Aquatic Resource Exploitation Research Articles

Cost-benefit trade-offs of aquatic resource exploitation in the context of hominin evolution

Cost-benefit trade-offs of aquatic resource exploitation in the context of hominin evolution

Cost-Benefit Trade-Offs of Aquatic Resource Exploitation in the Context of Hominin Evolution

While the exploitation of aquatic fauna and flora has been documented in several primate species to date, the evolutionary contexts and mechanisms behind the emergence of this behavior in both human and non-human primates remain largely overlooked. Yet, this issue is particularly important for our understanding of human evolution, as hominins represent not only the primate group with the highest degree of adaptedness to aquatic environments, but also the only group in which true coastal and maritime adaptations have evolved. As such, in the present study we review the available literature on primate foraging strategies related to the exploitation of aquatic resources and their putative associated cognitive operations. We propose that aquatic resource consumption in extant primates can be interpreted as a highly site-specific behavioral expression of a generic adaptive foraging decision-making process, emerging in sites at which the local cost-benefit trade-offs contextually favor aquatic over terrestrial foods. Within this framework, we discuss the potential impacts that the unique intensification of this behavior in hominins may have had on the evolution of the human brain and spatial ecology.

External auditory exostoses, repetitive aquatic activity and increasing social complexity in Chalcolithic Cyprus: Specialists of the sea?

AbstractExternal auditory exostoses (EAEs) are dense osseous hyperostoses that protrude into the external auditory canal and are associated with repetitive aquatic activity. Clinically, the aetiology of EAEs is attributed to prolonged exposure to cold water through activities including swimming, surfing, diving, kayaking and sailing. The prevalence and distribution of EAEs within a particular archaeological context informs on human–environment interactions, activity and behavioural differences between the sexes, habitual aquatic activity (e.g., fishing, diving, swimming, bathing, seafaring, littoral zone resource procurement), marine and aquatic resource exploitation and subsistence patterns. This study aims to assess the prevalence of EAEs within a prominent Chalcolithic skeletal assemblage from Souskiou‐Laona, in southwestern Cyprus. Sixty‐five auditory canals were examined macroscopically and microscopically to confirm the presence or absence of EAEs. Five adult individuals present EAEs (right auditory canals; left ear canals not sufficiently preserved) with a prevalence of 15.1% of all sufficiently preserved right ear canals (33). EAE prevalence is 25% in males and 14.2% in females. Earlier burials on the site, represented by bonestack (commingled) crania, display EAEs at 14.8% prevalence, whereas the last burials (articulated skeletons) show a prevalence of 16.7%. Malacological evidence from Souskiou‐Laona cemetery attests marine resource procurement, including activity at the littoral zone. The EAEs at Souskiou‐Laona likely reflect the diachronic exploitation of marine resources at the south coast of Cyprus from the foundation of the cemetery to the latest burials before abandonment of the site. Both males and females participated in these repetitive aquatic activities. The differential expression of EAEs in the population as a whole, and the different prevalences between males and females, may be interpreted in the context of increasing specialisation and social complexity during the Chalcolithic, consistent with the development of other specialised, standardised and gender‐differential activities during this time period.

Specialized aquatic resource exploitation at the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II, Israel

This paper investigates aquatic resource exploitation at the Late Natufian site (ca. 12,000 cal. BP) of Nahal Ein Gev II located 2 km east of the Sea of Galilee. Aquatic game, here fish and waterfowl, were an important component of the diverse small game resources that became important in the Late Epipaleolithic in Southwest Asia. We characterize local adaptations to the aquatic habitat and their economic and social implications at Nahal Ein Gev II. Taxonomic abundance and diversity, body-part representation, and fish body-size were investigated to evaluate the contribution of aquatic resources to human diets and butchery and transport strategies. Our results show that the residents of Nahal Ein Gev II were highly selective of the aquatic resources they captured and transported home. The hunters maximized foraging efficiency by nearly exclusively choosing the largest bodied species of fish and waterfowl and processing their carcasses to maximize meat utility before transporting them back to the site. The selectivity of these human foragers enables us to reconstruct rare details about the organization of forays for aquatic resources. When combined with evidence from other material classes from Nahal Ein Gev II and other sites, the results suggest that aquatic resource exploitation is only one of several specialized activities practiced at Nahal Ein Gev II. These along with other archaeological evidence provide evidence of task diversification that foreshadows the emergence of a more complex division of labor to come in the succeeding Neolithic period.

