Search

This paper presents an analysis of human remains from Tatham Mound, a dual-component mortuary site from central Gulf Coast Florida. The human remains from Tatham are significant because they come from a limited time period during the initial contact with Europeans at AD 1525-1550. Dietary reconstruction demonstrates that at the time of European contact, maize was not a predominant dietary item. Low frequencies for several dental and skeletal pathological indicators are consistent with relatively good health as compared to other Southeastern late prehistoric and protohistoric populations. Despite the limited time period represented by the mound population, critical interactions occurred between Native Americans and Spaniards, as indicated by skeletal elements severed by metal weapons. The Tatham population is significant because it is one of the earliest studied populations contacted by Europeans in North America, and the only one with well-documented sharp-force trauma that represents intergroup hostility., ((c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

• Titicaca Basin peoples used C 4 and lacustrine resources in different ways over time. • Environment shifts and cultural change impacted dietary choices. • Subsistence patterns did not follow linear change from foraging to agriculture. Humans use dietary resources in many ways, employing varied subsistence strategies in response to local environmental fluctuations and innovative technologies. Documenting these patterns of resource use is an important part of our understanding of past societies and human relationships with the landscape, animals, and each other. In this paper, we present results from stable isotope analysis of 66 individuals buried on the Copacabana Peninsula, Bolivia, compared to a baseline of 28 modern floral and faunal samples, and explore individual and population access to certain types of food over time (3000 BCE–CE 1700). The data show that access to C 4 and lacustrine resources shifted slightly over time, especially during the Early Intermediate Period (CE 1–500). We argue that Copacabana peoples used diverse subsistence strategies to navigate fluctuating environmental and social conditions. This was not a teleological nor one-way process; rather, people made choices about food in response to environmental patterns, shifting subsistence strategies, differential ritual use of maize, or, most likely, a combination of all of the above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]