Search

Extensive 2004 excavation of Cḯxwicən (pronounced ch-WHEET-son), traditional home of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington State, U.S.A., documented human occupation spanning the last 2700 years with fine geo-stratigraphic control and 102 radiocarbon samples. Remains of multiple plankhouses were documented. Occupation spans large-magnitude earthquakes, periods of climate change, and change in nearshore habitat. Our project began in 2012 as a case study to explore the value of human ecodynamics in explaining change and stability in human-animal relationships on the Northwest Coast through analysis of faunal and geo-archaeological records. Field sampling was explicitly designed to allow for integration of all faunal classes (birds, fish, mammals, and invertebrates), thus facilitating our ability to track how different taxa were affected by external factors and cultural processes. With over one million specimens, the faunal assemblage represents one of the largest on the North Pacific Coast. Invertebrate records reveal striking changes in intertidal habitat that are linked to the formation of the sheltered harbor and catastrophic events such as tsunamis. Analysis suggests a high level of consistency in the structure of resource use (evenness and richness) across 2150 years of occupation, despite increase in intensity of human use and a shift to plankhouse occupation. Trends in fish and invertebrate representation do not correspond to changing ocean conditions, while changes in abundance of herring, salmon, burrowing bivalves and urchins are consistent with impacts from tsunamis. Comparison of resource use between two well-sampled houses before and after one tsunami suggests that while both households were resilient, they negotiated the event in different ways.

Coastal shell middens are known for their generally excellent preservation and abundant identifiable faunal remains, including delicate fish and bird bones that are often rare or poorly preserved at non-shell midden sites. Thus, when we began our human ecodynamics research project focused on the fauna from Cḯx w icən (45CA523, pronounced ch - WHEET - son ), a large ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, located on the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles, Washington (USA), we anticipated generally high levels of bone identifiability. We quickly realized that the mammal bones were more fragmented and less identifiable than we had expected, though this was not the case with the bird and fish bone or invertebrate remains. To better understand why this fragmentation occurred at Cḯx w icən, we evaluate numerous hypotheses, including both post-depositional and behavioral explanations. We conclude that multiple factors intersected (to varying degrees) to produce the extreme bone fragmentation and low identifiability of mammal bones at the site, including bone fuel use, marrow extraction, grease rendering, tool production, and post-depositional breakdown. Using a human ecodynamics framework, we further consider how both social factors and external environmental forces may mediate human choices, such as the economic decision to use bone for fuel or render bone grease. We place our findings from Cḯx w icən in a regional context and discuss the potential of the approach for other coastal archaeological sites worldwide.

We analyzed sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) remains from Cḯxwicən (pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a 2700 year-old ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington state, U.S.A., to improve understanding of how this species was used by Native American/First Nations peoples in the past. Though sablefish are abundant at Cḯxwicən, and limited ethnographic accounts indicate they were highly prized in northwestern North America, their remains are rare in regional archaeology. We present a body-size regression model for estimating the fork length (FL) of archaeologically represented sablefish and determining which habitats they were captured from (i.e. shallow, nearshore waters as juveniles or deepwater, offshore sites as adults). FL estimates for sablefish remains from Cḯxwicən indicate the site occupants exclusively targeted inshore juveniles. Comparisons of sablefish abundances over time show juvenile sablefish were reliably and sustainably harvested over the duration of the site's occupation despite major environmental perturbation from regional climate change and tectonic disturbances. However, patterns of sablefish use differ in two Cḯxwicən households, suggesting access to and consumption of sablefish was socially mediated.

