Late Ceramic Age Research Articles

Plant resource diversity in the ethnobotanical record of precolonial Puerto Rico: Evidence from microbotanical remains

We present new starch grain and phytolith data from two sites in Puerto Rico: Maisabel and HU-7. Our findings reveal a strong emphasis on the use of maize, followed by chile pepper and arrowroot in Early and Late Ceramic Age deposits. Manioc was rare, with nearly all manioc residues coming from Early Ceramic Age artifacts in the Maisabel site. Integrating both starches and phytoliths provides a more accurate view of plant use than if only one or the other of these classes of microfossils are studied. We then review previously reported microbotanical findings from the island to document the diversity of plant resources utilized by precolonial occupants of Puerto Rico and how commonly these resources occur. There is now a sufficient body of residue data available to allow new insights into precolonial agricultural economies of Puerto Rico. Applying ecological measures of diversity, richness, and evenness to microbotanical datasets for Puerto Rico reveal declines in diversity for both the initial and later colonizing populations of the island. These findings are consistent with expectations from agroecology, whereby productive domesticates are identified and over time exploited in greater proportions to other taxa, both wild and domesticated.

Caribbean Figure Pendants: Style and Subject Matter: Anthropomorphic Figure Pendants of the late Ceramic Age in the Greater Antilles, by Vernon James Knight

Caribbean Figure Pendants: Style and Subject Matter: Anthropomorphic Figure Pendants of the late Ceramic Age in the Greater Antilles, by Vernon James Knight

Trace-elemental and multi-isotopic (Sr-Nd-Pb) discrimination of jade in the circum-Caribbean: Implications for pre-colonial inter-island exchange networks

Dense and strong, hydrothermal-metasomatic jadeitite and jadeite-omphacite rocks were used as tools and adornments throughout the wider Caribbean since initial inhabitation. Regionally, rich sources of jadeitite and jadeite-omphacite jade are known only in Guatemala (north and south of the Motagua Fault Zone), eastern Cuba and the northern Dominican Republic, establishing that humans transported jadeitic material over vast distances. This study validates that geochemical fingerprinting is a viable provenance method for Caribbean pre-colonial jadeitic lithologies. An assemblage of 101 source rocks has been characterised for trace element and combined Sr-Nd-Pb isotope compositions. Four statistical approaches (Principal Component Analysis, t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding, Decision Tree, and Multiclass Regression) were assessed, employing source-distinct trace element ratios. A multiclass regression technique based on trace element ratios of immobile high field strength, light to medium rare earth and fluid-mobile, large-ion-lithophile elements is shown to be most effective in discriminating the four source regions.Ninety-one % of the Guatemalan samples can be discriminated from the Dominican and Cuban sources using La/Th, Zr/Hf and Y/Th ratios. Jadeitic rocks cropping out in the Dominican Republic can be distinguished from Cuban jades employing Er/Yb, Nb/Ta and Ba/Rb ratios with 71% certainty. Furthermore, the two Guatemala sources, north and south of the Motagua Fault Zone, can be discriminated by using (among others) Zr/Hf, Ta/Th, La/Sm and Dy/Y ratios with an 89% success rate. This raises the possibility of determining, in detail, former trading and mobility networks between different islands and the Meso- and Central American mainland within the Greater Caribbean.The provenance technique was applied to 19 pre-colonial jade celts excavated from the Late Ceramic Age Playa Grande archaeological site in the northern Dominican Republic. Three artefacts are discriminated as derived from the Guatemalan source, indicating that, despite a source of jade within 25 km, material was traded from Guatemala. The presence of Guatemalan jade in the Playa Grande lithic assemblage provides further evidence of large scale (>3000 km), regional trading and indigenous knowledge transfer networks.

