A Preliminary Chronology of Settlement and Subsistence Patterns in Cabo Pulmo National Park, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Summary

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

We present the results of our preliminary analysis of the archaeological resources in Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP), Baja California Sur, Mexico. Since 1995, CPNP has yielded evidence for ecological recovery of marine resources, although long-term prospects are still in question. As important are the cultural resources in the park and surrounding area, where the archaeological record indicates long-term human use of marine resources. The region was occupied as early as 7120-6755 cal BP, with an increased density of sites within the last 2000 years. The faunal record from two excavated sites, D20 and D27, includes fish, marine turtle, mammal, bird, and shellfish remains, especially oysters, from the adjacent rocky intertidal shoreline. Fish, including sardine (Sardinops sagax), were recovered in all but 5 of the 23 excavated levels. The faunal record from these sites indicates consistent and dense occupation of two prominent points on the coastline for at least 2000 years. Cabo Pulmo and the surrounding region are located between the more extensively studied La Paz region to the north and Los Cabos to the south, so our work contributes to our understanding of human occupation of the Gulf Coast of the Baja California Peninsula.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36676.0