TERMINAL PLEISTOCENE THROUGH MIDDLE HOLOCENE OCCUPATIONS IN SOUTHEASTERN MESOAMERICA: LINKING ECOLOGY AND CULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF NEOTROPICAL FORAGERS AND EARLY FARMERS

AbstractData from rock shelters in southern Belize show evidence of tool making, hunting, and aquatic resource exploitation by 10,500 cal b.c.; the shelters functioned as mortuary sites between 7600 and 2000 cal b.c. Early Holocene contexts contain stemmed and barbed bifaces as part of a tradition found broadly throughout the neotropics. After around 6000 cal b.c., bifacial tools largely disappear from the record, likely reflecting a shift to increasing reliance on plant foods, around the same time that the earliest domesticates appear in the archaeological record in the neotropics. We suggest that people living in southern Belize maintained close ties with neighbors to the south during the Early Holocene, but lagged behind in innovating new crops and farming technologies during the Middle Holocene. Maize farming in Belize intensified between 2750–2050 cal b.c. as maize became a dietary staple, 1000–1300 years later than in South America. Overall, we argue from multiple lines of data that the Neotropics of Central and South America were an area of shared information and technologies that heavily influenced cultural developments in southeastern Mesoamerica during the Early and Middle Holocene.

The technology and ecology of Lesotho's highland hunter-gatherers: A case study at Sehonghong rock shelter

Here we evaluate the hypothesis that during cold climatic phases, people and resources became increasingly packed along highland Lesotho's riverine corridors as the viability of palatable grasslands for large mammal hunting on the upland plateaus declined. These intensification efforts resulted in increased reliance on lower-ranked aquatic (fish) resources with knock-on effects for lithic technological organization. We compare data on the relative contribution of fishing to the diets of highland hunter-gatherers at Sehonghong rockshelter with a faunal proxy widely argued to correlate with subsistence intensification (faunal assemblage evenness). In addition, we compare these data with two measures of lithic technological intensification (cutting edge production and core reduction intensity) to test whether diet intensification tracks technological intensification. We show that at Sehonghong, aquatic resource exploitation is not always correlated with faunal assemblage evenness. We find that some layers (i.e. RF) show spikes in aquatic resource use irrespective of changes in faunal assemblage evenness. Other layers (i.e. RBL/CLBRF) were intensively occupied, but they do not have many fish. Our data also demonstrate that aquatic resource use is not correlated with lithic technological intensification. These results suggest that while aquatic resource exploitation was a ‘fallback’ option for some of Lesotho's highland hunter-gatherers, there is considerable variability. Our data show that multiple intensification dimensions were variably combined through the Late Pleistocene at Sehonghong as they were elsewhere in southern Africa.

External auditory exostoses among western Eurasian late Middle and Late Pleistocene humans.

External auditory exostoses (EAE) have been noted among the Neandertals and a few other Pleistocene humans, but until recently they have been discussed primary as minor pathological lesions with possible auditory consequences. An assessment of available western Eurasian late Middle and Late Pleistocene human temporal bones with sufficiently preserved auditory canals (n = 77) provides modest levels of EAE among late Middle Pleistocene archaic humans (≈20%) and early modern humans (Middle Paleolithic: ≈25%; Early/Mid Upper Paleolithic: 20.8%; Late Upper Paleolithic: 9.5%). The Neandertals, however, exhibit an exceptionally high level of EAE (56.5%; 47.8% if two anomalous cases are considered normal). The levels of EAE for the early modern humans are well within recent human ranges of variation, frequencies which are low for equatorial inland and high latitude samples but occasionally higher elsewhere. The Early/Mid Upper Paleolithic frequency is nonetheless high for a high latitude sample under interpleniglacial conditions. Given the strong etiological and environmental associations of EAE development with exposure to cold water and/or damp wind chill, the high frequency of EAE among the Neandertals implies frequent aquatic resource exploitation, more frequent than the archeological and stable isotopic evidence for Middle Paleolithic/Neandertal littoral and freshwater resource foraging implies. As such, the Neandertal data parallel a similar pattern evident in eastern Eurasian archaic humans. Yet, factors in addition to cold water/wind exposure may well have contributed to their high EAE frequencies.

