Stable oxygen isotopic evidence of mobility and site seasonality on the northern Gulf of Mexico, USA

Summary

Stable oxygen isotope analyses are commonly used in archaeology to assess the seasons-of-death of fishes and molluscs, and to make inferences about seasonal aspects of human mobility and resource use. We present stable oxygen isotope sequences from 33 bivalve shells, representing four taxa, and eight fish otoliths, representing two taxa. These were recovered from two sites located on the Gulf Coast of Alabama: Plash Island (AD 325–642) and Bayou St. John (AD 650–1041). Specimens recovered from small, well-dated pit features were targeted for sampling. The stable oxygen isotope data indicate that shellfishes and fishes were collected at both sites during all seasons of the year, though frequency or intensity of site occupation may have declined during the fall. Most of the pit features included in the study appear to represent multi-season living and working areas. Although it is unclear whether these sites were occupied by a permanent year-round population or by groups who returned to these sites intermittently throughout the year, the results of this study do not support the hypothesis that the coastal landscape was vacated seasonally as part of a shifting settlement pattern.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage