Variation in the Configuration of the Middle Snake River and its Relationship to Prehistoric Fishing Site Locations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The configuration of the various elements of a river system can have significant impacts on the availability, abundance, and nutritional profitability of aquatic organisms utilized as food by groups of human foragers. These factors may have influenced where and when Late Archaic foragers decided to fish along the Middle Snake River in southern Idaho during the transition to increased use of fish (beginning approximately 1500 B.P.). Previous work has established a relationship between physiographic features of the Middle Snake River channel and the presence of fishing sites. To expand on this, it is important to question two assumptions: 1) that the category of "fishing site" is useful and defensible; and 2) that the configuration of the Middle Snake River was static over the period when archaeological evidence suggests increased use of fish. This study assesses the argument that archaeological site location, regardless of evidence for fishing, should be influenced by physiographic features of pre-dam channels and how those features could have changed over time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22957