Resilience and Stable Shifts: Historical Ecology at Bay Point, San Miguel Island, California.

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Faunal remains from two multi-component archaeological rockshelter sites on northeastern San Miguel Island are used to reconstruct aspects of nearshore ecosystems and investigate patterns in marine resource use through time. More than 90 14C dates demonstrate that Daisy Cave (CA-SMI-261) and Cave of the Chimneys (CA-SMI-603) were occupied for most of the Holocene from ~11,700 to 1,000 cal BP. Stable isotope analysis of >100 archaeological mussel shells was used to reconstruct nearshore sea surface temperature (SST) for Bay Point, revealing environmental shifts during the Holocene. Analysis of fish bones identified >20 taxa that people used hook and line, nets, and other technologies to catch—with a consistent suite of nearshore and kelp bed taxa through time. Analysis of shellfish remains identified >50 taxa revealing a similar pattern with oscillations in sizes and relative abundances of major prey species through time. Faunal densities and relative abundances oscillate between components, but the fish and shellfish assemblages indicate relatively stable and resilient nearshore habitats throughout the past 10,000 years. These data contribute to our understanding of how islanders utilized and shaped marine ecosystems in the past and inform on the potential resiliency of marine fisheries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23280