What is past is prologue: excavations at the Econfina Channel site, Apalachee Bay, Florida, USA

Hale, Jessica Cook; Hale, Nathan L.; Garrison, Ervan G.

doi:10.1080/0734578x.2018.1428787

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Preliminary underwater searches for shell midden deposits on submerged palaeoshorelines in the Farasan Islands have so far proved unsuccessful [61,97]. On the other hand, recent research in Denmark and the Gulf of Florida has demonstrated that substantial shell-midden deposits can survive submergence in favourable circumstances and be investigated using underwater techniques [98,99] and new investigations in various parts of the world are beginning to open up the exploration of submerged landscapes. The search for the missing palaeoshorelines of the Last Glacial period and their associated coastal sites remains one of the great challenges for the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying spatial variability in shell midden formation in the Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia

et al. 2019

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During the past decade, over 3000 shell middens or shell matrix deposits have been discovered on the Farasan Islands in the southern Red Sea, dating to the period c. 7,360 to 4,700 years ago. Many of the sites are distributed along a palaeoshoreline which is now 2–3 m above present sea level. Others form clusters with some sites on the shoreline and others located inland over distances of c. 30 m to 1 km. We refer to these inland sites as ‘post-shore’ sites. Following Meehan, who observed a similar spatial separation in shell deposition in her ethnographic study of Anbarra shellgathering in the Northern Territory of Australia, we hypothesise that the shoreline sites are specialised sites for the processing or immediate consumption of shell food, and the post-shore sites are habitation sites used for a variety of activities. We test this proposition through a systematic analysis of 55 radiocarbon dates and measurement of shell quantities from the excavation of 15 shell matrix sites in a variety of locations including shoreline and post-shore sites. Our results demonstrate large differences in rates of shell accumulation between these two types of sites and selective removal of shoreline sites by changes in sea level. We also discuss the wider implications for understanding the differential preservation and visibility of shell-matrix deposits in coastal settings in other parts of the world extending back into the later Pleistocene in association with periods of lowersea level. Our results highlight the importance of taphonomic factors of post-depositional degradation and destruction, rates of shell accumulation, the influence on site location of factors other than shell food supply, and the relative distance of deposits from their nearest palaeoshorelines as key variables in the interpretation of shell quantities. Failure to take these variables into account when investigating shells and shell-matrix deposits in late Pleistocene and early Holocene contexts is likely to compromise interpretations of the role and significance of shell food in human evolutionary and socio-cultural development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying spatial variability in shell midden formation in the Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia

et al. 2019

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“…As archaeologists working on Florida's Gulf Coast have amply discussed ( e.g ., Cook-Hale, Hale, and Garrison, 2019; Faught, 2004; Halligan, 2021), Holocene sea-level rise has likely inundated most coastal Native settlements predating the common era. Further, the widely observed transgressive pulse ca .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stratigraphic Framework, Paleoenvironments, and Indigenous Terraforming of Inshore Estuarine Subbasins in Tampa Bay, Florida, U.S.A.

Jackson,

Wang,

Pluckhahn

et al. 2023

Journal of Coastal Research

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“…Careful consideration also needs to be given to low‐resolution stratigraphic contexts (Romagnoli et al, 2018), rather than merely applying perspectives from high‐resolution sites to these contexts in which the formation processes naturally generate poorly developed palimpsests. Disturbed sites are more common than well‐preserved ones and an apparently undisturbed sedimentary profile may not provide a true representation of the local or regional landscape used or occupied by past humans (Cook‐Hale et al, 2018; Williams, 2019). Sampling needs to specifically include disturbed sediments and low‐density patches of artefacts because if samples are focussed only on apparently undisturbed stratified sediments and/or high‐density patches of artefacts (including condensed deposits), the results are likely to be biased towards the recent (Ballenger & Mabry, 2011; Knape & de Valpine, 2011; Stern et al, 1993).…”

Section: How To Improve the Use Of Spd And “Big Data” For Exploring Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

Ward

Larcombe

2021

Geoarchaeology

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Statistical manipulation of large radiometric data sets (big data) is increasingly applied to those grand challenges in archaeology that relate to past human‐behavioural dynamics and includes frequency analysis of radiocarbon ages (summed probability distributions [SPDs]). Australian SPD studies use the radiocarbon database “AustArch” to examine regional‐ and continental‐scale demographic change. We review Australian studies, focussing on sampling bias and taphonomic bias, finding that (i) time‐averaged radiometric data cannot simply be correlated across regions, and (ii) sedimentology imposes genuine constraints upon what can be known. Internationally, flaws in SPD use occur in all main research phases, and most importantly, at the initial phase of defining research questions, logic and general approach. Major problems stem from not planning to obtain a sound understanding of the variability of past sedimentary environments, potential occupation sites and site formation processes. Thus, cultural inferences are too often made from archaeological data without due consideration of the natural processes that may explain the data. Highlighting exemplar studies, we present practical approaches to improve SPD use for exploring changes in demography, aimed at reducing uncertainties and reconnecting archaeological, chronological, geological and sedimentary data. Most important is to increase understanding of physical processes and their control on the archaeological record.

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What is past is prologue: excavations at the Econfina Channel site, Apalachee Bay, Florida, USA

Cited by 17 publications

References 61 publications

Quantifying spatial variability in shell midden formation in the Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia

Quantifying spatial variability in shell midden formation in the Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia

Stratigraphic Framework, Paleoenvironments, and Indigenous Terraforming of Inshore Estuarine Subbasins in Tampa Bay, Florida, U.S.A.

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

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