ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF VERTEBRATE REMAINS FROM FIVE LATE ARCHAIC

536 Pages·2010·21.92 MB·English

ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF VERTEBRATE REMAINS FROM FIVE
LATE ARCHAIC SHELL RINGS ON THE GEORGIA COAST, USA
by
CAROL E. COLANINNO
(Under the Direction of Elizabeth J. Reitz)
ABSTRACT
This research documents human-animal interactions on the Georgia coast during the Late
Archaic (3000-2000 cal B.C.). Results of multiple analyses indicate that Late Archaic people
fished estuaries extensively, but fish populations were not impacted to the same extent, either
anthropogenically or non-anthropogenically, as present-day fish populations. Archaeofaunal
collections from five shell rings, which are shell-bearing archaeological formations with
mounded shell arranged in a circular pattern around a shell-free center, are analyzed. The
collections are from three sea islands and include: the Cannon’s Point (9GN57) and West
(9GN76) Rings, St. Simons Island; Ring III of the Sapelo Island Shell Ring complex (9MC23),
Sapelo Island; and the St. Catherines (9LI231) and McQueen (9LI1648) Shell Rings, St.
Catherines Island. The shell ring collections are dominated by estuarine fishes. Sea catfishes,
mullets, and drums are the most abundant taxa; other fishes also are present, but to a lesser
extent. Deer contribute very few individuals, but sometimes a large percentage of the biomass.
Late Archaic people used mass-capture technologies to exploit small-bodied, estuarine
fishes. The fishes most frequently used reflect the local environmental parameters in each
estuary. For example, fishes that prefer lower salinities are more common in shell ring
collections from St. Simons Island, which is surrounded by an estuary with a large freshwater
input. At the St. Catherines Shell Ring, several zooarchaeological measures including abundance
of taxa, diversity, richness, equitability, mean trophic level, and abundance of different fish body
sizes and capture type are compared from multiple sections of the ring. The analysis suggests
that sections of the ring itself are similar, while remains from the interior of the ring differ from
those of the ring itself. The terminal increment in fish otoliths and δ18O are used to establish
otolith
the temperature the fish experienced at death. These analyses show that fishing occurred during
all four seasons. The incremental structures of modern and archaeological hardhead catfish and
Atlantic croaker otoliths suggest that fish grew more slowly in the past compared to present-day
growth rates. Possible factors for changes in growth include anthropogenic environmental
changes, such as pollution and overfishing, and non-anthropogenic environmental change.

INDEX WORDS: Zooarchaeology, Coastal archaeology, Late Archaic shell rings,
Georgia, Otolith incremental formation, Oxygen isotope analysis,
Optimal Foraging Models, Intrasite analysis, Seasonality,
Fisheries, Human impacts on fish populations
ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF VERTEBRATE REMAINS FROM FIVE
LATE ARCHAIC SHELL RINGS ON THE GEORGIA COAST, USA

by

CAROL E. COLANINNO
B.A., University of Florida, 2004

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA

2010
© 2010
Carol E. Colaninno
All Rights Reserved
ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF VERTEBRATE REMAINS FROM FIVE LATE
ARCHAIC SHELL RINGS ON THE GEORGIA COAST, USA

