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Shellfishing, sea levels, and the earliest Native American villages (5000–3800 yrs. BP) of the South Atlantic Coast of the U.S
Thompson, Victor D. Sanger, Matthew Smith, Karen Y. Garland, Carey J. Howland, Matthew D. Andrus, C. Fred T. Holland-Lulewicz, Isabelle Hadden, Carla Alexander, Clark Cajigas, Rachel
Thompson, Victor D.
Sanger, Matthew
Smith, Karen Y.
Garland, Carey J.
Howland, Matthew D.
Andrus, C. Fred T.
Holland-Lulewicz, Isabelle
Hadden, Carla
Alexander, Clark
Cajigas, Rachel
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2024-09-27
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Article
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Ecosystem evolution,Isotope geochemistry,Native American
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Thompson, V.D., Sanger, M., Smith, K.Y. et al. Shellfishing, sea levels, and the earliest Native American villages (5000–3800 yrs. BP) of the South Atlantic Coast of the U.S. Sci Rep 14, 22322 (2024).
Abstract
Shell ring archaeological sites are one of the most visible site types along the lower South Atlantic Coast of the United States. These cultural sites are large, circular to arcuate piles of mollusk shells with some reaching over three meters in elevation and over 100 m in diameter. They are comprised largely of mollusk shells (e.g., Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica), but also contain early pottery, nonhuman faunal remains, and other artifacts. Our work establishes that they represent the earliest widespread Native American villages occupied year-round in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. Significantly, our results from sea-level modelling and isotope geochemistry on mollusks establish that the inhabitants of these earliest villages (ca. 5000–3800 yrs. BP) lived within a fluctuating coastal environment, harvested certain resources year-round, and targeted diverse habitats across the estuaries. Both the growth and decline of these earliest villages are associated with a concomitant rise and lowering of sea level that impacted the productivity of the oyster reef fishery along the South Atlantic Coast. Despite these large-scale environmental changes, this research indicates that Native American fishing villages persisted along the coast for over 1000 years. © The Author(s) 2024.
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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
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Nature Research
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Scientific Reports
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2045-2322