Intensified mollusk exploitation on Nevis (West Indies) reveals ~six centuries of sustainable exploitation
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Intensified mollusk exploitation on Nevis (West Indies) reveals ~six centuries of sustainable exploitation Aaron S. Poteate & Scott M. Fitzpatrick & Meagan Clark & Jessica H. Stone
Received: 26 September 2013 / Accepted: 19 May 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract In this study, we conducted one of the most detailed and comprehensive analyses to date of a pre-Columbian mollusk assemblage in the Caribbean. The robust sample, from the island of Nevis in the northern Lesser Antilles, comprised more than 58,000 individuals recovered from a 25 m2 (40 cm deep) midden deposit at the Late Ceramic Age (ca. AD 890– 1440) site of Coconut Walk. Using this sample, we examined mollusk exploitation over a ca. 600-year time period, which revealed heavy dependence on only a few species. Statistical analysis demonstrates that even though mollusk harvesting intensified through time, there was an increase of more than 10 % in the average individual weight of the three main species and a ten-fold increase in harvesting generally. These data, in conjunction with a previously observed size increase of one of the three taxa (Nerita tessellata)—which was increasingly preyed on through time—infer a level of sustainability contra to prey-choice models in which over-exploitation is an expected outcome. Overall, the foraging of mollusks at this site appears to have been sustainable for ~six centuries based on the absence of evidence for over-harvesting and increase in size during the time of occupation, regardless of its causation (anthropogenic, climatic, environmental, or otherwise). Keywords Shellfish . Subsistence . Exploitation . Caribbean . Pre-Columbian
Introduction In archaeological midden contexts, prehistoric subsistence strategies and environmental interaction can be examined A. S. Poteate (*) : S. M. Fitzpatrick : M. Clark : J. H. Stone Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA e-mail: [email protected]
through the analysis of faunal remains, of which mollusks are often the most common constituent (see Stiner and Munro 2002; Giovas et al. 2010; Grayson 1984; Mannino and Thomas 2002; Morrison and Hunt 2007; Botkin 1980; de Boer et al. 2000; Jerardino 2010; Klein et al. 2004; Faulkner 2009; Braje 2010; Rick et al. 2008). In recent years, a growing number of archaeological studies have demonstrated that the prehistoric exploitation of mollusks through time can result in consequences (positive, negative, or both) for exploited taxa as a result of increased or expanded predation across time and space (e.g., Claassen 1998; Stiner and Munro 2002; Mannino and Thomas 2002; Erlandson et al. 2011; Rick 2011; Fitzpatrick and Keegan 2007; Fitzpatrick et al. 2008). As such, this provides an excellent opportunity to examine the extent to which various mollusk taxa were exploited through time and the human and natural processes that may have influenced predation. In many of these cases, for example, a decrease in the size of a particular taxon through time is used to infer over
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