Preliminary Faunal Analysis at the Coastal Site of Rio Chico, Ecuador (OMJPLP-170)

Summary

The Rio Chico site is situated on the central coast of Ecuador, a region that is heavily influenced by climatic events such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Rio Chico was occupied almost continuously for 5000 years (ca. 3500 B.C.E. to 1532 C.E.), and therefore provides an opportunity to study coastal resource usage over a long temporal span. This poster presents a preliminary zooarchaeological analysis of the relative abundance of fish and other classes of fauna at the site. A sample of faunal remains from the Florida Atlantic University field school excavations conducted in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2003 is identified to the class level and serves as the basis of this analysis. This analysis provides a foundation for further research to ascertain if there was relative stability or change in resource usage at Rio Chico over time. Prehistoric data analyses from coastal regions impacted by catastrophic weather patterns related to ENSO are relevant to the modern-day management and sustainability of coastal fisheries. A better understanding of resource usage at sites such as Rio Chico can should provide important knowledge of the ways in which humans living in coastal regions may have responded to environmental instability over time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15455