Late Pleistocene and Holocene coastal palaeoeconomies: A reconsideration of the molluscan evidence from northern Spain

Abstract

The worldwide increase in shell midden deposits on coastlines during the Holocene has been variously explained as the result of human population growth, economic intensification, changes in the visibility of midden deposits with changes in sea level, or climatic and environmental changes. Since coastlines are relatively unstable in geological and ecological terms, and since many archaeological sequences span periods of major climatic change, a critical issue is the ability to disentangle palaeoenvironmental from cultural and anthropogenic effects. We draw on a case study from the cave sequences of northern Spain to illustrate the problems and possibilities of palaeoeconomic and palaeoenvironmental interpretation, using studies of palaeogeographical context and analysis of abundance, taxonomic representation, ecological tolerances, size, growth structures, and other physical and chemical characteristics of the molluscs themselves. We demonstrate that the dominant, but by no means exclusive, factor in archaeologically visible long-term changes in shell-gathering behavior is environmental change rather than cultural change. ᭧

Re-evaluating the Neolithic: The Impact and the Consolidation of Farming Practices in the Cantabrian Region (Northern Spain)

“…O isotope studies and analyses of mollusc growth lines indicate that shellfish gathering was a seasonal activity, mainly carried out in autumn and winter (Deith and Shackleton 1986;Craighead 1995;Bailey and Craighead 2003). The exploitation patterns suggest that shellfish were collected mainly on rocky shores, although typical estuary species are also found (Á lvarez-Fernández 2013a(Á lvarez-Fernández , 2013bGutiérrez-Zugasti 2009a, 2009b.…”

Life on the Margins : An Archaeological Investigation of Late Holocene Economic Variability, Blue Mud Bay, Northern Australia

“…Others have interpreted this type of pattern as a re ection of human interaction with the environment, speci cally related to landscape and climatic changes in the Holocene, habitat development, and the availability and distribution of exploitable resources (Jerardino 1997;Wells and Noller 1999;Bourke 2000Bourke , 2003Bailey and Craighead 2003). Variability has been attributed to landscape changes such as erosion, progradation and barrier formation, which have taken place since sea level stabilisation (Head 1983(Head , 1986Godfrey 1989;Sullivan and O'Connor 1993;O'Connor and Sullivan 1994).…”

“…e reconstruction of past shorelines, although speculative in nature and associated with a degree of error, has proved to be a useful tool in assessing the use of coastal areas relative to sea levels and associated changes in the physical landscape (e.g. Shackleton and van Andel 1986;Shackleton 1988;Bailey and Craighead 2003). While such studies have focussed on long occupation sequences in caves or rockshelters relative to late-Pleistocene sea level patterns, the same approach may be applied here.…”

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“…methods grounded in sclerochronology are helping to explore whether prehistoric peoples were good ecologists, conservationists, both, or neither (Quitmyer, hale, and Jones, 1985;Quitmyer and Jones, 2000;marcello and thomas, 2002;Quitmyer, 2003;Peacock, haag, and warren, 2004;hames 2007;rick and erlandson, 2008;erlandson et al, 2008;Szabó and Quitmyer, 2008)? the literature also identifies instances where there are changes in zooarchaeological assemblages that are not anthropogenic in origin, but related to a changing environment (e.g., Bailey and craighead, 2003).…”