Petrographic analysis of Pre-Columbian pottery from Nevis, Eastern Caribbean

Prehistoric Indigenous groups in the Eastern Caribbean often used local materials in the manufacturing of ceramics and frequently transported raw materials and/or finished pottery as they traveled between the islands. Given the ubiquity and diversity of ceramics in the Caribbean they are particularly amenable for helping to discern past movements, exchange systems, and spheres of interaction. Curiously, however, the compositional analysis of ceramics is understudied in the region despite its great potential for answering questions regarding provenance and distribution patterns. In this paper, we conducted the first mineralogical study of pottery from the island of Nevis (northern Lesser Antilles). Using the Gazzi-Dickinson method of point counting—initially applied in Oceania with great success—20 non-diagnostic potsherds from the Late Ceramic Age (A.D. 600–1440) site of Coconut Walk were analyzed along with 11 modern sands collected from across the island. Descriptions focused on sand and matrix characteristics such as composition, size, sorting, angularity, and firing environment. Representatives of descriptive groups from both sherd and sand were identified based on composition. Two compositional groups were defined based on description and point count analysis: group 1 (Felsitic) and group 2 (Volcanic). Results indicate that these compositional groups match both local geologic description and several of the modern local sands, suggesting a local provenience for pottery production and use of multiple tempering agent sources.

Anthropogenic temperversusgeological and pedological inclusions: grog temper as a possible chrono-cultural marker for the Late Ceramic Age in the pre-Columbian Lesser Antilles

In order to compare pre-Columbian cultural affiliations in the Lesser Antilles, we studied three ceramic series from Guadeloupe (F.W.I.) from well-dated Troumassoid sites between AD 1000 and 1300 (radiometric ages) attributed to the Late Ceramic Age (AD 1000–1500). The significance of the different types of inclusions in these ceramics is discussed through a petrographic study using optical and electron microscopy, that we subsequently compared with the local geological contexts. Two of the studied sites are located in the volcanic part of Guadeloupe (Basse-Terre), while the third one is situated in an area dominated by the sedimentary substratum of Grande-Terre and its silty cover. The petrographic analysis shows either the use of local heterogeneous materials: natural, geological or pedological aplastic inclusions (volcanic sands and cinders, ferruginous soils), and the addition of grog (anthropogenic temper). At each of the three sites studied, the presence of grog was demonstrated for several modal series. Comparison of the compositions of the pastes with the ceramic chrono-typology allow us to explore the proposition presented by Donahueet al.(1990), suggesting that the use of grog may infer a difference between Troumassoid and pre-Troumassoid assemblages. We also hypothesize a progressive diffusion of the use of grog temper into the Lesser Antilles, from the Guianas. This idea defies the commonly accepted idea that Troumassoid developed smoothly out of a locally present Saladoid ceramic series without external influence.

Island networks: Transformations of inter-community social relationships in the Lesser Antilles at the advent of European colonialism

The Caribbean Sea was a conduit for human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas during the whole of its pre-colonial history. The period cal. AD 1000-1800, covering the Late Ceramic Age and early colonial era, represents an archaeologically understudied time during which the Lesser Antilles came under increasing influence from the Greater Antilles and coastal South America and participated in the last phase of indigenous resistance to colonial powers. This article summarizes the results of the Island Network project, supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in which a multi-disciplinary set of archaeological, archaeometric, geochemical, GIS, and network science methods and techniques have been employed to disentangle this turbulent era in regional and global history. These diverse approaches reveal and then explore multi-layered networks of objects and people and uncover how Lesser Antillean communities were created and transformed through teaching, trade, migration, movement, and exchange of goods and knowledge.

Grenada and the Guianas: mainland connections and cultural resilience during the Caribbean Late Ceramic Age

ABSTRACTIn the Lesser Antilles, the Late Ceramic Age (AD 750–1500) witnessed widespread cultural differentiation and population fluctuation, often characterized as a time of introspection and decline. Using the adaptive cycles of resilience theory as a heuristic framework, this paper compares data from 25 settlements on Grenada with the available climate and vegetation records, as well as a sum probability (SPD) model of relative changes in the island’s population to better understand the dramatic shifts in Late Ceramic material culture. The study finds this shift (including everything from ceramics to demographics to the appearance of petroglyphs and workstones) occurred during both heightened climatic instability and a population influx – likely of Arauquinoid groups from coastal South America. That is, the ‘decline’ in ceramic types was not an in situ phenomenon, but directly reflective of events occurring on the mainland.