A summed probability density function (spdf), generated from the catalog of 101 radiocarbon ages on wood and charcoal from the Cḯxwicən archaeological site (Washington State, USA), serves as a proxy for the site's occupational history over the last 2500 years. Significant differences between spdfs derived from a null model of population growth (a bootstrapped logistic equation) and the observed index suggest relatively less cultural activity at Cḯxwicən between about 1950–1750 cal BP, 1150–950 cal BP, and 650 to 550 cal BP; and increased activity between about 1350–1250 cal BP and 550–500 cal BP. Peaks in the Cḯxwicən spdf are closely echoed by those derived from English Camp and Cama Beach, the other intensively dated archaeological sites in the region, from about 1600 to 650 cal BP. The fluctuations at all three sites in that period appear to be predominantly associated with the availability of marine resources, as shown by a statistically significant correlation between the Cḯxwicən spdf and the abundance of fish remains in late Holocene sediments in Saanich Inlet, a fjord on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island. A dramatic fall in the Cḯxwicən spdf after 1250 cal BP, and the presence of sandy deposits in the village midden may reflect the impact of a tsunami triggered by earthquake “U” at the neighboring Cascadia plate boundary. Other tsunamis from this source over the last 2500 years apparently had more modest effects on activity levels at Cḯxwicən.

Human ecodynamics (H.E.) refers to processes of stability, resilience, and change in socio-ecological relationships or systems. H.E. research involves interdisciplinary study of the human condition as it affects and is affected by the rest of the non-human world. In this paper, we review the intellectual history of the human ecodynamics concept over the past several decades, as it has emerged out of classical ecology, anthropology, behavioral ecology, resilience theory, historical ecology, and related fields, especially with respect to the study of long-term socioecological change. Those who study human ecodynamics reject the notion that humans should be considered external to the environments in which they live and have lived for millennia. Many are interested in the resilience and sustainability of past human-natural configurations, often striving to extract lessons from the past that can benefit society today. H.E. research, involving the study of paleoenvironments and archaeology, has taken shape around a series of methodological advances that facilitate the study of past chronology, paleoecology, paleodemography, mobility, trade, and social networks. It is only through integrated study of 'coupled human-natural systems'—'socio-ecosystems'—that we can hope to understand dynamic human-environmental interactions and begin to manage them for sustainable goals. Local and traditional or Indigenous knowledge provides another important influence to human ecodynamics research, and we explore how such knowledge can provide both expert witness into the operation of socioecological systems and insight into the human/cultural dimensions of those systems. Ultimately, we conclude that human ecodynamics is more encompassing than a number of related approaches and can provide a nexus for productive research. Through its interdisciplinary breadth, the framework unites scholarship that tends to be more isolated to address complex problems that are best tackled with diverse perspectives.

Cḯxwicən (pronounced ch-WHEET-son) is a 2700 year-old ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (LEKT), located on the northwest coast of Washington State, U.S.A. The Cḯxwicən project has scientific values that broadly contribute to research in human ecodynamics and maritime foragers, given the scale of the project, excavation methods, and enormous quantities of faunal materials recovered. The village holds great significance to the LEKT as their traditional village, which includes a sacred burial ground. The project began under challenging circumstances, when the village was inadvertently encountered during a construction project, incurring huge political, social and financial costs. Commitment by the LEKT and Cḯxwicən scholars and other partners turned an “opportunity lost” into an “opportunity found.” This paper provides background to this remarkable site and project goals that guided the Cḯxwicən research project. The Special Issue papers showcase project results, including reflections by tribal members. Overall, the project shows the potential for archaeology and heritage to support reconciliation between tribes and archaeologists and broader society.

While most comparative and meta-analysis in archaeology would like to assume that taphonomic factors act randomly and do not bias the results of studies with many data points, archaeological records may suffer from systematic biases in preservation, sampling, recovery methods, analytic methods, reporting practices, or yet other factors. Using a life history and middle-range perspective, we outline an approach for assessing possible systematic biases and for explicitly evaluating factors that affect assemblages included in comparative analysis at any scale. We demonstrate the usefulness of the life history concept as a framework for holistically evaluating bias with a zooarchaeological case study from the northeast Pacific. Our comparative analysis of regional fishbone records shows that unusually high abundances of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria)—a nutritious and highly valued, yet rarely reported, species—at one large Native American village on the coast of Washington State, USA, cannot be explained by post-depositional destruction, screen size effects, sample size effects, or differences in fishbone identification methods. Though this study focuses on zooarchaeology, the framework we present has potential value for any large-scale meta-analysis that seeks to identify cultural and environmental patterns in “noisy” archaeological data.

