Avian Remains from the Late Pre-colonial Amerindian Sites on the Islands of the Venezuelan Caribbean

Summary

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the analyses of an assemblage of over 3,000 bird remains systematically recovered in various late pre-Hispanic sites (c. AD 1000–1500) on the islands of the Venezuelan Caribbean. We discuss possible signatures of seasonal occupancy of the island campsites as inferred from the bio-ecology of the identified bird specimens. The data indicates that several families of birds were persistently targeted by Amerindians for food and/or feathers, and their bones were used as raw material for making tools and adornments. We discuss the process of recovery of the specimens under study, their archaeological contexts, the taphonomy at play, and analyze diverse categories of bones. The analyzed categories include unmodified and modified bones, and worked bones and manufacture debitage. Bird iconography present on various artefacts recovered on the islands and the use and valuation of birds in interrelated island and mainland sites are also discussed. Finally, we examine the references to the Amerindian use of birds in the study region contained in early colonial ethnohistorical sources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Caribbean Environmental Archaeology: New Perspectives on Human Ecodynamics and Social Relations

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