Investigating the Sustainability of a Woodland Fish Trap on Florida’s Northern Gulf Coast

Summary

This is an abstract from the "*SE Stakes and Stones: Current Archaeological Approaches to Fish Weir Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The increase in frequency and intensity of storm events in the twenty-first century has inspired communities worldwide to reconsider their investment and approach to coastal infrastructure. As often is the case, modern problems serve to inspire archaeological inquiry. In this paper we explore the advantages and drawbacks of permanent coastal infrastructure during a time of increased social complexity along the Florida Gulf Coast. Heightened gathering events tied to summer solstice ceremonialism required communities of the Woodland era to develop technologies to support seasonal increases in population. However, changes in sea level, storm events, and other environmental impacts may have affected the sustainability of such coastal infrastructure and potentially contributed to eventual site abandonment and a reconfiguration of social life. We bring together several lines of data in this paper to better understand the benefits and vulnerabilities that coastal fish traps would have provided these communities. Data presented are from Richard’s Island Fish Trap, a shell-based construction situated to the immediate south of a Civic-Ceremonial Center known as Shell Mound (8LV42), and includes lidar, excavation, and coring, as well as comparative and experimental datasets.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• *SE Stakes and Stones: Current Archaeological Approaches to Fish Weir Research   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40053.0