White rings visible on the centrum face of salmon vertebrae with X-rays have been used since the 1980s to age Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), which in turn have been used to determine salmon species, season of capture and season of site occupation. This approach relies on a variety of assumptions, the most fundamental of which is that rings represent true years. Recent aDNA analysis has shown that the X-ray approach has flaws but the source of the error has been unknown. Given the value of reconstructing salmon population demographics and life history from ancient remains, establishing a valid and reliable method of ageing salmon vertebrae is extremely worthwhile. The main goal of our study was to evaluate if X-ray images of ring patterns on vertebrae provide a valid method of estimating fish age. Vertebrae from 66 adult Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) of known age were studied with X-rays, thin sections or low-powered (10–30 ×) magnification. We found that the white bands observed in X-rays are structural walls that do not grow annually. While X-rays are not a valid method for ageing salmonids, incremental growth seen on the surface of fish centra shows great promise for reconstructing ancient fish life history.

The arid northwest Great Basin underwent substantial hydroclimate changes in the past 15,000 years, greatly affecting its desert ecosystems and prehistoric people. There are conflicting interpretations of the timing of hydrologic changes in this region, requiring more records to resolve the dominant climatic drivers. The Paisley Caves archaeological site, located near former pluvial Lake Chewaucan, contains well-dated, stratified sediments best known for evidence of early human occupation in North America. We present a novel paleohydrologic record for the Chewaucan basin based on the frequency of fish remains (Salmonidae and Cypriniformes, likely tui chub) and their carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope compositions, from the Paisley Caves. Cypriniformes abundance peaks first at the start of the Bolling/Allerod warm interval (∼14.7 ka) and again during the early Younger Dryas (∼12.8 ka). Isotope compositions indicate tui chub were derived from an expansive Lake Chewaucan throughout the Bolling/Allerod, but mainly from spring- or stream-influenced sources by the late Younger Dryas to the present. Fish abundance dropped sharply through the Younger Dryas and early Holocene, when isotope compositions indicate a mix of habitats. Isotope compositions indicate the driest conditions during the middle Holocene, followed by slightly wetter conditions up to the present. This record agrees with recent pluvial lake reconstructions, supporting the hypothesis that a northward shift in the winter storm track supported deep lakes throughout the Bolling/Allerod in the northwest Great Basin. Lake level decline during the Younger Dryas suggests drying climate, differing from more southerly records. During the Holocene, however, shifts in Chewaucan basin hydrology are consistent with the rest of the western U.S. This highlights the need for region-specific records to inform predictions of the hydrologic impact of climate change on arid regions.

Zooarchaeologists have long recognized that assigning taxonomic identifications to animal remains is a subjective process, and recent studies have highlighted the need for data quality assurance standards in archaeofaunal research. Our study contributes to this growing interest in quality assurance by presenting simple quantitative methods for assessing the reproducibility of analytic results through blind reanalysis of animal remains that we developed during analysis of fishbone from Cḯxwicən, a large Native American village on the coast of Washington State, U.S.A. Given the large scale of the Cḯxwicən project – over 112,000 fish remains were documented by five different analysts over three years – there was a real possibility that inconsistencies in laboratory practices affected analytic results (e.g., number of identified specimens, taxa present and relative abundance, elements identified, burning frequencies). To evaluate the reproducibility of the Cḯxwicən fishbone data, and the possibility of “protocol drift” – changes in how specimens and bone modifications were identified over the course of analysis – we reanalyzed samples of fish remains that were previously documented during three discrete stages (beginning, middle, and end) of the Cḯxwicən project. The original data and the reanalysis results show close agreement in each stage, with only minor differences in the numbers of recorded specimens, taxonomic representation at family- and finer taxonomic levels, and body part representation assessed for a single taxonomic order. Identifying burning on bone was not very reproducible. Reproducibility studies such as this are useful for highlighting ambiguous identification criteria (e.g., in taxonomic assignment, bone modification), and could stimulate dialog among researchers about ways to address such issues in future studies. Increasing the implementation of these, and other, widely applicable methods should improve zooarchaeological data quality and stimulate further research on quality assurance in archaeology overall.

