2020-10-21 Michael Grone - Of Molluscs and Middens
Channel: Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley
Date: 2020-10-21

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View the complete videos presented during this talk at the following links:
Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and archaeologists uncover ancient practices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc8li-BrM9k
Kelp Forests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A06y-1tProE



Of Molluscs and Middens

Oct. 21 2020 ARF Brownbag
Speaker: Michael Grone 
Along the Central Coast of California, changes in shoreline management practices and their subsequent effects on shellfish populations, fisheries, and kelp forests can be examined in the context of long-term human occupation, climatic and environmental variability, and the development of Indigenous, Spanish, Mexican, and American relationships with the environment.

While extensive archaeological investigation regarding Indigenous landscape management practices has been conducted along California’s Central Coast and the San Francisco Bay Area, comparatively little work has been done regarding Indigenous shoreline management practices affecting intertidal and wetland regions, such as kelp harvesting and the exploitation and management of shellfish populations.

To address this nascent research area in the regional archaeological literature, this talk will focus on materials collected from nine sites along the shorelines of Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County and six sites from Santa Cruz County over the summers of 2015- 2017 and analyzed in the California Archaeology Lab at UC Berkeley from 2015-2019. Invertebrate remains from these sites evidence diverse shoreline management practices spanning millennia, broadening our understanding of Ancient coastal California while restoring and revitalizing TEK and Indigenous management practices by working closely with local tribes (Amah Mutsun and Coast Miwok) and resource agencies.