Why Screen-Size Matters for Isotopic Analysis of Archaeological Faunal Remains: A Case Study from Norton Sound, Alaska

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Zooarchaeological Methods" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) are small nearshore fish distributed throughout the Pacific and Arctic oceans and were a staple to preindustrial Indigenous fisheries of Western Alaska. Fish, mammal, and bird-bone were sampled for carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from sites in Norton Sound, Alaska, spanning 2500 BCE–1850 CE. Comparing our results to regional climate datasets, saffron cod from warmer periods showed higher mean carbon and nitrogen values. Identification of seasonal taxa suggests that diachronic variability may be a product of seasonal human foraging behavior rather than climate. Enriched isotopic values in saffron cod are a product of their benthic diets, coupled with winter fishing practices targeting starving spawning adults. Saffron cod yielded isotopic values comparable to those of marine mammals. Thus, relying on inadequately screened assemblages to generate isotopic baselines may overemphasize the contribution of marine mammals while masking the importance of benthic foraging fish. In addition, when conducting diachronic analyses of dietary change, season of capture must be factored into the interpretation. Our results emphasize that archaeological field sampling methods can generate incomplete baselines for coastal settings and potentially underestimate the contribution of small fish to dietary isotopic values in humans.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Advances in Zooarchaeological Methods   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36534.0