Evidence of large earthquakes occurring along the Pacific Northwest Coast is reflected in coastal stratigraphy from Oregon to British Columbia, where there also exists an extensive archaeological record of Native American occupation. Tse-whit-zen, a large Native American village dating between ∼2800 yrs BP and the historic era, located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, was excavated with exceptionally fine stratigraphic control allowing for precise comparison of these natural and cultural records. Here we report on the ∼10,000 fish remains from one 2 × 2 m excavation block; this assemblage spans the timing of one seismic event, allowing study of changes in relative taxonomic abundance through time that may coincide with earthquakes or other environmental changes. Results indicate a wide variety of fish taxa were used throughout the dated occupation. Comparisons of fish use before and after one earthquake event shows a decline in salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.) and an increase in herring (Clu...

Zooarchaeologists make a range of analytical decisions that affect taxonomic identifications, measures of abundance, and, by extension, socio-environmental interpretations. One decision that is often not documented and/or justified is the question of which skeletal elements, or element fragments, should be identified. This situation is especially concerning for, but not limited to, zooarchaeological analysis of fish remains, as ichthyoarchaeologists have historically adopted varied approaches to element selection for taxonomic identification, ranging from identification of a few distinctive jaw elements to attempted identifications for all elements. Here, we argue the process of element selection should be approached more intentionally as a sampling issue, which would provide a framework for evaluating whether identified samples are representative of the recovered assemblages from which they derive, and potentially improve the efficiency of analysis. We use nestedness analysis and sampling to redundancy to illustrate the effects of element selection on taxonomic richness and relative abundances in fishbone assemblages from three cultural and biogeographic regions: the northeast Pacific, the Hawaiian Islands, and Aotearoa New Zealand. We find that both methods are effective for evaluating the representativeness of identified assemblages based on varied element sets, and our results demonstrate that, in many assemblages, identifying all elements provides redundant information about taxonomic representation (richness and relative abundance). In such cases, one could select fewer elements for identification and spend more time examining remains from additional parts of a site or carrying out specialized analyses, which would provide new insights about past environments or human-animal relationships. The proposed analytical strategy aims to help zooarchaeologists justify and make informed decisions about how many and which specific elements to include in any given analysis. Our study adds to the growing discourse on best practices in zooarchaeology.

Phenotypic variation is critical for the long-term persistence of species and populations. Anthropogenic activities have caused substantial shifts and reductions in phenotypic variation across diverse taxa, but the underlying mechanism(s) (i.e., phenotypic plasticity and/or genetic evolution) and long-term consequences (e.g., ability to recover phenotypic variation) are unclear. Here we investigate the widespread and dramatic changes in adult migration characteristics of wild Chinook salmon caused by dam construction and other anthropogenic activities. Strikingly, we find an extremely robust association between migration phenotype (i.e., spring-run or fall-run) and a single locus, and that the rapid phenotypic shift observed after a recent dam construction is explained by dramatic allele frequency change at this locus. Furthermore, modeling demonstrates that continued selection against the spring-run phenotype could rapidly lead to complete loss of the spring-run allele, and an empirical analysis of populations that have already lost the spring-run phenotype reveals they are not acting as sustainable reservoirs of the allele. Finally, ancient DNA analysis suggests the spring-run allele was abundant in historical habitat that will soon become accessible through a large-scale restoration (i.e., dam removal) project, but our findings suggest that widespread declines and extirpation of the spring-run phenotype and allele will challenge reestablishment of the spring-run phenotype in this and future restoration projects. These results reveal the mechanisms and consequences of human-induced phenotypic change and highlight the need to conserve and restore critical adaptive variation before the potential for recovery is lost.

