Shell we cook it? An experimental approach to the microarchaeological record of shellfish roasting

In this paper, we investigate the microarchaeological traces and archaeological visibility of shellfish cooking activities through a series of experimental procedures with direct roasting using wood-fueled fires and controlled heating in a muffle furnace. An interdisciplinary geoarchacological approach, combining micromorphology, FTIR (in transmission and ATR collection modes), TGA and XRD, was used to establish a baseline on the mineralogical transformation of heated shells from aragonite to calcite and diagnostic sedimentary traces produced by roasting fire features. Our experimental design focused on three main types of roasting procedures: the construction of shallow depressions with heated rocks (pebble cuvette experiments), placing shellfish on top of hot embers and ashes (fire below experiment), and by kindling short-lived fires on top of shellfish (fire above experiments). Our results suggest that similar shellfish roasting procedures will largely create microstratigraphic signatures of anthropogenically reworked combusted material spatially "disconnected" from the actual combustion locus. The construction of shallow earth ovens might entail an increased archaeological visibility, and some diagnostic signatures of in situ hearths can be obtained by fire below roasting activities. We also show that macroscopic visual modifications and mineralogical characterization of discarded shellfish might be indicative of specific cooking activities versus secondary burning.Max Planck Societyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Seasonality and human mobility along the Georgia Bight : proceedings of the Fifth Caldwell Conference, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, May 14-16, 2010. (Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 97)

236 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 26 cm.Conference sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and the St. Catherines Island Foundation.Some of the most enduring and fundamental questions in archaeology relate to site seasonality. During which seasons did people occupy coastal archaeological sites? Why is "seasonality" important to our understanding of human behavior? What does this knowledge tell us about life in dynamic estuarine systems? What methods and technologies are available to address key issues of seasonality? Archaeological seasonality is uniquely linked to settlement patterns, resource availability, environmental relationships, anthropogenesis, landscapes, and social complexity. Archaeologists working in coastal settings typically recover multiple biological proxies that are well suited to explicating questions of human seasonal behavior. The Fifth Caldwell Conference was convened to discuss and report on practiced methods for reading the seasonality record found in common biological proxies. These researchers spoke of how they are applying various methods grounded in the natural sciences to estimate seasonality with particular reference to the archaeology of St. Catherines Island and the Georgia Bight. These methods include stable isotope analysis, ¹⁴C dating, longitudinal studies of animals (molluscs and fishes), zooarchaeology, and archaeobotany. The research shows that all plant and animal remains found in a midden contain a record of human behavior. The authors of these 13 chapters agree that multiple indicators of site seasonality provide the most robust picture of the annual settlement cycle. These papers were initially presented at the Fifth Caldwell Conference, cosponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and the St. Catherines Island Foundation, held on St. Catherines Island, Georgia, May 14-16, 2010. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Seasonality and mobility on the Georgia Bight : why should we care? / David Hurst Thomas -- A Bayesian chronological framework for determining site seasonality and contemporaneity / Douglas J. Kennett and Brendan J. Culleton -- Interpreting seasonality from modern and archaeological fishes on the Georgia coast / Elizabeth J. Reitz, Bruce M. Saul, J.W. Moak, Gwendolyn D. Carroll, and Charles W. Lambert -- Evaluating [delta]¹⁸O profiles of hardhead catfish and Atlantic croaker otoliths as a method of determining seasonal use of fishes / Carol E. Colaninno -- Late prehistoric settlement patterns : zooarchaeological evidence from Back Creek Village, St. Catherines Island / Sarah G. Bergh -- Molluscs as oxygen-isotope season-of-capture proxies in southeastern United States archaeology / C. Fred T. Andrus -- Annual incremental shell growth patterns in hard clams (Mercenaria spp.) from St. Catherines Island, Georgia : a record of seasonal and anthropogenic impact on zooarchaeological resources / Irvy R. Quitmyer and Douglas S. Jones -- Validation of annual shell increments and shifting population dynamics in modern and zooarchaeological hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) from the Litchfield Beach region, South Carolina / Douglas S. Jones, Irvy R. Quitmyer, and Chester B. DePratter -- Reevaluating the use of impressed odostome (Boonea impressa) as a season of capture indicator for oysters / Deborah Ann Keene -- Estimating the season of harvest of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) from the St. Catherines Shell Ring / Nicole R. Cannarozzi -- What can plants and plant data tell us about seasonality? / C. Margaret Scarry and Kandace D. Hollenbach -- Making a case for coastal subsistence seasonality / Gregory A. Waselkov -- Discussion / Elizabeth S. Wing