Middeningly Difficult: Methodological Advances in the Identification and Analysis of Submerged Midden Sites

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Middens are one of the most prevalent site types in coastal environments being found across the globe. They are also vital sources of information about past human behaviour, being records of, amongst many thing, human dietary practices and environmental change. In terrestrial contexts the identification of these sites is often a relatively straightforward process with numerous sets of criteria being developed for this task. The examination of submerged midden sites, however, is more complex with factors such as wave action, sedimentation rates, and predatory/fouling animals all impacting the preservation and state of a site.

This talk discusses recent zooarchaeological analyses conducted on two submerged midden sites: an early Ertebølle midden site in Eastern Jutland, Denmark and a mid-Holocene site from the Gulf of Mexico. It will outline the methodology developed to establish the anthropogenic nature of these sites and highlight some of the on-going issues that we have with their analysis.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36468.0