Dynamic Coastlines: Modeling the Impacts of the Intertidal Zone Transformation for Puerto Rico during the Mid- to Late Holocene

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As Caribbean research engages in the study of past human-environmental relations, few efforts have focused on the reconstruction of the dynamic intertidal zone and its impacts on past food security and livelihood. Interdisciplinary approaches can address this gap as these paleogeographic and paleoclimatic reconstructions contribute an understanding of coastal conditions that may have influenced resource and habitat availability. Using recent glacial-isostatic adjustment modelling of Holocene sea-level rise and high resolution topobathymetric datasets, this paper presents new 1,000-year interval models of the intertidal zone of Puerto Rico from 10–1 kya and discusses their significance alongside recent findings in pre-colonial archaeology. By demonstrating the varying degrees of intertidal zone transformations across six distinct coastlines, this study argues for the consideration of the differential impacts that Holocene sea-level rise had across the island and its past resourcing strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33330