Whales, Chiefs, and Seal Stomachs: Understanding Ceramic Adoption in the Kodiak Archipelago

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study uses technological investment thinking and experimental archaeology to examine decision of the socially complex hunter-gatherers of the Kodiak Archipelago to adopt ceramics, ca. 500 cal BP. This decision is puzzling for two reasons: a) ceramic adoption on Kodiak lags centuries behind its adoption on the adjacent mainland, and b) evidence of pottery is largely limited to the southern half of the archipelago. Ceramic adoption on Kodiak occurs at a time of unprecedented population levels, resource intensification, and social complexity. Additionally, pottery tends to be found where marine mammals are most abundant. These two factors have suggested the hypothesis that ceramics were adopted to facilitate the mass-production of surpluses of marine mammal oil, a dietary staple, potentially for trade. Using experimentally derived values for return rates and manufacturing times of competing oil-rendering technologies, I evaluate the plausibility of this hypothesis: does it make sense to choose to make a pot if, and only if, one wants to render a surplus quantity of oil?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40401.0