Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast

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 "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Along the Central Coast of California, ancient indigenous landscape management practices have been examined in the context of long-term human occupation, climatic and environmental variability, and resulting changes in human-environmental relationships with the onset of Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization. As part of an ongoing collaborative eco-archaeological research project involving interdisciplinary scholars including members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, California State Parks, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Cruz, data was collected from five sites (SCR-7, SCR-10, SCR-15, SCR-14, and SCR-123/38H) along the Santa Cruz Coast during the summers of 2016-17. This symposium highlights paleoethnobotanical, zooarchaeological, ancient DNA analysis, and artifactual analysis from these sites and how these analyses and interpretations can be mobilized to broaden our understanding of ancient California landscape and seascape management practices and human-environmental relationships

Other Keywords
historical ecology • Zooarchaeology • Archaic • Coastal and Island Archaeology  • Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers • Lithic Analysis • Paleoethnobotany • Indigenous • ancient DNA • traditional ecological knowledge

Geographic Keywords
Arizona (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Utah (State / Territory) • Nevada (State / Territory) • California (State / Territory) • North America (Continent) • USA (Country) • North America: California and Great Basin

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • Ancient Shoreline Management on the Central California Coast (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Grone. Roberta Jewett. Rob Cuthrell. Gabriel Sanchez. Kent Lightfoot.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While extensive archaeological investigation regarding indigenous landscape management practices has been conducted in this region, little work has been done regarding shoreline management practices affecting intertidal and wetland regions, such as kelp harvesting and the exploitation and...

  • Archaeobotanical Data from Middle to Late Holocene Sites on the Central California Coast: Implications for Resource Use and Prescribed Burning (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rob Cuthrell.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Our research team’s ongoing work on the Central Coast of California explores spatial and temporal changes in the use of natural resources by Native peoples and considers how archaeobiological data can be used to understand the history of traditional resource stewardship practices such as...

  • The Importance of Restoring Indigenous Knowledge (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Val Lopez.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Creation Story of the Amah Mutsun clearly delineates our traditional territory and asserts our responsibility to take care of Mother Earth and all living things. For thousands of years and many hundreds of generations the Amah Mutsun accumulated knowledge of how to ensure balance in their...

  • Middle Holocene Projectile Points from the Santa Cruz County Coast of Northern Monterey Bay, California. (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Hylkema.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A group of Middle Holocene aged archaeological sites along the Santa Cruz County Coast have produced a large number of chert and obsidian projectile points. Sites SCR-3, SCR-7, SCR-10 and SCR-40 have the same range of point types and materials, and are all within 10 miles radius of each other. ...

  • The Role of Faunal Evidence in Pyrodiversity Studies: Cases from California (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Diane Gifford-Gonzalez.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ascertaining the past existence of fire-based landscape management practices requires the use of multiple lines of geological, arboreal fire scar, pollen and charcoal, archaeobotanical, and faunal evidence. In our initial project in a now-woody valley near the Central California coast, these and...

  • The Study of Indigenous Landscape and Seascape Management Practices in Central California: A Synthesis of Recent Findings (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kent Lightfoot. Valentin Lopez. Mark Hylkema. Roberta Jewett. Peter Nelson.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper synthesizes the results of our recent investigation of indigenous landscape and seascape management practices in Central California in ancient and historical times. The project involves a collaborative team of scholars from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Amah Mutsun Land Trust,...

  • The Use of Ancient DNA to Investigate Change in Vole Populations during the Past 7,000 years: Implications for Past Land Management Practices (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Fine. Beth Shapiro. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez. Gabriel Sanchez. Kent Lightfoot.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The integration of genetic research on contemporary and ancient organisms into archaeological studies represents a novel approach in the analysis of long-term landscape management practices by small-scale societies. Our project employs methods in genetics (aDNA, phylogeographic research on...

  • Zooarchaeological Analysis of Vertebrate Remains from the Santa Cruz Coast (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabriel Sanchez.

    This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent indigenous, eco-archaeological, and low-impact field research on the Central California Coast resulted in the excavation of four sites that were inhabited from the mid-Holocene to the contact period. Vertebrate remains from these sites were sampled using fine-grained recovery methods...