Stable isotope chemistry, population histories and Late Prehistoric subsistence change in the Aleutian Islands

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Byers ◽  
David R. Yesner ◽  
Jack M. Broughton ◽  
Joan Brenner Coltrain
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Aleutian Islands ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Subsistence Change ◽  
Prehistoric Subsistence

Reevaluating Late Prehistoric Coastal Subsistence and Settlement Strategies: New Data from Grove's Creek Site, Skidaway Island, Georgia

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Keene
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Atlantic Coastal Plain ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Agricultural Plants ◽  
Atlantic Coastal

This paper tests existing models of coastal subsistence strategies and settlement patterns of the late prehistoric inhabitants of the Southeastern U.S. Atlantic coastal plain. Excavations at Grove's Creek Site (09CH71), Skidaway Island, Georgia were conducted to determine the season of occupation of the site. Paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological data were used to determine the subsistence strategies of the inhabitants. Stable isotope analysis of oyster shells is combined with the faunal and botanical data to determine the seasons of occupation of the site. The most notable discovery was the diversity of agricultural plants. Paleoethnobotanical data indicate a spring through autumn occupation, and the stable isotope data indicate winter through summer. Faunal data suggest occupation from spring through early winter. Therefore, the site was occupied year-round. This information, coupled with other data from the Southeastern U.S. Atlantic Coast, suggests a revision to existing subsistence and settlement pattern models. Coastal peoples lived in permanent villages and relied on a mix of agriculture, hunting, fishing, and gathering. Short trips were likely made to procure some resources, but there was not an extensive seasonal round.

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of hunter–gatherers from the Coleman site, a Late Prehistoric cemetery in Central Texas

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 1369-1381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond P. Mauldin ◽  
Robert J. Hard ◽  
Cynthia M. Munoz ◽  
Jennifer L.Z. Rice ◽  
Kirsten Verostick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Stable Isotope Analysis ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Nitrogen Stable Isotope ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Central Texas

Isotopic evidence for prehistoric subsistence change at Parmana, Venezuela

Nature ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 292 (5823) ◽  
pp. 536-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaas J. van der Merwe ◽  
Anna Curtenius Roosevelt ◽  
J. C. Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Isotopic Evidence ◽  
Subsistence Change ◽  
Prehistoric Subsistence

A Stepwise Transition to Agriculture in the American Midcontinent

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George R. Milner ◽  
Jane E. Buikstra ◽  
Anna C. Novotny
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Subsistence Change ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Transition To Agriculture ◽  
Disease Experience

In the American midcontinent, the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural economies was long, spanning several millennia, but it took place in a stepwise fashion. Plant remains and human bones provide complementary evidence of a shift to a greater dependence on maize just over a millennium ago. The immediate causes of subsistence change do not appear to have been the same each step of the way, although local population density and intergroup conflict figured prominently in the process. Shifts in lifeways were accompanied by changes in disease experience, although variation in late prehistoric community well-being is not explicable in terms of commonly used archaeological or sociopolitical categories.

scholarly journals Evidence of size-selective evolution in the fighting conch from prehistoric subsistence harvesting

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1782) ◽  
pp. 20140159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron O'Dea ◽  
Marian Lynne Shaffer ◽  
Douglas R. Doughty ◽  
Thomas A. Wake ◽  
Felix A. Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Maturity ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Size At Maturity ◽  
Effective Agent ◽  
Selective Evolution ◽  
Size At Sexual Maturity ◽  
Harvesting Intensity ◽  
Demographic Shifts ◽  
Prehistoric Subsistence

Intensive size-selective harvesting can drive evolution of sexual maturity at smaller body size. Conversely, prehistoric, low-intensity subsistence harvesting is not considered an effective agent of size-selective evolution. Uniting archaeological, palaeontological and contemporary material, we show that size at sexual maturity in the edible conch Strombus pugilis declined significantly from pre-human (approx. 7 ka) to prehistoric times (approx. 1 ka) and again to the present day. Size at maturity also fell from early- to late-prehistoric periods, synchronous with an increase in harvesting intensity as other resources became depleted. A consequence of declining size at maturity is that early prehistoric harvesters would have received two-thirds more meat per conch than contemporary harvesters. After exploring the potential effects of selection biases, demographic shifts, environmental change and habitat alteration, these observations collectively implicate prehistoric subsistence harvesting as an agent of size-selective evolution with long-term detrimental consequences. We observe that contemporary populations that are protected from harvesting are slightly larger at maturity, suggesting that halting or even reversing thousands of years of size-selective evolution may be possible.

The use of scanning electron microscopy in interpreting chenopodium remains from three archaeological sites in northwestern Iowa

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 1112-1113
Author(s):  
Douglas William Jones
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Chenopodium Berlandieri ◽  
Seed Identification ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Scanning Electron

Within the past 20 years, archaeobotanical research in the Eastern United States has documented an early agricultural complex before the dominance of the Mesoamerican domesticates (corn, beans, and squash) in late prehistoric and historic agricultural systems. This early agricultural complex consisted of domesticated plants such as Iva annua var.macrocarpa (Sumpweed or Marshelder), Hellanthus annuus (Sunflower) and Chenopodium berlandieri, (Goosefoot or Lasbsquarters), and heavily utilized plants such as Polygonum erectum (Erect Knotweed), Phalaris caroliniana (May grass), and Hordeum pusillum (Little Barley).Recent research involving the use of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) specifically on Chenopodium has established diagnostic traits of wild and domesticated species seeds. This is important because carbonized or uncarbonized seeds are the most commonly recovered Chenopodium material from archaeological sites. The diagnostic seed traits assist archaeobotanists in identification of Chenopodium remains and provide a basis for evaluation of Chenopodium utilization in a culture's subsistence patterns. With the aid of SEM, an analysis of Chenopodium remains from three Late Prehistoric sites in Northwest Iowa (Blood Run [Oneota culture], Brewster [Mill Creek culture], and Chan-Ya-Ta [Mill Creek culture]) has been conducted to: 1) attempt seed identification to a species level, 2) evaluate the traits of the seeds for classification as either wild or domesticated, and 3) evaluate the role of Chenopodium utilization in both the Oneota and Mill Creek cultures.

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