A multi-proxy assessment of the impact of environmental instability on Late Holocene (4500-3800 BP) Native American villages of the Georgia coast

Circular shell rings along the South Atlantic Coast of North America are the remnants of some of the earliest villages that emerged during the Late Archaic (5000-3000 BP). Many of these villages, however, were abandoned during the Terminal Late Archaic (ca 3800-3000 BP). We combine Bayesian chronolo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-03, Vol.17 (3), p.e0258979
Main Authors: Garland, Carey J, Thompson, Victor D, Sanger, Matthew C, Smith, Karen Y, Andrus, Fred T, Lawres, Nathan R, Napora, Katharine G, Colaninno, Carol E, Compton, J Matthew, Jones, Sharyn, Hadden, Carla S, Cherkinsky, Alexander, Maddox, Thomas, Deng, Yi-Ting, Lulewicz, Isabelle H, Parsons, Lindsey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abandonment
Archaeology
Bayes Theorem
Bayesian analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Circular shells
Coasts
Cooperation
Country life
Earth Sciences
Environmental aspects
Environmental changes
Environmental conditions
Environmental impact
Environmental protection
Estuaries
Evaluation
Farm life
Fisheries
Fisheries management
Geochemistry
Holocene
Hunter-gatherers
Laboratories
Mathematical models
Minority & ethnic groups
Mollusks
Museums
Native Americans
Oysters
Paleobiology
People and places
Physical Sciences
Research and Analysis Methods
Shellfish
Social Sciences
Stability analysis
Tree rings
Villages
Water pollution effects
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Summary:Circular shell rings along the South Atlantic Coast of North America are the remnants of some of the earliest villages that emerged during the Late Archaic (5000-3000 BP). Many of these villages, however, were abandoned during the Terminal Late Archaic (ca 3800-3000 BP). We combine Bayesian chronological modeling with mollusk shell geochemistry and oyster paleobiology to understand the nature and timing of environmental change associated with the emergence and abandonment of circular shell ring villages on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Our Bayesian models indicate that Native Americans occupied the three Sapelo shell rings at varying times with some generational overlap. By the end of the complex's occupation, only Ring III was occupied before abandonment ca. 3845 BP. Ring III also consists of statistically smaller oysters harvested from less saline estuaries compared to earlier occupations. Integrating shell biochemical and paleobiological data with recent tree ring analyses shows a clear pattern of environmental fluctuations throughout the period in which the rings were occupied. We argue that as the environment became unstable around 4300 BP, aggregation at villages provided a way to effectively manage fisheries that are highly sensitive to environmental change. However, with the eventual collapse of oyster fisheries and subsequent rebound in environmental conditions ca. post-3800 BP, people dispersed from shell rings, and shifted to non-marine subsistence economies and other types of settlements. This study provides the most comprehensive evidence for correlations between large-scale environmental change and societal transformations on the Georgia coast during the Late Archaic period.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0258979