Bitumen residue on a Late Ceramic Age three-pointer from Marie-Galante, Guadeloupe: Chemical characterization and ligature evidence

Among the most recognizable and enigmatic artefacts found in pre-Columbian archaeological contexts of the Ceramic Age in the Greater and Lesser Antilles is the three-pointer, a triangular shaped object made of various mineral and organic materials. Despite a few ethno-historic mentions and abundant academic speculations, little is known about the social and spiritual dimensions these once animate objects had in the Amerindian Antillean communities. Furthermore, very little can be empirically verified. The wide array of known specimens shows many variations, including the presence/absence of usually poorly preserved traces of black residue, often described as plant tars, resins or gums, or as inorganic bitumen. Well preserved residues of this type have been observed on a three-pointer specimen recently discovered in a Late Ceramic Age context (Troumassoid series, 10th–11th century AD) of the Tourlourous site on the island of Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe, French Lesser Antilles). They have been physico-chemically characterized as bitumen, and they preserve evidence of a specific tying system. These data raise considerations on two points: the necessity to better document these sometimes tenuous clues of tying and adhesion systems implying bitumen (and other glues), and the need to consider that three-pointers (and other artefacts), while actively used in the mediation between social and spiritual dimensions, also have a practical side which should be addressed in technological terms in order to better understand all their dimensions.

Exploring Transformations in Caribbean Indigenous Social Networks through Visibility Studies: the Case of Late Pre-Colonial Landscapes in East-Guadeloupe (French West Indies)

This paper presents a study of the visual properties of natural and Amerindian cultural landscapes in late pre-colonial East-Guadeloupe and of how these visual properties affected social interactions. Through a review of descriptive and formal visibility studies in Caribbean archaeology, it reveals that the ability of visual properties to affect past human behaviour is frequently evoked but the more complex of these hypotheses are rarely studied formally. To explore such complex hypotheses, the current study applies a range of techniques: total viewsheds, cumulative viewsheds, visual neighbourhood configurations and visibility networks. Experiments were performed to explore the control of seascapes, the functioning of hypothetical smoke signalling networks, the correlation of these visual properties with stylistic similarities of material culture found at sites and the change of visual properties over time. The results of these experiments suggest that only few sites in Eastern Guadeloupe are located in areas that are particularly suitable to visually control possible sea routes for short- and long-distance exchange; that visual control over sea areas was not a factor of importance for the existence of micro-style areas; that during the early phase of the Late Ceramic Age networks per landmass are connected and dense and that they incorporate all sites, a structure that would allow hypothetical smoke signalling networks; and that the visual properties of locations of the late sites Morne Souffleur and Morne Cybèle-1 were not ideal for defensive purposes. These results led us to propose a multi-scalar hypothesis for how lines of sight between settlements in the Lesser Antilles could have structured past human behaviour: short-distance visibility networks represent the structuring of navigation and communication within landmasses, whereas the landmasses themselves served as focal points for regional navigation and interaction. We conclude by emphasising that since our archaeological theories about visual properties usually take a multi-scalar landscape perspective, there is a need for this perspective to be reflected in our formal visibility methods as is made possible by the methods used in this paper.

‘Marineness’, the Underwater Seascape and Variability in Maritime Adaptations in the Late Ceramic Age Northern Lesser Antilles

ABSTRACTTo investigate potential variation between the fishing practices of contemporaneous Late Ceramic Age villages in the northern Lesser Antilles, we model expectations for each site based on local marine habitat and bathymetry and compare them to observed differences in zooarchaeological assemblages. The predictive model approximates which taxa were the most likely to have been targeted by fishers from each site, assuming that the majority of fishing likely occurred within short distances from each settlement. A comparison of expectations and archaeological observations is used to expose potential differences between sites in preferred fishing areas and techniques, preferred foods, or social distinctions. This variability is argued to reflect a fishing community’s ‘marineness’, or the interrelationship members have with the unique composition of marine resources and underwater seascape adjacent to their villages.

