Seasonality and human mobility along the Georgia Bight
Subtitle: proceedings of the Fifth Caldwell Conference, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, May 14-16, 2010
By: Elizabeth J. Reitz, Irvy R. Quitmyer, and David Hurst Thomas, editors and contributors ; with contributions by C. Fred T. Andrus ... [et al.].
Contributors: Reitz, Elizabeth Jean, 1946-; Quitmyer, Irvy R.; Thomas, David Hurst; Andrus, C. Fred T., 1967-; American Museum of Natural History; Saint Catherines Island Foundation
Series: Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History -- no. 97; Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History -- v. 97.
Publisher: American Museum of Natural History
Published: 2012
Place of publication: [New York]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 236
ISBN-13: 9780985201609
Subjects: Prehistoric Land settlement patterns; Congresses; Food supply; Seasonal variations; Coastal settlements; Internal Migration; Indians of North America; Food; Fish remains (Archaeology); Animal remains (Archaeology); Plant remains (Archaeology); Coastal archaeology
Other titles: Proceedings of the Fifth Caldwell Conference, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, May 14-16, 2010
Description: 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.
Notes: "Issued March 6, 2012."

Conference sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and the St. Catherines Island Foundation.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-236).

Also available online.
Table of contents: title: Seasonality and mobility on the Georgia Bight : why should we care?  -- David Hurst Thomas; title: A Bayesian chronological framework for determining site seasonality and contemporaneity  -- Douglas J. Kennett and Brendan J. Culleton; title: Interpreting seasonality from modern and archaeological fishes on the Georgia coast  -- Elizabeth J. Reitz ... [et al.]; title: Evaluating [delta]¹⁸O profiles of hardhead catfish and Atlantic croaker otoliths as a method of determining seasonal use of fishes  -- Carol E. Colaninno; title: Late prehistoric settlement patterns : zooarchaeological evidence from Back Creek Village, St. Catherines Island  -- Sarah G. Bergh; title: Molluscs as oxygen-isotope season-of-capture proxies in southeastern United States archaeology  -- C. Fred T. Andrus; title: 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; title: 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; title: Reevaluating the use of impressed odostome (Boonea impressa) as a season of capture indicator for oysters  -- Deborah Ann Keene; title: Estimating the season of harvest of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) from the St. Catherines Shell Ring  -- Nicole R. Cannarozzi; title: What can plants and plant data tell us about seasonality?  -- C. Margaret Scarry and Kandace D. Hollenbach; title: Making a case for coastal subsistence seasonality -- Gregory A. Waselkov.