This study reports ancient DNA (aDNA) and stable isotope analyses of eight dog skeletal elements from the Cathlapotle site on the Lower Columbia River of the western United States. The aDNA analysis confirmed the elements as dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). Two haplotypes were found, both of which group within dog Clade A, and have patchy distributions to the north in British Columbia and as far south as Teotihuacan (Mexico). The isotopic analysis showed that the dogs' dietary protein was derived almost exclusively from marine sources. Lower Columbia River ethnohistoric accounts and Cathlapotle zooarchaeological records indicate that while marine fish were dietary keystones, the local diet was more diverse, and included terrestrial organisms and freshwater fishes. This apparent discrepancy raises the possibility the dogs were selectively fed. Thus their diet may not be a close proxy for human diet in this context.

Pacific salmonid (Oncorhynchusspp.) remains are routinely recovered from archaeological sites in northwestern North America but typically lack sexually dimorphic features, precluding the sex identification of these remains through morphological approaches. Consequently, little is known about the deep history of the sex-selective salmonid fishing strategies practiced by some of the region’s Indigenous peoples. Here, we present a DNA-based method for the sex identification of archaeological Pacific salmonid remains that integrates two PCR assays that each co-amplify fragments of thesexually dimorphic on the Y chromosome(sdY) gene and an internal positive control (Clock1aor D-loop). The first assay co-amplifies a 95 bp fragment ofsdYand a 108 bp fragment of the autosomalClock1agene, whereas the second assay co-amplifies the samesdYfragment and a 249 bp fragment of the mitochondrial D-loop region. This method’s reliability, sensitivity, and efficiency, were evaluated by applying it to 72 modern Pacific salmonids from five species and 75 archaeological remains from six Pacific salmonids. The sex identities assigned to each of the modern samples were concordant with their known phenotypic sex, highlighting the method’s reliability. Applications of the method to dilutions of modern DNA samples indicate it can correctly identify the sex of samples with as little as ~39 pg of total genomic DNA. The successful sex identification of 70 of the 75 (93%) archaeological samples further demonstrates the method’s sensitivity. The method’s reliance on two co-amplifications that preferentially amplifysdYhelps validate the sex identities assigned to samples and reduce erroneous identifications caused by allelic dropout and contamination. Furthermore, by sequencing the D-loop fragment used as a positive control, species-level and sex identifications can be simultaneously assigned to samples. Overall, our results indicate the DNA-based method reported in this study is a sensitive and reliable sex identification method for ancient salmonid remains.

A geologic cross-section was constructed across a narrow late Holocene beach plain in a small southwest-facing pocket beach in North Sand Point. Olympic National Park, Washington, to test hypotheses about net littoral drift, potential tectonic uplift, and paleotsunami runup height. Twenty topographic stations (0–12 m elevation NAVD88) and eight auger core sites (2–5 m depth) were examined to establish the stratigraphic development of the narrow beach plain (120 m width). Existing radiocarbon dates and new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) analyses were used to establish the onset (∼1.5 ka) and termination (∼0.6 ka) of net beach progradation, confirming net northward littoral drift in latest Holocene time. The anomalous high elevations of the beach plain resulted from an abandoned foredune ridge (9 m elevation) developed above the prograded beach deposits (6 m elevation). No tectonic uplift is required to account for the beach plain elevations. A fine gravel layer (5–30 cm thickness) draped ...

In North America's Pacific Northwest, archaeologists have extensively researched coastal fish weirs—one of several types of mass fish capture technologies used by precontact peoples—and their role in the development of delayed return economies and implications for social organization. Fish weirs, however, are typically situated in areas that are susceptible to a range of geomorphic and anthropogenic factors that affect their preservation and visibility. Given the importance of these capture facilities to understanding the histories of coastal peoples, a better understanding of these factors, and how they affect the archaeological record, is needed. Using the recently augmented coastal fish weir record in Washington State as a case study, we explore these factors by compiling an expanded database of 22 sites and 36 radiocarbon dates and systematically consider how coastal geomorphological processes operating along the Northwest Coast affect the age and distribution of fish weirs. Through this anal...