Sourcing nonnative mammal remains from Dos Mosquises Island, Venezuela: new multiple isotope evidence

Archeological excavations of Amerindian sites on Dos Mosquises Island, Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela, uncovered a wide range of evidence reflecting seasonal exploitation of local resources and multiple ritual depositions of large quantities of ceramic figurines, lithics, and faunal remains. Zooarchaeological analysis revealed the presence of modified and unmodified bones and teeth from numerous imported mammal species. Local geographic and environmental conditions preclude permanent establishment of terrestrial mammal populations and as such, there are no native mammalian taxa on the island itself or the surrounding oceanic archipelago. The presence of these faunal remains on Dos Mosquises can be attributed to the intentional movement of animal resources from the mainland to Los Roques by indigenous groups in the Late Ceramic Age (~AD 1200–1500). Despite attributions to a mainland source region, little else is known about the origins of these unique specimens. Here, we apply strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O), and carbon (δ13C) isotope analyses of tooth enamel from various archeologically recovered taxa including deer, peccary, tapir, ocelot, margay, opossum, fox, and weasel to investigate their geographic origins via comparisons with macro-regional models of precipitation δ18O and bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr. The 87Sr/86Sr results are highly variable both for the overall assemblage and between specimens within the same taxa, indicating origins from different geochemical environments of mainland South America. The combined archeological and isotopic evidence are consistent with origins within the late pre-colonial Valencioid Sphere of Interaction which encompassed the Lake Valencia Basin, surrounding regions, and several offshore island groups including Los Roques archipelago.

Human dietary assessment in the Pre-colonial Lesser Antilles: New stable isotope evidence from Lavoutte, Saint Lucia

Dietary assessment of Late Ceramic Age inhabitants (~AD 1200–1500) from Lavoutte, Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles was undertaken on human skeletal remains using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen (δ13Cco and δ15N), and bone and enamel bioapatite (δ13Cap and δ13Cen). The isotope data were interpreted in the context of regional food webs, intra-population dietary variation was assessed relative to individual demographic variables and the results were compared to contemporaneous populations at multiple scales. Moderately enriched δ13Cco and elevated δ15N point to substantial contributions from both non-marine and marine protein sources, including nitrogen-enriched pelagic resources. The lack of correlations between δ13Cco and δ13Cap (or δ13Cen) suggests distinct isotopic differences between protein and energy sources. The smaller range and variance of δ13Cco and δ15N values relative to δ13Cap and ∆13Cap-co indicate greater inter-individual heterogeneity in dietary energy sources relative to protein sources. Intra-population dietary variation was not, however, correlated with either age or sex, consistent with communal-based food consumption practices. From a broader perspective, the collagen isotope results are comparable with several islands in the Lesser Antilles but are distinct from others, indicating a large degree of regional variation in dietary protein sources, while the bone (and enamel) apatite results are more variable and overlap with many islands in both the Greater and Lesser Antilles indicating wider variation in average (whole) diets. The relative enrichment in δ13Cap and higher ∆13Cap-co values are strongly indicative that C4 (e.g., maize) or CAM plants were important dietary components. Overall, the isotopic evidence suggests that the Lavoutte population consumed mixed diets including substantial contributions of both C3 and C4/CAM plant resources, as well as terrestrial and marine protein sources.

Comments on Amerindian Hunting Practices in Trinidad (West Indies): Tetrapods From the Manzanilla Site (Late Ceramic Age 300–900 AD)

ABSTRACTLocated on the eastern shore of Trinidad island, the Manzanilla (SAN-1) deposit is a lengthy pre-Columbian occupation sequence consisting of an extensive Palo Seco (Saladoid) layer (300–600 AD) and a Bontour layer (600–1400 AD). According to initial reports on faunal remains, the former inhabitants of this site seem to have developed acquisition strategies relying on a wide range of ecological niches, including marine and terrestrial resources. A wide faunal spectrum is present in the Manzanilla assemblage, illustrating an opportunistic exploitation of the local surroundings. Marine resources, such as mollusks and fish, have indeed played a continuous major role in pre-Columbian diet, but the significant amount of tetrapod remains show that terrestrial game was also significant. Published zooarchaeological material is relatively scarce in this region, particularly in Trinidad. Therefore, through the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the faunal remains (skeletal parts distribution, ungulates osteometry) this study aims to shed some light on the hunting practice patterns and food harvesting strategies of the former inhabitants.

