TY - JOUR
T1 - Central place foraging and shellfish processing on California's Northern Channel Islands
AU - Jazwa, Christopher S.
AU - Braje, Todd J.
AU - Erlandson, Jon M.
AU - Kennett, Douglas J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Channel Islands National Park, including Kelly Minas, Don Morris, and Ann Huston, for help with this project. Red abalones for our shucking experiment were provided by the Abalone Farm, Cayucos, CA. This project was supported by Channel Islands National Park (135414, P11AC30805, Jazwa; 1443CA8120-96-003, Kennett), the National Science Foundation (BCS-1338350, Jazwa; SBR-9521974, Kennett), University of California, Santa Barbara, California State University, Long Beach, the University of Oregon, and Pennsylvania State University. Brendan Culleton provided advice for the seasonality analysis. Don Morris, Gil Unzueta, Henry Chodsky, Stephen Hennek, Terry Joslin, and Reilly Murphy assisted with excavations. We would also like to thank John O’Shea and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this manuscript. Appendix A
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - We use a central place forager model for shellfish processing to understand Middle Holocene (7550-3600. cal. BP) human settlement patterns on California's Northern Channel Islands. This period was associated with increasing sedentism and special purpose sites. We examine the processing and transport costs of two high-ranked shellfish species collected during the Middle Holocene, red abalone (. Haliotis rufescens) and California mussel (. Mytilus californianus), and how these costs influence archaeological assemblages at coastal and interior settlements. Experimental data and the biology of these species suggest that red abalones are less likely than mussels to be transported long distances (~2. km) without field processing. Consistent with these expectations, coastal red abalone midden sites (CA-SRI-109 and -338) are dominated by large red abalone shells and California mussels are most abundant at contemporaneous inland sites (e.g., CA-SRI-50). Large coastal settlement sites (CA-SRI-5, -19, -116, and -821) had the highest overall shellfish diversity. A stable oxygen isotope study suggests that special purpose sites were occupied seasonally and large coastal settlements were more likely to be inhabited year-round. Our study suggests that transportation and processing costs of food resources were important variables in the development of early hunter-gatherer settlement patterns.
AB - We use a central place forager model for shellfish processing to understand Middle Holocene (7550-3600. cal. BP) human settlement patterns on California's Northern Channel Islands. This period was associated with increasing sedentism and special purpose sites. We examine the processing and transport costs of two high-ranked shellfish species collected during the Middle Holocene, red abalone (. Haliotis rufescens) and California mussel (. Mytilus californianus), and how these costs influence archaeological assemblages at coastal and interior settlements. Experimental data and the biology of these species suggest that red abalones are less likely than mussels to be transported long distances (~2. km) without field processing. Consistent with these expectations, coastal red abalone midden sites (CA-SRI-109 and -338) are dominated by large red abalone shells and California mussels are most abundant at contemporaneous inland sites (e.g., CA-SRI-50). Large coastal settlement sites (CA-SRI-5, -19, -116, and -821) had the highest overall shellfish diversity. A stable oxygen isotope study suggests that special purpose sites were occupied seasonally and large coastal settlements were more likely to be inhabited year-round. Our study suggests that transportation and processing costs of food resources were important variables in the development of early hunter-gatherer settlement patterns.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jaa.2015.05.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jaa.2015.05.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84935852185
SN - 0278-4165
VL - 40
SP - 33
EP - 47
JO - Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
JF - Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
ER -