Overcoming Variability in Zooarchaeological Data Quality

Summary

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

Numerous paleoclimate proxies from Aotearoa New Zealand indicate the Little Ice Age (ca. 1450 – 1900 CE) caused marked changes in local conditions that could have affected the productivity of marine fisheries. Considering the critical relationships that have always existed between fisheries and Māori economic, social, and spiritual life, any changes in fisheries productivity would have had wide-ranging effects on people’s lives. However, the variable data qualities of fishbone datasets from the northern North Island severely challenge any analysis of fisheries change in the past. Reported assemblages in this region show little consistency in identification methods, units of quantification, or recovery practices, while only a few report the necessary metadata for assessing sampling biases or processes of post-depositional destruction. In this poster, I explore an approach to meta-analysis of dissimilar assemblages by comparing like with like (i.e. assemblages with similar taphonomic histories), and then drawing conclusions from the similarities and differences that can be observed across each comparison in an attempt to address the question ‘How did climate change affect Māori fisheries in northern Aotearoa New Zealand?’

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): 24027