Molecular and isotopic evidence for the processing of starchy plants in Early Neolithic pottery from China

Organic residue analysis of ancient ceramic vessels enables the investigation of natural resources that were used in daily cooking practices in different part of the world. Despite many methodological advances, the utilization of plants in pottery has been difficult to demonstrate chemically, hindering the study of their role in ancient society, a topic that is especially important to understanding early agricultural practices at the start of the Neolithic period. Here, we present the first lipid residue study on the Chinese Neolithic pottery dated to 5.0 k - 4.7 k cal BC from the Tianluoshan site, Zhejiang province, a key site with early evidence for rice domestication. Through the identification of novel molecular biomarkers and extensive stable isotope analysis, we suggest that the pottery in Tianluoshan were largely used for processing starchy plant foods. These results not only highlight the significance of starchy plants in Neolithic southern China but also show a clear difference with other contemporary sites in northern Eurasia, where pottery is clearly orientated to aquatic resource exploitation. These differences may be linked with the early development of rice agriculture in China compared to its much later adoption in adjacent northerly regions.

Priedaine: A Neolithic Site at the Head of the Gulf of Riga

The Neolithic site of Priedaine in Jūrmala was excavated on a small scale in 2007–2008, yielding an assemblage of Comb Ceramics, along with unique wooden implements and fragments of pine-lath fishing structures. The environment and subsistence resources are indicated by plant macrofossil remains and a small faunal collection. Located by a palaeolake and also very close to the sea, the site, dated to c. 3700–3500 cal BC, would have been oriented towards aquatic resource exploitation. However, it had a wider range of functions, as indicated by the evidence of flint and amber processing. Key words: Neolithic, pottery, fishing gear, plant macro-remains, faunal remains, lake, coastal settlement. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/ab.v23i0.1294

Shell density as proxy for reconstructing prehistoric aquatic resource exploitation, perspectives from southern Africa

Aquatic resource use has gained enormous attention in recent years, particularly in terms of its role in human evolution. Significant strides are being made regarding the potential nutritional significance of aquatic foods for hominin diets, and explicit conceptual frameworks for understanding the evolutionary context of coastal adaptations are also being developed. Finding out when and where systematic use of aquatic resources took place and what constitutes a well-developed coastal adaptation requires a corpus of data that can offer insights into the organization of marine resource procurement. The earliest evidence for the exploitation of marine coastal habitats in the world is found in southern-most Africa (≤164ka), where the most evident and abundant material expression of such foraging adaptation is revealed by marine mollusc shells found in mid to late Pleistocene archaeological sites. Hence, it becomes imperative to understand what can be meaningfully inferred from the variable quantities of such a significant component of early marine aquatic exploitation. This paper approaches the issue of aquatic resource use by investigating one of the most frequently employed quantitative measure for inferring such behaviour, namely shell density. Holocene assemblages from the South African west coast are used as a case study. It is found that shell densities can be misleading for inferring intensity of coastal resource use in the absence of palaeoshoreline reconstruction and when deposition rates are assumed to remain constant and when geomorphological and taphonomic contexts are unknown. Overall, deposition rates of marine shells is a better proxy for comparison between sites and through time, and thus for gaining insight into past marine coastal adaptations.

External auditory exostoses and prehistoric aquatic resource procurement

External auditory exostoses (EAEs) are osseous exostoses that form in the external auditory canal as a result of an irritation of the periosteum. Many conditions can be responsible for this irritation, but contact with cold water is the principal cause. This article is a brief review of clinical and anthropological studies that permit consideration of EAEs as faithful markers of water-related activities in past populations and discusses the potential as well as the limits of EAEs to provide insights into aquatic resource exploitation by prehistoric humans.

