Avifaunal Remains from the Palmrose Site (35CT47): Establishing Seasonality and Investigating Endangered Species

Summary

Avifaunal remains have great potential to improve archaeological understanding of the economy and subsistence of peoples who lived in the past, as well as to yield information about local ecology, environmental change, and past bird species distribution. The large assemblage of faunal remains from the three archaeological sites comprising the Seaside Collection from Seaside, OR, contains significant quantities of bird bone. Previous analyses of vertebrate remains (including birds) by Greenspan and Crockford (1992) and Colten (2015) suggested occupation occurred at the site year round. While these studies provide baselines for interpreting seasonality and species representation, approximately half the Palmrose faunal remains from the initial 1970s excavation are unanalyzed. Consequently, zooarchaeological analysis has been performed on a previously unanalyzed subsample (NISP=200) as part of a larger avifaunal project. This project seeks to understand not only patterns of site occupation, but to also gain greater insight on strategic hunting practices (i.e., seasonal and geographic targeting/acquisition of specific avian species). Such information is critical for understanding human subsistence behavior and landscape use. This investigation also seeks to provide data on the local historical ecology of two currently endangered bird species in Oregon: the marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) and the short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albatrus).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21114