The Society for American Archaeology presented R. Lee Lyman with the Fryxell award for Interdisciplinary Excellence in Zooarchaeology in 2011. Lyman has produced over 120 journal articles or book chapters, and four single-authored books on the topic, and this issue honors his contributions to zooarchaeological method and theory with six original pieces by his peers. Arguably, his greatest impact has been in the field of vertebrate taphonomy and the development of a means to measure density-mediated bone attrition, but of equal importance was emphasis in the discipline that unit selection, or what one measures, should be linked to a particular research question. Lyman's work has also stressed the importance of making zooarchaeology relevant to modern issues of conservation biology.

Remains of anadromous Pacific salmon and trout (genus Oncorhynchus ) are common in archaeological sites from California to Alaska; however, morphological similarity generally precludes species identification, limiting the range of questions that salmonid remains can address in relation to past human use and ongoing efforts in conservation biology. We developed a relatively simple, rapid, and non-destructive way to classify salmon and trout vertebrae from archaeological contexts to species using length, height and the ratio of length to height. Modern reference material was obtained from all seven anadromous Oncorhynchus species native to the west coast of North America. A minimum of ten adult Chinook ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ), chum ( Oncorhynchus keta ), coho ( Oncorhynchus kisutch ), pink ( Oncorhynchus gorbuscha ), and sockeye salmon ( Oncorhynchus nerka ) and cutthroat ( Oncorhynchus clarki clarki ) and steelhead trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) were skeletonized and vertebra length and height were measured. Morphometric analyses compared species classification success based on Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Classification and Regression Trees (CART), and randomForest, with CART performing the best. Classification analyses used all seven species individually, but because of considerable overlap among several species we also conducted analyses on four species groupings. We assigned Chinook salmon and cutthroat to their own groups based on their dissimilarities from each other and the other species. The remaining species were divided into two group complexes (a) chum, coho, and steelhead; and (b) pink and sockeye. When we grouped species according to similar morphology, CART overall success rates increased, ranging from 92 to 100%. Individual species with the highest successful classification rates using CART were Chinook salmon and cutthroat, from 92 to 100%, respectively. We applied our classification to an assemblage of ancient (1000–3000 year old) salmonid vertebrae from the Swiftwater Rockshelters excavations on the upper Wenatchee River in Washington State, U.S.A.

Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) have long been a critical resource in the marine food web of the Gulf of Alaska. While the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 wreaked havoc on Prince William Sound herring populations in the northern Gulf, the southern Gulf also has been impacted, if less severely, by commercial fishing, habitat degradation, and environmental changes over the past century. Just how much Southeast Alaska’s herring have been affected is a historical-ecological question. But debate around this question is being carried out in a political-ecological environment between commercial sac roe fishers (who since the 1970s have harvested roe primarily to supply Asian markets because Japan overfished its own herring stocks), subsistence fishers (largely Alaska Natives), and other stakeholders concerned about the effect of herring declines on the marine ecosystem.

The sea otter has experienced a dramatic population decline caused by intense human harvesting, followed by a century of recovery including relocation efforts to reestablish the species across its former range in the eastern Pacific. Although the otter was historically present along the coast in Oregon, there are currently no populations in this region and reintroduction efforts have failed. We examined the mtDNA genotypes of 16 pre-harvest otter samples from two Oregon locations in an attempt to determine the best genotypic match with extant populations. Our amplifications of a 222 base-pair portion of the control region from otters ranging in age from approximately 175-2000 years revealed four genotypes. The genotypic composition of pre-harvest otter populations appears to match best with those of contemporary popu- lations from California and not from Alaska, where reintroduction stocks are typically derived.

