Changes in Resource Use during the Mississippian Period on St. Catherines Island, Georgia

Summary

After more than forty years of zooarchaeological research on prehispanic collections from coastal Georgia, it is clear that people exploited the same suite of estuarine resources from the Late Archaic through the Mississippian periods, despite changing socio-political conditions. However, changes in resource use over time are evident when fine-grained recovery and multiple analytical techniques are applied to vertebrate and invertebrate collections from the Mississippian period on St. Catherines Island. Specifically, late Mississippian populations used different fishing techniques and exploited a wider range of shellfish habitats. In addition, these analyses suggest differences in length of site occupation and waste disposal practices. This research demonstrates that analyzing multiple datasets recovered with fine mesh can yield new information, and supports the hypothesis that societies with different socio-political realities have different relationships with their environment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22614