from a myriad of natural and cultural forces. The influence of environmental change and anthropogenic forces on island and coastal settings has long been a topic of interest in archaeology. Shifts in environmental conditions and intensive exploitation of nearshore habitats by humans can have a dramatic and damaging impact on ecosystems. Conversely, these changes in environmental conditions can also lead to the proliferation of natural resources, and the repeated, long-term use of these habitats by groups can result in unique management systems that build and maintain stable and productive ecosystems. Finally, researchers must also consider the ecological limitations of the taxa in their assemblages, as these variables can also significantly affect the way an ecosystem adapts to external pressures. It is therefore clear that to properly understand the use and evolution of island and coastal settings, researchers must take a holistic approach that integrates all these variables into their interpretations. This session will broadly focus on the impacts that environmental and anthropogenic forces have on island and coastal settings.
Other Keywords
Coastal and Island Archaeology •
Zooarchaeology •
Geoarchaeology •
Underwater Archaeology •
Archaic •
Survey •
Paleoethnobotany •
Archaeomalacology •
Channel Islands •
historical ecology
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
United States of America (Country) •
USA (Country) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Utah (State / Territory) •
Nevada (State / Territory) •
California (State / Territory) •
North America: California and Great Basin •
AUSTRALIA •
Commonwealth of Australia (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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"…As the Waves Make Towards the Pebbled Shore": Site Formation Processes on Drowned Coastal Sites and Implications for Preservation, Discovery, and Interpretation (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Submerged prehistoric sites left behind by coastal groups have the potential to answer multiple critical questions concerning human activities, but locating, excavating, and interpreting such sites brings with it challenges unlike those encountered in coastal settings that remain (for now) terrestrial....
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Coastal Southeast Queensland, Australia: An Historical Ecology Model of Mid- to Late Holocene Settlement and Subsistence (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Coastal Southeast Queensland covers an area stretching from Fraser Island in the north to the border of northern New South Wales in the south, and possesses the best documented and most intensively scrutinized coastal archaeological record in Australia. The area was a major focus in the late 1970s when...
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Connecting Survey and Fieldwork: Archaeology of the Core (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Based on a PhD research case study in the Croatian Adriatic, the paper demonstrates a step further into investigating coastal and submerged archaeology. Seabed mapping methods adopted from marine geology, such as side-scan and multi-beam sonar surveys and shallow water sub-bottom profiling are now...
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Human Adaptations to Environmental Change on the California Channel Islands (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. This paper provides an overview of human adaptations to environmental change during 13,000 years of human occupation on the California Channel Islands. In particular, I consider how the range of economically important species shifted with changing environmental conditions and how different foraging...
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Investigations of a Submerged Prehistoric Midden on Hjarnø, Denmark: Climate, Sea Level and Culture (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Shell middens, or shell-matrix deposits, occur in large numbers across the coastlines of the world from the mid- Holocene onwards, often forming substantial mounds, but they become smaller, rarer or absent as one goes back into earlier periods, suggesting a world-wide process of economic intensification....
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Natural and Anthropogenic Effects on Coastal Environments along the East Cape of Baja California Sur, Mexico (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Changes to coastal environments from natural and anthropogenic factors have influenced human subsistence and settlement patterns throughout the Baja California peninsula. These changes are visible both in the archaeological record and present-day human settlements. We discuss long-term human-environment...
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Nearshore Paleoceanographic Conditions and Human Adaptation on the Coast of the Atacama Desert (Chile, 25°S) During the Early and Middle Holocene (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. The transition period between the Early and Middle Holocene is associated with important changes in climate and human dynamics around the world. The coast of the Atacama Desert (Chile, 25°S) is not an exception. Early Holocene archaeological sites show evidence of a generalized coastal economy that...
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Resilience and Stable Shifts: Historical Ecology at Bay Point, San Miguel Island, California. (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. Faunal remains from two multi-component archaeological rockshelter sites on northeastern San Miguel Island are used to reconstruct aspects of nearshore ecosystems and investigate patterns in marine resource use through time. More than 90 14C dates demonstrate that Daisy Cave (CA-SMI-261) and Cave of the...
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Shifting Palaeoeconomies in the East Alligator River Region: An Archaeomalacological Perspective (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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. The East Alligator River Region (EARR), Australia, has undergone considerable environmental change throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Rising sea-levels and changing climatic conditions drastically altered the environments and ecosystems of this region, forcing its inhabitants to adapt their economic...
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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)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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,...