The Role of Faunal Evidence in Pyrodiversity Studies: Cases from California

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ascertaining the past existence of fire-based landscape management practices requires the use of multiple lines of geological, arboreal fire scar, pollen and charcoal, archaeobotanical, and faunal evidence. In our initial project in a now-woody valley near the Central California coast, these and other lines of evidence converged toward indicating maintenance of an open local environment with high-ranked nut trees, through repeated use of fire. The rodent fauna was the strongest faunal evidence for local habitat, dominated by voles (Microtus) and field mice (Peromyscus), as opposed to closed country species (e.g. Neotoma, Sciurus). Recent sampling of coastal sites has provided further lessons in the importance of site selection for retrieving adequate records of habitat management.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23962