Pottery Vessel Function and Foodways at El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba

Our approach assumes that pots are tools, containers whose performance characteristics are adjusted to their primary uses. Traditional agricultural peoples generally distinguish among multiple vessel shapes that have distinct intended uses. In this article, we present afunctional analysis of vessel shapes and sizes performed on a sample of 160 rim sherds from the site of El Chorro de Malta, Cuba. These were assigned to 13 defined vessel shapes, most of which displayed more than one size mode based on estimated orifice diameters. The majority of specimens from El Chorro de Malta are low-profile, composite-contour bowls made in medium and large size modes, followed in frequency by simple-contour bowls and plates. Late Ceramic Age peoples in the Greater Antilles are historically documented as participating in the manioc breadcake-cassareep- stewpot foodway common to much of the tropical lowlands of northern South America. Consequently, it should be possible to show how the container assemblage of El Chorro de Malta is adapted to the requirements of that foodway. We note that, ethnographically, the elaborate processing of bitter manioc itself to produce breadcakes as a staple food does not necessarily require pottery vessels at all. Nonetheless, common stewing as a key component of the foodway—including the production of the condiment called cassareep in the Guianas—can require several containers with potentially distinct performance requirements: one to collect the juice below the sleeve press, another to reduce the expressed juice to the thickened sauce over afire, and a third, the stewpot itself, adapted to simmering vegetable and meat stews. We provisionally suggest that some of the most common shape-size classes at El Chorro de Malta are suited to producing and serving stews and cassareep, the traditional complement to eating manioc breadcake.

Rituais funerários e deposição cerâmica nos sítios AM 41 e La Pointe de Balaté: repensando o período cerâmico tardio na planície costeira oeste da Guiana Francesa

Por mais de 20 anos se pensou que o período cerâmico tardio (900-1500 A.D.) das planícies costeiras do oeste da Guiana Francesa e do leste do Suriname teria sido dominado pelo complexo Barbakoeba, conforme definido pelo arqueólogo holandês Arie Boomert (1993). Recentemente, várias escavações permitiram enfatizar numerosas diferenças regionais baseadas na análise cerâmica e deposições funerárias. Este artigo tenta ir além da caracterização geral da cerâmica do complexo Barbakoeba, a fim de discutir a diversidade regional deste complexo amplamente distribuído.

UMA NOTA SOBRE A INTRODUÇÃO DE RALADORES DE METAL E SOBRE A PRODUÇÃO E CONSUMO DA MANDIOCA E DO MILHO NA ZONA COSTEIRA DAS GUIANAS DURANTE O SÉCULO XVII

A pesquisa arqueológica recente na Ilha de Caiena (Guiana Francesa) mostrou que o milho foi um importante cultivo durante o Período Ce­râmico Tardio (AD 900-1500) entre a população costeira desta parte das Guianas. Já o Período Histórico (AD 1500-1900) e moderno des­ta região, em particular, é dominado por relatos sobre o consumo da mandioca, notadamente o beiju, a bebida de mandioca fermentada e, por fim, a farinha. Esta dicotomia faz sentido quando discutimos vários eventos por meio da leitura de documentos históricos do século XVII, da comparação da cultura material e da interpretação da tradição oral ameríndia. Nesse sentido, propomos que a introdução dos raladores de metal pelos europeus favoreceu o consumo da mandioca em detrimento do milho. Palavras-chave: Guianas, raladores, ferramentas de ferro, mandioca, milho

Dental Wear and Pathology in the Precolonial Caribbean: Evidence for Dietary Change in the Ceramic Age

AbstractThis study investigates temporal changes in dietary practices in the Caribbean archipelago during the Ceramic Age (400 BC–AD 1500), through analyses of dental wear and pathology. Some previous studies in the region have suggested that diet and subsistence practices changed over time due to increasing sociopolitical complexity, climate change, or adaptation to island environments rich in marine resources. Both horticultural/agricultural intensification and increased marine focus of the diet over time have been posited, based among other things on faunal and botanical remains, and early ethnohistorical accounts. Local and micro‐regional stable isotope studies of temporal dietary variation have found few indications for change over time, and large regional isotope studies are still lacking.Dentitions from sites throughout the region dating to the Early Ceramic Age (400 BC–AD 600/800) and the Late Ceramic Age (AD 600/800–1500) were analysed in order to assess temporal differences. Intra‐individual rates of wear were calculated using the difference in degree of wear between the adjacent molars and the two groups were compared with principal axis analysis. Caries, antemortem tooth loss, abscesses and dental calculus were recorded per individual and per tooth/socket, and population caries and antemortem tooth loss rates were assessed and compared by age group, tooth class and sex.Comparisons between the two occupation periods revealed significant differences in the rate of dental wear and pathology, indicating a shift in dietary practices over time, coinciding with known social changes. The increase in pathology rates suggests a rise in the consumption of cariogenic foods or preparation techniques that increase cariogenicity. The decrease in rate of wear over time indicates a reduction in abrasivity of the diet. Together these data suggest that there was a growing focus on refined, cariogenic foods, likely horticultural/agricultural produce. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Intensified mollusk exploitation on Nevis (West Indies) reveals ~six centuries of sustainable exploitation

