Microstratigraphic and Biomolecular Identification of Seaweeds in the Mesolithic of Atlantic Iberia, SW Europe

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeophycology: New (Ethno)Archaeological Approaches to Understand the Contribution of Seaweed to the Subsistence and Social Life of Coastal Populations" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mesolithic shell mounds are prominent testaments of the prehistoric coastal adaptations along the Atlantic shores of Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, postglacial hunter-gatherers largely turned to coastal regions and lived successfully with a broad-spectrum economy fostered by Early Holocene environmental changes. While mollusk shells are the most striking component of their foraging activities, an array of other marine resources were available, including seaweeds. In this paper, microstratigraphic investigations on Mesolithic shell mounds yielding novel evidence of seaweeds are presented. The microscopic remains of seaweeds were optically identified and associated with specific microstratigraphic layers highly rich in organic matter, burned within combustion features, and in disposal deposits. These observations suggest the processing of seaweeds as other dietary components. To further investigated the significance of this finds, lipid biomarker techniques were applied to identify the n-alkanes and fatty acids of marine origin in the sediments from the same contexts. In parallel, an experimental program on controlled burning of current seaweed species was also carried out to tackle the lipidic burning signal in the archaeological samples. This paper discusses the significance of these invisible coastal resources as paleoenvironmental proxy, dietary component, and indirect evidence for foraging dynamics and specific fishing or harvesting techniques.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeophycology: New (Ethno)Archaeological Approaches to Understand the Contribution of Seaweed to the Subsistence and Social Life of Coastal Populations   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39934.0