Subsistence and the resilience of coastal habitats in the Longue durée

Summary

Mollusks recovered from archaeological sites reflect decisions made by individuals in the past, changes in the environment through time, and the interactions between people and landscapes. Therefore, archaeomalacological analyses can help to reconstruct paleoenvironments and to identify changes in consumption practices. Changes should be particularly evident when considered from a deep-time perspective. In this presentation we will be evaluating samples from three archaeological sites spanning from 4.4kBP to the 19th Century AD within the same hydrological basin (Rio Grande de Manati, Puerto Rico) with the intention of examining culture and environmental change though time. The research question guiding this investigation is what coastal ecosystems are identified in the archaeomlacological component of the subsistence-remains assemblage, and to what extent does this information reflect patterns of resource management and territory exploitation through time? By using taxonomic identification, MNI and NISP counts, we expect to identify similar species in all sites notwithstanding cultural differences because they are all located within the same landscape. Detailed examination of the samples provides specific data of coastal resource exploitation of multiple ecosystems from Archaic, Ceramic Age and Late Historic periods reflecting changes in habitat distribution along a continuation of socioenvironmental knowledge of subsistence resource acquisition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage