Isotopic Approaches to Marine Shell Exchange in the Southwest

Summary

Excavations have uncovered millions of marine shells throughout the Southwest. However, it was not an easily obtainable resource. The nearest possible location was the expansive shorelines of Sonora, Mexico. Archaeological literature is full of hypotheses regarding shell procurement and exchange—models of down-the-line trading, least cost, prestige, and group membership. Each of these hypotheses agrees that where and whom the people of the Southwest interacted with to acquire marine shell are important to understanding regional exchange. A narrower geographic location would offer a more comprehensive understanding of the interactions between the procurers of shell and those that sought the molluscs. In this study, we further studies of economic interaction by comparing carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of Olivella, Conus, Glycymeris, and Nassarius shell from 76 Draw, a Casas Grandes site near Deming, New Mexico, with several published modern Gulf of California datasets. Building upon previous isotopic analyses of Southwestern shell, we determine the provenience of marine shells from 76 Draw and propose a model of marine shell exchange for the Casas Grandes world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21303