A large assemblage of salmon bones excavated 50 yr ago from an ∼10,000-yr-old archaeological site near The Dalles, Oregon, USA, has been the primary evidence that early native people along the Columbia River subsisted on salmon. Recent debate about the human role in creating the deposit prompted excavation of additional deposits and analysis of archaeologic, geologic, and hydrologic conditions at the site. Results indicate an anthropogenic source for most of the salmonid remains, which have associated radiocarbon dates indicating that the site was occupied as long ago as 9300 cal yr B.P. The abundance of salmon bone indicates that salmon was a major food item and suggests that migratory salmonids had well-established spawning populations in some parts of the Columbia Basin by 9300–8200 yr ago.

This study applies the prey choice model from foraging theory to explain changing human use of fish during the 700-year occupation of Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, southern Cook Islands. The prey choice model suggests that predators will focus initially on high ranked prey, turning to lower ranked prey if abundance of higher ranked prey declines. It is suggested that increasing human population size would have resulted in increases in harvesting pressure and ultimately prey resource depression. To apply the prey choice model to archaeological faunal records and based on previous research, prey ranks are estimated using overall attributes of taxon body size; the larger the taxon, the higher the rank. Two indices, the Marine and Freshwater Fish Index, are developed to estimate the ratio of high to low ranked prey and are calculated for each zone of the rockshelter. Over time, the indices show a decreasing abundance of high ranked prey and increasing abundance of low ranked prey, which supports the view of resource depression. Skeletal elements from two of the high ranked prey, Serranidae and Anguilla sp., are measured to examine taxon-specific changes in fish body size/age that would indicate direct human exploitation pressure. Evidence for a decline in Serranidae body size over time suggests that some of the decline in prey abundance and encounter rates results from direct harvesting pressure along with behavioural adjustments in the prey. Sample sizes for Anguilla were insufficient for statistical treatment. Environmental and technological factors that might also affect prey abundance and taxonomic representation do not satisfactorily account for the patterns. Overall, the increasing use of lower ranked prey suggests a decline in foraging efficiency, given higher energetic costs associated with their use. The study adds to a growing body of evidence that Polynesians profoundly affected the indigenous biota on islands they colonized. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The mammal and fish faunal record from eight sites on the Columbia River (Oregon, USA) dating to the last 2200 years is examined to study subsistence change before and after European contact. Results show an increased use of low-ranked resources before contact and increased use of high-ranked resources after contact, trends that are predicted from changing demography and human predation pressure.

Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii), a foundation of coastal social-ecological systems, is in decline throughout much of its range. We assembled data on fish bones from 171 archaeological sites from Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington to provide proxy measures of past herring distribution and abundance. The dataset represents 435,777 fish bones, dating throughout the Holocene, but primarily to the last 2,500 y. Herring is the single-most ubiquitous fish taxon (99% ubiquity) and among the two most abundant taxa in 80% of individual assemblages. Herring bones are archaeologically abundant in all regions, but are superabundant in the northern Salish Sea and southwestern Vancouver Island areas. Analyses of temporal variability in 50 well-sampled sites reveals that herring exhibits consistently high abundance (>20% of fish bones) and consistently low variance (

Debates about the importance of marsh resources to prehistoric human subsistence in the western Great Basin are longstanding. Recent questions regarding the natural vs. cultural origin of fish remains in lakeside archaeological sites further impede understanding of ancient subsistence patterns. Taphonomic study of a huge assemblage of tui chub (Gila bicolor) remains from an archaeological site in Stillwater Marsh, western Nevada, was undertaken to identify agents of deposition in marsh settings. The Stillwater fish remains showed limited surface modification-cut marks, burning, and digestive etching and staining—and thus these attributes were not useful indicators of origin. Fish mortality profiles, reconstructed by regression analysis of body size, indicates cultural selection of young/small fish rather than natural catastrophic mass death. The low survivorship of vertebrae in the chub assemblage suggests differential treatment of cranial and postcranial body parts by cultural agents. The Stillwater site fish assemblage represents a vast number of small fish; the presence of small tui chub from archaeological sites throughout the western Great Basin suggests that prehistoric fishers targeted relatively small chub in the subsistence quest.