by

CAROL E. COLANINNO

Major Professor: Elizabeth J. Reitz

Committee: René Bobe
Stephen A. Kowalewski
David Hurst Thomas

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
December 2010
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many individuals helped me throughout the course of my research and I am grateful to all
of them. Isotopic analysis of modern, Cannon’s Point, West, and McQueen otoliths is funded by
the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant BCS0912176.
Isotopic analysis of the St. Catherines Shell Ring otoliths and zooarchaeological identifications
for the St. Catherines and McQueen Shell Ring is funded by the Edward John Noble Foundation
and the St. Catherines Island Foundation. David Hurst Thomas, Rochelle Marrinan, and Victor
D. Thompson excavated the collections used for this research. I am grateful that they allowed me
to work with their collections.
I would like to thank Rochelle Marrinan for allowing me to work with the otoliths from
the Cannon’s Point and West Rings and providing me with her unpublished data. John Turck,
Matt Sanger, Ginessa Mahar, and Victor Thompson generated the maps used in Chapters 1 and
3. John Turck helped generate the otolith figures in Chapter 3. Gisela Weis-Gresham drafted the
original deer skeleton used for the deer element figures presented in Chapter 4. The Florida
Museum of Natural History loaned several Cyrpindontidae species which aided in
identifications. Irvy Quitmyer and Kitty Emery helped me collect fish and aided me at the
Florida Museum of Natural History. Bruce Saul and Charles Lambert of Augusta State
University allowed me to collect fish with them and collected fish for me when I could not join
them on monthly fishing trips. Fred Andrus allowed me to work at the University of Alabama
Stable Isotope Laboratory and Joe Lambert processed my isotopic samples. Betsy and Lucy
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Graham provided me with free lodging during my stays in Tuscaloosa and this research would
have suffered without such wonderful accommodations. Glenn Thomas, Heather Thomas, Carla
Hadden, Julia Orr, Lauren Boop, Jackie Murtha, Kathy Wiggins, Marianne English, and Maran
Little provided laboratory assistance. Thad Meeks aided in the regression analysis. Sarah Bergh,
Matt Compton, and Kelly Orr helped me with identifications. Matt Sanger, Ginessa Mahar, and
Anna Semon answered my many questions regarding excavations on St. Catherines Island. I
would also like to thank Lori Pendleton and all the American Museum of Natural History staff
and interns who spent countless hours picking out all those tiny bones for me.
My advisory committee, Elizabeth J. Reitz, René Bobe, Stephen A. Kowalewski, and
David Hurst Thomas, helped me throughout this process by providing encouragement,
intellectual insight, and editorial advice. I would like to especially thank Betsy Reitz for chairing
my committee. Betsy provided outstanding advice and greatly helped me develop my
archaeological, academic, and professional skills. Thank you Betsy for being so dedicated to my
professional development as a zooarchaeologist.
My graduate studies were greatly advanced through conversation and advice from David
J. Hally, Irvy Quitmyer, and Fred Andrus. Thanks to the Anthropology staff at UGA for
providing wonderful support: LaBau Bryan, Margie Floyd, Cabe Mottley, Jill Morris, and Lisa
Norris. I would also like to thank the faculty and staff of the Georgia Museum of Natural
History, Bud Freeman, Carol Hoffman, Kim Leissner, and Liz McGhee, for providing much
needed assistance throughout my graduate studies.
I would like to thank all the graduate and undergraduate students who have been such
outstanding friends during my studies at UGA. Kelly Orr, Matt Compton, John Turck, Sarah
Bergh, Emily Beahm, Kate Dunbar, Ben Steere, Maran Little, and Glenn Thomas, you have all
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been super friends and provided helpful archaeological advice and wonderful life
encouragement.
I would like to thanks my family, Mom, Dad, Robin, and Chris, for providing me with
the support and encouragement that all graduate students need. You are great parents, a great
sister, and a great brother-in-law. My parents are especially thanked for encouraging me to
explore the world outside and to play in the dirt. Thanks Mom and Dad for never giving up on
me, even when others encouraged you to. I would also like to thank my Mother and Fathers-in-
Law, Dawn and Steve Wight, and Tom Meeks. Ya’ll have been like family to me and have been
such loving, wonderful parents.
Lastly, I would like to thank my best friend and loving husband, Thad Meeks. Thad, you
have been a great support over the last five years. Thank you for reminding me that the world
will not come to an end if my data don’t look great, thank you for always making me laugh, and
thank you for making me coffee every morning. I could not imagine what my graduate years
would have been like without your love, support, and patience. You and Mango are the best.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi

LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... xvi

CHAPTER

1 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL ECOLOGY OF THE LATE ARCHAIC
GEORGIA COAST ............................................................................................................1
Hunter-Gatherers of the Late Archaic Georgia Coast ..............................................4

The Late Archaic Georgia Coast Zooarchaeological Research Design ...................6

Human Behavioral Ecology and Vertebrate Fauna from the Shell Rings ...............7

Fish Remains from the Late Archaic Shell Rings ..................................................10

Intrasite Analysis of Vertebrate Fauna from the St. Catherines Shell Ring ..........12

Seasonal Resource Use at the Shell Rings .............................................................13

Environmental Impacts on Late Archaic Fisheries ................................................15

Overview and Organization of this Volume ..........................................................17

2 THE NATURAL AND CULTURAL HISTORIES OF THE GEORGIA COAST .........21

The Environmental Setting of the Georgia Coast ..................................................21

The Late Archaic Period of the Georgia Coast ......................................................33

Summary ................................................................................................................35

3 ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIALS AND METHODS .......................................37

Zooarchaeological Materials ..................................................................................38
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Zooarchaeological Methods ...................................................................................43

Incremental and Isotopic Methods .........................................................................55

Summary ................................................................................................................61

4 RESULTS OF THE ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYS ..........................................72

St. Simons Cannon’s Point (9GN57) and West Rings (9GN76) ...........................72

Ring III of the Sapelo Island Shell Ring Complex (9MC23) ................................74

St Catherines Shell Ring (9LI231) .........................................................................76

McQueen Shell Ring (9LI1648) ............................................................................83

Presence/Absence and Ubiquity ............................................................................87

Overview of Collections ........................................................................................87

5 HUMAN BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND VERTEBRATE FAUNA FROM THE

SHELL RINGS ................................................................................................................179

Optimal Foraging and Diet-Breadth Models .......................................................179

Optimal Foraging and the Hunt-Type Model ......................................................195

Problems and Criticisms of Human Behavioral Ecology ....................................197

Summary and Conclusions ..................................................................................200

6 FISH REMAINS FROM THE LATE ARCHAIC SHELL RINGS ...............................207

Ubiquity of Fish Taxa at the Shell Rings .............................................................207

Relative Percentage of Fish Families among the Shell Rings .............................209

Inferences of Fishing Technologies from Ichthyofaunal Collections ..................212

Summary and Conclusions ..................................................................................221

7 A COMPARISON OF VERTEBRATE FAUNA FROM DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE

ST. CATHERINES SHELL RING ..................................................................................230

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