Zooarchaeological Analysis of Fish Remains from the Thousand Spring Site (CA-SNI-11), San Nicolas Island, California

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological evidence from the California Channel Islands has provided insight on the important role fish played in daily human subsistence practices. San Nicolas Island is home to a rich and diverse marine environment containing the largest kelp forest along the Southern California Bight. This study focuses on fish data from a middle to late Holocene village site. The site is situated on the northwest coast of San Nicolas Island and contains a dense assemblage of ichthyofaunal remains. In this study, we present a fish dataset from the excavated units using standard archaeozoological methods to quantify NISP and MNI. A detailed examination of the ecology of fishes will allow for a comprehensive understanding of human harvesting at this site encompassing discussions of fishing technology and human procurement strategies. Through various statistical calculations, we compare and contrast our results in intra-local and extra-local context. We provide a baseline of human-fish relationships from archaeological data collected from San Nicolas Island and link this data to the functionality and advances in regional fishing technology. By understanding human-fish relationships in a spatial and chronological context, we may begin to explore large-scale patterns of fish harvesting practices along the Southern California Bight.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25924