In Small Organisms Forgotten: Micro-fauna from Shell Middens at Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41) as Potential Proxies for Paleo-Climate

Summary

Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41) are neighboring mound and village complexes on the central Gulf Coast of Florida, occupied mainly sequentially across the first millennium AD. Stratigraphic excavations, coupled with extensive radiocarbon dating, permit relatively fine-grained observations regarding the prevalence of fauna over time. Oyster dominates faunal remains from all periods, but higher relative frequencies of small gastropods are evident in Midden Phases 2 and 4. Sponge spicules document a similar pattern. We associate these trends with intervals of warmer and wetter climate, specifically the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods, respectively, as revealed by local pollen samples as well as regional and global climate models. Habitats for small gastropods probably expanded during these intervals, leading to natural increases in species abundance in areas around human habitations, but we suspect the trend may also reflect increased targeting of particular local estuarine resources.

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): 17684