The Tangatatau Rockshelter (site MAN-44, Mangaia, Cook Islands) has produced one of Eastern Polynesia's most comprehensive chrono-stratigraphic sequences of artifacts, vertebrate and invertebrate fauna, and botanical materials. Two seasons of excavation exposed 29 m2 out of an estimated total floor area of 225 m2. A suite of 30 radiocarbon age determinations indicates that human use of the shelter spanned the period from ca. 1000 to 1700 cal AD. This paper outlines the major temporal trends in the artifact, faunal, and paleoethnobotanical assemblages recovered from the site, and discusses these in terms of the development of classic Mangaian society, an exemplar of Polynesian ‘Open’ chiefdoms.

Les relations entre la nourriture a base de poissons et les strategies de predation sont examinees dans l'ordre de maniere a identifier celles de peches se rapportant a la culture Lapita. Les proprietes inherentes des herbivres/omnivores opposees a celles des carnivores suggerent que les manieres relatives aux strategies de peche sont plus adaptees pour attraper du poisson. Des comparaisons etablies a partir de neuf sites Lapita repartis depuis Les iles Mussau, la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinee jusqu'a la Polynesie occidentale presentent des divergences dans la representation ichtyologique des depots fauniques. La plupart des assemblages melanesiens occidentaux comprennent des frequences similaires de carnivores et d'herbivores/omnivores tandis que les Lapita orientaux sont domines par des assemblages herbivores/omnivores

Archaeologists working in north-western North America often suggest that the low frequency of salmon cranial elements and abundance of vertebrae in prehistoric deposits reflects the cultural use of stored fish. While empirical documentation of salmon storage is certainly important, a variety of noncultural factors, particularly bone density, should be considered in interpreting body part frequencies. Bone densities of representative cranial and postcranial elements from 10 chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) were measured using X-ray absorptiometry. Except for the otolith, most cranial elements have lower densities than postcranial bones. The role of bone density in structuring prehistoric salmon assemblages is explored through comparisons of density measures with element survivorships in three archaeological assemblages with low cranial element survivorship. The scarcity of cranial elements in two of the assemblages is best explained by density-mediated destruction, while cultural processing probably accounts for the dearth of head bones in the third assemblage.

The most secure evidence for early Holocene fishing in Pacific North-western North America resides in the huge deposit of 9500-7600-year-old salmonid remains from The Dalles Roadcut site (Columbia River, Oregon). Recently the cultural origin for the fish remains has been challenged. Here, criteria for distinguishing natural (fluvial) from cultural salmonid deposits are developed in order to determine the agents responsible for the Roadcut faunal materials. Comparative analysis of one natural and three cultural assemblages from riverine settings indicates that body-part representation and skeletal completeness vary between natural and cultural settings. Analysis of the Roadcut assemblage suggests the salmonid deposit results largely from cultural processes, although the strength of this conclusion is weakened by significant curatorial biases with the collection.

Peterson, C.D.; Cruikshank, K.M.; Darienzo, M.E.; Wessen, G.C.; Butler, V.L., and Sterling, S.L., 2013. Coseismic subsidence and paleotsunami run-up records from latest Holocene deposits in the Waatch Valley, Neah Bay, northwest Washington, U.S.A.: links to great earthquakes in the northern Cascadia Margin. Representative shallow cores (1–2-m depth) from the Waatch Valley (n = 10) and from Neah Bay back-barrier wetlands (n = 7) record four coseismic subsidence events and associated paleotsunami inundations during the last 1300 years in the North Central Cascadia Margin. Three of the subsidence events (SUB1, SUB2b, and SUB3) correlate to reported great earthquakes dated at AD 1700, about 1.1 ka, and about 1.3 ka. An additional subsidence horizon (SUB2a), which is newly discovered in the study area, might correlate to a widely reported paleotsunami inundation, dated between 0.7 and 0.9 ka in the study region. The magnitudes of paleosubsidence in the Waatch Valley are modest (about 0.5−1.0 m), as ba...