Use of Aquatic and Stone Tools at Three Colombian Caribbean Sites near Canal del Dique

Summary

This work derives from research in the ongoing research project "Evaluation of Zooarqueológica de Concheros cerca al Canal del Dique". We present the preliminary results of the archaeological research of three sites sampled near Canal del Dique: Monsú (5000 a.C.), Puerto Hormiga (4000 a. C), and Leticia (a shellmound from the 12th century A.D.). Samples of animals remains were recovered from 1/8 inch mesh screening. These samples were analyzed for taxonomic, taphonomic, and quantification analysis. Starch grain analyses were conducted on stone tools and human remains. Use wear and experimental analyses were applied on stone tools, which were used in different subsistence activities. This information is contrasted with current archaeological information from the Caribbean lowlands. We conclude that the diversity and abundance of aquatic resources are linked to the location of the sites suggesting that the most representative species collected by Precolumbian residents, for occasional meals, were mollusks and vertebrates from brackish environments, mangroves, estuaries, swamps and muddy sand mixed areas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• New Data for Old Problems: Recent Approaches to Archaeological Research at Caribbean Lowlands

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