Impact of fishery association management on fishery community

Tam Giang lagoon system has got an area size of around 22.100 ha; a length of 68 km along the coast of central Vietnam. In which, the animal system is abundant, including many kinds of shrimp, fish and crab. Vinh Giang is a commune which belongs to the Tam Giang lagoon system. It is a place, where fishing activities started long time ago and developed strong fishery culture. There are many fishery groups who use this resource, including fixed gears fishing, mobile gears fishing and aquaculture. The numbers of fishers are increasing; meanwhile the resource under harvest is limited. Accordingly, conflict becomes common among household groups in aquatic resource exploitation and use. They use many methods to increase their efficiency, like event destructive fishing. This situation led to overexploitation and depletes resources. The local government tries to take some measures in resource management, but the effectiveness was not significant. Specially, they give emphasis for administrative management mechanism and coercion to reduce approach level, exploit resource in general and fisheries management in particular. The centralized management mechanism didn’t seem suitable in common pool resource (Tuyen, 2008). Thus, the most important is to renew management system in aquaculture, fishing and other resource in lagoon. The fisheries management system improverment is implemented comprehensive in fishing technology, fishing method and management regulations in order to reach a goal that is not harmful to environment and biodiversity in aquatic resource. Although, the Local Government and other organizations coordinated management in aquculture and fishery is there, the connection has not been close enough to bring a change. The fishing and aquculture area planning were not suitable and clearly. In addition, whereas, government organization, local government weren’t enough official, time, expenditure and resource to remain management activities on large area. Fisher has not participated actively in in the protection of aquatic resource in the community yet. Because of this, the overexploitation continuied growing from time to time. These reasons affect aquatic resource and fisher’s livelihood.To solve this problem, the community has to clear property right regime to reinforce aquatic resource management capacity (Tuyen, 2010). Therefore, the fishery management model base on community was establishment in many communes. In which, fishery association is subject of the model. Moreover, Vinh Giang commune, that the first commune is right allocated in water surface resource management, exploitation and using. The nature of the community based fisheries management model is decentralized in participation of fisher and local government. Fishery association is social-professional organization. The participation of fisher in the association is voluntary; they participate in activities such as: fishing, aquaculture, consuming, processing and logistic services fisheries. Fishery association establishment created the change in aquatic resource management. In which, it included the change in the number of fisher, area, fishing equipment, yield, income and fisher’s awareness. From this research, it will show the advantages and disadvantages in aquatic resource management process, the changes and improvements in the livelihood of fisher through support by fishery association.

The twilight of Paleolithic Siberia: Humans and their environments east of Lake Baikal at the late-glacial/Holocene transition

Numerous archaeological sites in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East are assigned to the Younger Dryas that testify to human occupation of the area despite a re-advance of steppe biota beginning around 11,000 14C BP (ca. 12,850 cal BP). Archaeological sites are primarily associated with low-energy alluvial landforms where preservation is excellent, but some are heavily disturbed by cryogenic processes. Fish bones and other direct evidence of aquatic resource exploitation appeared while terrestrial hunting persisted. Technologically there was continuation of microblades, bifaces, and burins, but also harpoons, composite tools, and even pottery emerged in some areas. The Younger Dryas in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East was in many ways a watershed between Upper Paleolithic lifeways of the late Pleistocene and more settled Mesolithic traditions of the early Holocene.

Relevance of aquatic environments for hominins: a case study from Trinil (Java, Indonesia)

Knowledge about dietary niche is key to understanding hominin evolution, since diet influences body proportions, brain size, cognition, and habitat preference. In this study we provide ecological context for the current debate on modernity (or not) of aquatic resource exploitation by hominins. We use the Homo erectus site of Trinil as a case study to investigate how research questions on possible dietary relevance of aquatic environments can be addressed. Faunal and geochemical analysis of aquatic fossils from Trinil Hauptknochenschicht (HK) fauna demonstrate that Trinil at ∼1.5 Ma contained near-coastal rivers, lakes, swamp forests, lagoons, and marshes with minor marine influence, laterally grading into grasslands. Trinil HK environments yielded at least eleven edible mollusc species and four edible fish species that could be procured with no or minimal technology. We demonstrate that, from an ecological point of view, the default assumption should be that omnivorous hominins in coastal habitats with catchable aquatic fauna could have consumed aquatic resources. The hypothesis of aquatic exploitation can be tested with taphonomic analysis of aquatic fossils associated with hominin fossils. We show that midden-like characteristics of large bivalve shell assemblages containing Pseudodon and Elongaria from Trinil HK indicate deliberate collection by a selective agent, possibly hominin.

