Marine Mammal Hunting in the Kuril Islands: Zooarchaeological and Genetic Insights

Summary

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

People have inhabited the NW Pacific Kuril Islands for millennia, supported by the productive marine and coastal environments. Here, we build upon previous faunal analyses that examined biogeographical patterns in faunal exploitation by conducting a chronological analysis, grouped by cultural period (Epi-Jomon, Okhotsk, Ainu and Historic). Specifically, we focus on temporal and regional trends in marine mammal hunting that centered on species such as sea lions, fur seals, seals, sea otters, and porpoises. Having established an overview of the role of sea mammals in Kuril harvesting practice through time, we then analyze ancient DNA to better understand the history of human harvesting pressure on Steller sea lions. We analyze mitogenomes from archaeological, historic, and modern Steller sea lions from the Kurils and southern Sea of Okhotsk using demographic reconstruction and diversity measure methods. The result will allow us to assess whether Steller sea lions in the Kurils were demographically stressed in the late Holocene due to human hunting or if their population remained stable despite sustained hunting pressure. Ultimately, we aim to establish a historical ecological baseline for marine mammal communities in the region and to understand the dynamic relationships between humans and pinnipeds more broadly.

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): 37145.0