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The Prehistoric Exploitation of Marine Mammals and Birds at San Nicolas Island, California

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The Prehistoric Exploitation of Marine Mammals and Birds at San Nicolas Island, California The Prehistoric Exploitation of Marine Mammals and Birds at San Nicolas Island, California Dana E . Bleitz Department of Anthropology, California State University Los Angeles, CA 90032 mammals became increasingly important in Abstract - Research on San Nicolas Island relation to shellfish harvesting. prehistory currently describes an aboriginal Subsequent excavations on San Nicolas maritime adaptation which appeared about Island at SNI-11, a site situated almost at the 6,800 years ago. Faunal data from the stratified northernmost point on the island and site of SNI-11 indicate an early procurement containing three distinct occupational strata, strategy dominated by shellfish gathering and enabled Reinman to define a chronological supplemented by fish, sea-mammal and bird sequence of early, intermediate and late. resources. This economy evolved into a Within the artifact assemblage of SNI-11, a broader-based strategy which focused upon the discrete change is demonstrated in the fishing diverse range of species foraging and technology, where the sole presence of the inhabiting the kelp beds and in which smaller bone gorge from the earlier two occupations pinniped and cetacean species played an almost exclusively is replaced by the occurrence important role. of the circular shell fishhook during the late period (Reinman & Lauter 1981). Changing Exploitation/Procurement: Introduction Although a model of Nicoleno maritime adaptation was proposed by Reinman (1964), Model Proposed for San Nicolas Island: no systematic analysis of the faunal remains San Nicolas Island, the outermost of the recovered from San Nicolas Island had California Channel Islands, was occupied by an previously been conducted to verify these aboriginal people who adopted a maritime tentative conclusions. Of the entire faunal subsistence base and arrived, according to collection from SNI-11, only the mammal and calibrated radiocarbon dates by about 6,800 bird remains are focused upon at this time. years ago (Table 1) [UCLA-2559D: 5,955+120 Comparable assemblages of sea-mammal and radiocarbon years = 6,800 cal B.P. (calibrated bird remains preserved in large numbers have date)] (Bleitz-Sanburg 1987; Bryan 1970; been reported from relatively few of the sites Reinman 1964; Reinman & Lauter 1981; which have been excavated on the California Stuiver 1982; Suess 1979). Islands and the adjacent southern California Reinman (1964) speculated on the maritime coast (Bleitz-Sanburg 1987). development of the Nicolenos in comparison In conjunction with the general paucity of with the prehistoric economy of the Santa systematic faunal analyses dealing with sea- Catalina Islanders reported by Meighan (1959). mammal and bird bones excavated from sites The exploitation of San Nicolas Island by the along the southern California coast and Nicolenos was postulated by Reinman as California Islands, there is a general lack of evolving from a subsistence strategy dominated comparative ethnographic and archaeological by shellfish gathering and supplemented by sea- data concerning methods for hunting these mammal and fish protein into a broader-based animals by the aboriginal people of the and more stable economy, an economy in Southern California Bight. Reinman & Lauter which fishing and the procurement of sea (1981) were able to define changes in the fishing Third California Islands Symposium 519 tackle employed by the inhabitants of San species into usable constituents generally has only to actual individuals identified within each the development of scurvy during their study by Nicolas Island, but no well-defined hunting been viewed through two perspectives. The taxon as opposed to composite collections of consuming bone marrow, an apparent repository toolkit has been distinguished for marine processed raw materials have been studied as analyzed faunal remains. Due to the greater for significant quantities of vitamin C (Field mammals and birds exploited at SNI-11. artifacts, while the protein contribution has inaccuracies of the bone-weight index as a basis 1976; Spedth 1983). In addition, nitrogen loss and The characteristic behavior, biology and been derived through reconstructions of meat for reconstructing meat weights, the index was starvation, clue to a lack of carbohydrates and distribution of an animal species affect the weights from residue-bone weights or from rejected in favor of the MN I method (Casteel calories in their diet, were remedied by the strategy designed for its procurement (Earle counts of the Minimum Number of Individuals 1978; Chaplin 1971; Daly 1969; Grayson 1984; consumption of fat, which Stefansson (1944) 1980). The analysis of the modern characteristics (MNI) represented for each species identified Klein & Cruz-Uribe 1984; Lyman 1979). considered to be "the most important ingredient