Late Holocene economic specialisation through aquatic resource exploitation at Kobadi in the Méma, Mali

AbstractFollowing the last humid phase of the Late Holocene, human groups left the Saharan latitudes of northern Mali at around 2500 cal. years BC to settle further south. The Kobadi population was among the first Neolithic human groups to enter the Niger Inland Delta in central Mali. People adapted to their new environment by intensifying one of their former subsistence practices, namely fishing. The rich and diversified ichthyofauna exploited was dominated by large Nile perches and a variety of catfish taxa. It testifies to relatively stable hydrological conditions: a fluvial lake which was probably linked permanently to the main Niger River. Fish were caught with harpoons and probably also with diverse fishing devices such as nets, baskets and fences. Preparation processes prior to cooking cannot be determined, but fish were probably cooked on hot coals or stones, the left‐overs of the meals being discarded randomly at the site.Intense exploitation of the aquatic environment near Kobadi provided an abundant, secure and predictable source of protein. Besides fish and riparian mammals, reptiles such as turtles, monitors and crocodile were hunted. Domestic cattle provided milk and/or meat. These animals were either raised at the site or obtained by means of exchange with pastoral groups roaming the hinterlands. From the 2nd millennium BC, the focus on aquatic resources at Kobadi, mostly through the intensification of fish exploitation, may demonstrate the beginning of economic specialisation in the Niger Inland Delta. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Prehistory of the Chitrakot Falls, Central India (review)

Reviewed by: Prehistory of the Chitrakot Falls, Central India Mark Lycett Review of Prehistory of the Chitrakot Falls, Central India. Zarine Cooper. Pune: Ravish Publishers, 1997. viii + 115 pp.; maps, illustrations, tables, index, bibliography. $34.40. ISBN: 8-1900-2941-X. This monograph, a revision of Cooper's 1983 Ph.D. thesis at Deccan College, includes two distinct but interrelated studies of the historical economy of Chitrakot, Bastar District, Madhya Pradesh. The first of these is a report of six field seasons of archaeological survey, detailed surface documentation, and test excavation on flood plain of the Indravati River. The second is a brief but detailed ethnographic [End Page 196] study of subsistence technology among Kuruk Gond populations currently occupying this region. Each of these studies is admirable in its own right; however, like any divided venture, the coherence of Cooper's work depends on the sometimes tenuous links between these two research domains. Cooper suggests that the structure of aquatic resources in her study area influenced human settlement and technological organization just as strongly and in much the same way in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene as they do today. Whether or not such a strong claim of historical stability can be sustained, this monograph is a genuine contribution to both prehistory and ethnography in the service of archaeology. The principal goals of this study were to characterize the content and spatial structure of these assemblages and examine their relationship to environmental variables in relation to ethnographic models of aquatic resource exploitation. Cooper begins with an introduction to the study region, a 107 sq-km area around Chitrakot Falls on the Indravati River. Forty-nine sites consisting entirely of microlithic tools and debitage were located in twelve months of archaeological survey. Like most Mesolithic sites in peninsular India, these scatters are relatively shallow and exhibit a wide range of variation in areal extent and density. Nine of these sites were chosen for more detailed documentation including mapping and systematic collection of up to 30 percent of the surface sample of chipped stone. In addition to the morphological and functional analyses of these materials, these samples formed the basis of an intrasite spatial analysis of artifact clustering. Chapter 4 contains a detailed description of the lithic industry. A number of important observations regarding raw material use, blade manufacture, and production of formal tools arise from this work. Clearly, the relationship among procurement, manufacture, use, and discard of this technology is a complex one, and one that is only partially represented in any one sample. The results of these analyses are presented clearly and in quantitative terms, allowing the reader to evaluate the evidence behind the author's inferences. Chapter 5 builds on the discussion of assemblage content to discuss the spatial structure of the nine sampled sites. The analysis focuses on associations of clustered artifact types through spatial mapping of correlation matrices. Although begun under the optimistic premise that "activity areas" may have survived centuries of displacement, erosion, and reoccupation, Cooper's interpretation of spatial patterning is unflinchingly pessimistic. She concludes, for example, that spatial patterns are in large part due to erosional processes. A lack of three-dimensional data hinder the precision of this conclusion; however, Cooper's argument is persuasive. In the subsequent chapter, a summary and interpretation of the archaeological research, Cooper moves beyond this pessimism to make a number of important suggestions for advancing prehistoric research on the subcontinent. These include the need for detailed study of formation processes and the development of appropriate ethnographic models of technology and settlement. More important, perhaps, is Cooper's recognition of the need to develop archaeological methods for the interpretation of surficial contexts and her shift in focus from sites as exemplars of functional categories to regional archaeological records as indicators of occupational history. If the activity areas of an ethnographic time frame are elusive, the long-term history of local land-use patterns may be more accessible archaeologically. It is at this point that the monograph moves from a discussion of archaeological research to an ethnographic profile of the economy of local fishing communities. There is a wealth of detail, particularly regarding procurement of aquatic resources, in this...