In this study, we conducted one of the most detailed and comprehensive analyses to date of a pre-Columbian mollusk assemblage in the Caribbean. The robust sample, from the island of Nevis in the northern Lesser Antilles, comprised more than 58,000 individuals recovered from a 25 m2 (40 cm deep) midden deposit at the Late Ceramic Age (ca. AD 890–1440) site of Coconut Walk. Using this sample, we examined mollusk exploitation over a ca. 600-year time period, which revealed heavy dependence on only a few species. Statistical analysis demonstrates that even though mollusk harvesting intensified through time, there was an increase of more than 10 % in the average individual weight of the three main species and a ten-fold increase in harvesting generally. These data, in conjunction with a previously observed size increase of one of the three taxa (Nerita tessellata)—which was increasingly preyed on through time—infer a level of sustainability contra to prey-choice models in which over-exploitation is an expected outcome. Overall, the foraging of mollusks at this site appears to have been sustainable for ~six centuries based on the absence of evidence for over-harvesting and increase in size during the time of occupation, regardless of its causation (anthropogenic, climatic, environmental, or otherwise).

Intensifying collection and size increase of the tessellated nerite snail (Nerita tessellata) at the Coconut Walk site, Nevis, northern Lesser Antilles, AD 890–1440

Recent archaeological investigation at the Coconut Walk site on the Caribbean island of Nevis revealed dense 40 cm deep midden deposits that accumulated between cal AD 890–1440. Analysis of invertebrate faunal remains reveals an assemblage dominated by nerite snails. We measured the length and width of more than 2700 tessellated nerite (Nerita tessellata) shells to investigate evidence for changing mean size that might be indicative of intensifying human predation pressure or other cultural and natural processes. Contrary to similar archaeomalacological studies in which size decline is detected, we observed a statistically significant size increase for N. tessellata over time. This size increase is coupled with increasing levels of tessellated nerite exploitation at the Coconut Walk site. Results suggest that tessellated nerite use was sustainable over several centuries of site occupation. Our findings have important implications for investigations of anthropogenic impacts on prehistoric mollusc populations. In addition, the findings reported here provide important insight into human subsistence patterns during the Late Ceramic Age in the Caribbean and a framework for comparison with observations from other Pre-Columbian sites in the Caribbean.

Testing the efficacy and reliability of common zooarchaeological sampling strategies: a case study from the Caribbean

Zooarchaeological analysis typically involves implementing a suitable sampling strategy that provides meaningful information representative of a site under investigation. To test the efficacy of how various sampling procedures can influence interpretation of a faunal assemblage, we analyzed in full, a large assemblage of mollusks (minimum number of individuals [MNI] = 58,000+) from the late Ceramic Age (ca. AD 850–1440) site of Coconut Walk on the island of Nevis (northern Lesser Antilles, Caribbean). These remains were recovered from 25 discrete 1 × 1 m units within a larger 5 × 5 m trench that overlaid a dense midden deposit. Using statistical procedures, we compared the results of the number of identified specimens (NISP), MNI, and weight (g) of each mollusk taxon between both units and plana to determine how different sampling strategies would have affected the interpretation of mollusk composition across space and time had different sampling procedures been used. The results reveal that sampling less than 16% (4 out of 25 squares for this study) of a midden is likely to produce results outside of a 95% confidence interval for the population composition, with samples of connected squares having a higher likelihood to lie outside the interval. Discerning change between plana (or layers) may require a larger sample (i.e., 16%+). In addition, samples selected randomly or judgmentally will produce similar results, provided that proper spacing is given between units. The data in this case suggest that the midden was efficiently sampled for midden composition and key species at a rate of 16% of the surface area.