for the mammalian and avian species identified within the faunal assemblage. The Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) of an arctic ration" (Speth 1983:150-155). from the SNI-11 faunal assemblage, as well as The "Wiegemethode," or weight method, method proposed by White (1953) involves Speth (1983) emphasized the importance of the methods employed by biologists to capture attempts to determine the relative dietary multiplying the average live-weight of a given dietary fat to hunter-gatherer societies by these animals, may allow for a new interpretation contribution of animals within the faunal species by the percent of usable meat available proposing four strategies they might have from that species. The usable meat-weight is of the general absence of a specialized hunting assemblage by calculating the meat weights of applied to prevent caloric insufficiency. Two then multiplied by the MN I to determine that toolkit and the presence of a well-defined fishing each taxon from the respective weights of primary remedies might have included the species' total available meat-weight represented killing of large numbers of lean-muscled tool assemblage from SNI-11. preserved bones identified from each species. in the faunal assemblage. White's formula may animals and subsequent gorging on the meat or On the assumption that bone weight correlates be expressed, therefore, in the following a selected killing of fat individuals and the Methods linearly to meat weight in vertebrate fauna, the manner: (average live-weight of species x processing of fat-abundant carcass parts. A third sampled bone-weights are multiplied by a Dietary Significance: The procurement of percentage of meat weight from live weight x strategy might have emphasized the hunting of derived conversion factor in order to obtain a animal resources initially may be studied MNI) = Total meat-weight per taxon. species which normally maintain a high quantity through two variables - the range of species proportional measure of meat weight (Cook & The calculations of live weight and of body fat. A long-term remedy would have targeted and the desired range of products Treganza 1950; Reed 1963; Uerpmann 1973). percentages of usable meat for species of sea included the augmentation of stored foods with (Earle 1980). The objective yield of animal The linear relationship of bone weight to mammals in White's report (1953) were limited preserved fats and bone grease. products may vary from protein (meat) to meat weight was disputed by Casteel (1978). to otters and pinnipeds and were derived from The superabundance of resources repre­ calories (fat) and raw materials (bone and hide). His research demonstrated that bone and meat maximum-size individuals. Stewart & Stahl sented by the procurement of large marine The analysis of osteological residues weights are related curvilinearly. In addition, (1977) included only one marine mammal - the mammals may have been dealt with by a sharing resulting from the cultural processing of animal this curvilinear relationship may be applied ringed seal (Phoca hispida) - in their discussion and/or storage of the excess products (Smith of edible meat-poundage figures. Neither 1981). Data on the method and duration of fat Table 1. Radiocarbon dates from the Thousand Springs site (SNI-11) by stratum and mound. report, however, included seabird species and meat preservation may be derived from within the research. Laboratory Stratum Mound Unit Level C 14yrs Calibrated Age ethnographic and historic accounts concerning No. (cm) (B.P.) (B.P.) Although the contribution of meat to the the aboriginal capture and utilization of sea IVC-45 I (Upper) Md D 1.5N/39E 20-30 S73±109 600 human diet was investigated by White, the mammals in southern California. Gak-8205 I (Upper) Md B 1.5S/3E 10-20 (3,820+120) (4,100-4,450) dietary significance of fat and blubber (calories) In his study of the Nunamiuts, Binford IVC-81 I (Upper) Md B 1.SS/3E 20-30 650±45 700 was overlooked, and no proportions of available (1978) details the meat-drying techniques IVC-82 I (Upper) Md B 4.5S/22.5E 10-20 960±46 960 IVC-44 I (Upper) Md C 3N/64.5E 60-70 1,559±120 1450 fat/blubber-weights to live weights were applied by a group of Eskimos to caribou and UCLA-2559A I (Upper) Md A 3S/1.5E 30-40 (3,725+80) (4,100)* computed. Based upon botanical surveys of San sheep carcasses. The average daily UCLA-2559B I (Upper) M d A 3S/1.5E 70-80 (2,460±100) (2,450-2,750)* Nicolas Island to date (Junak 1992), the consumption of meat by humans and dogs is percentage of plant-derived carbohydrates presented in terms of pounds (live-animal UCLA-25S9C Md A 3S/1.5E 130-140 I (Lower) (4,330+120) (4,000-5,350)* (calories) in the diet of the Nicolenos would weight). This daily rate of food consumption Gak-8204 I (Lower) M d A 3S/1.5E 150-170 2,220±110 2,250 have been limited due both to the Island's small by the Nunamiut Eskimos was averaged at 1.33 Gak-8206 II Md B ON/31.5 W 10-20 3,430+130 3,650-3,950 size and restricted range of edible vegetation.
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