Free and bound fatty acid oxidation products in archaeological ceramic vessels

While oxidation products of unsaturated fatty acids, for example dicarboxylic acids (hereafter diacids), must form during the use of unglazed ceramic vessels for the processing of animal and plant products, such components have never been observed during studies of absorbed lipids. Their absence from the extractable lipid fraction is presumed to be the result of their loss from potsherds through groundwater leaching. Lipid oxidation products including short-chain dicarboxylic acids, ω-hydroxy acids and longer-chain hydroxy and dihydroxy acids have now been observed as components probably covalently bound into solvent insoluble residues of potsherds recovered from waterlogged deposits. These components were only revealed following alkaline treatment of the insoluble residues. A similar mixture of diacids was observed in high abundance in the free lipid fraction of vessels recovered from an exceptionally arid deposit where groundwater leaching would never have occurred. These results confirm the formation of oxidation and probable polymerization products of unsaturated fatty acids during vessel use and burial.

Evaluation of public policies guiding aquatic resource(s) exploitation and uses in Nigeria

Nigeria, like most developing nations of the world, is facing an environmental as well as economic crisis. This paper identifies a new crisis in a very sensitive sector of the economy, the oil sector. In response to a number of influences, not least the growing concern over environmental consequences of aquatic resource exploitation and uses, including physical damage and pollution due to the exploration of oil and gas in many coastal or riverine areas, the government is gradually considering many policy options. The key concern involves discovering the technical relationships between oil and gas exploration, as well as the economic, social and institutional means of ensuring that oil and gas exploration continues with minimal environmental damage and pollution. The government seems to be at a crossroad regarding the uncertainty of some decisions taken in the past to combat environmental damage and pollution in the exploration of oil and gas. The survey data reported here provides some answers on how to better create a balance among several interest areas and groups in policy formation regarding environmental safety in the exploration of oil and gas in the riverine areas of Nigeria.

Fish, pots and grain: Early and Mid-Holocene adaptations in the Central Sudan

Cultural development in the middle Nile Valley from 10,000 to 2000 bp was characterized by significant subsistence changes — from hunting/gathering and simple aquatic resource exploitation to cultivation of domestic sorghum. Research in the Atbara and Khartoum regions enables us to identify distinct technological phases relating to resource diversification as well as specialization. Pottery was an important technological innovation which had far-reaching consequences for development of a more diversified use of aquatic and cereal resources. A basic distinction is made between cultivation and domestication as two separate but interdependent processes — the first a socio-economic process relating to peoples' activities, the second a biological process relating to morphological changes in the plants. Cultivation is considered to be evolutionarily prior and to have constituted the selection pressures which led to the emergence of domesticated plants. Cultivation of sorghum was practised from the 6th millennium bp but domesticated sorghum emerged only around 2000 bp. Specialized pastoralism and the use of secondary products like milk and blood appear to have become important in the late 6th millennium bp. An attempt is made to connect the development of technological traditions with that of Nilo-Saharan and Cushitic languages.