COASTAL SUBSISTENCE AND SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS ON THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO, USA by CARLA JANE SCHMID HADDEN (Under the Direction of Elizabeth J. Reitz) ABSTRACT This research presents a synthesis of the zooarchaeology and site seasonality data for the northern Gulf of Mexico from the Late Archaic through Woodland periods (ca. 5000 B.C. to A.D. 1100). Three questions are addressed: (1) Was the coast occupied on a seasonal basis? (2) Were there one or many coastal subsistence strategies? (3) Were coastal economies and ecosystems stable over the scale of millennia? Archaeological data suggest the coastal zone was not wholly abandoned during any season of the year, although sites varied throughout the year in terms of population density, intensity of site use, or intensity of fishing and shellfishing efforts. There were at least three patterns of animal exploitation on the Gulf Coast: specialized estuarine shellfishing, generalized estuarine fishing, and generalized marine shellfishing. Specialized estuarine shellfishing, a pattern focused on intensive exploitation of oysters, was an early and long-lived adaptation to highly productive salt marsh habitats. Subsistence strategies diversified during the Woodland period, shifting from intensive exploitation of salt marshes to extensive exploitation of an array of estuarine and marine habitats. Marked variability among contemporaneous sites over small geographic scales suggests that coastal dwellers had access to different resources by virtue of their proximity to habitats and resource patches, perhaps reflecting cultural attitudes towards access rights, ownership, and territoriality. Different resources also required different procurement techniques and technologies, and had different potential uses. These distinctions likely influenced the formation of place-based social identities, as well as involvements in local and regional exchange networks. Pre-European fisheries exhibited mild symptoms of decline, but persisted for thousands of years nonetheless. People were potentially impacting Gulf Coast fisheries from the beginning of human history in that area. However, measures of fisheries health indicate that the rate of decline of modern commercial fisheries is over a hundred times faster than in traditional subsistence fisheries. INDEX WORDS: Zooarchaeology, Weeden Island, Seasonality, Fisheries, Landscape COASTAL SUBSISTENCE AND SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS ON THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO, USA by CARLA JANE SCHMID HADDEN B.A., B.S., The University of Florida, 2007 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2015 © 2015 Carla Jane Schmid Hadden All Rights Reserved COASTAL SUBSISTENCE AND SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS ON THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO, USA by CARLA JANE SCHMID HADDEN Major Professor: Elizabeth J. Reitz Committee: Steven Holland Victor D. Thompson Stephen Kowalewski Gregory A. Waselkov Mark Williams Electronic Version Approved: Suzanne Barbour Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2015 iv DEDICATION For Bill and Phil v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks are due to those who helped me along the way. First of all, I have to thank everyone who has come before me in Gulf Coast zooarchaeology. I reviewed many datasets for this study, and in the end included only 12. Thanks to the many researchers who made their datasets available to me, whether or not I included them, and whether or not they knew it! A synthetic work such as this could not have been possible without the work of many, many people, and while I am thankful for their work, I alone am responsible for any omissions, misrepresentations, or misinterpretations herein. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, an NSF Award BCS 1026166–8 to Betsy Reitz, the University of Georgia (UGA) Graduate School Dean’s Award, the UGA Center for Archaeological Sciences Norman Herz Award, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Student Travel Grant, and the Society for American Archaeology Dienje Kenyon Fellowship. I’m grateful for everone’s contributions to this work. If I’ve omitted anyone, please be assured that this omission was inadvertent. I’d like to thank Betsy Reitz for all of our casual conversations that reminded me of the numerous ways that growing up on the coast shaped my own identity. I am also thankful for her persistent and not-so-gentle nudging, and the rest of my committee for their seemingly endless patience. Each member of my committee changed my thinking about the nature of the archaeological record, and my interpretations of it. While Mark Williams gave me permission to speculate, and Steve Holland, Steve Kowalewski, Victor Thompson, and Greg Waselkov helped keep those speculations in check. Their various perspectives and insights made me a better archaeologist, as well as a better statistician. vi I would also like to thank Greg Waselkov and Bonnie Gums and their crew at the University of South Alabama for providing invaluable logistical support and feedback throughout the development of this project. Over the years I have benefited greatly from the support, encouragement, and wisdom of Susan deFrance, Karen Walker, and Irv Quitmyer at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Ed Jackson and Susan Scott brought several important zooarchaeological projects to my attention. Susan Hewitt knows more about fighting conchs than anyone I know, and was generous with her time and knowledge. This project would not have been possible without the support and assistance of the National Park Service Southeast Archeological Center (NPS-SEAC), and Mike Russo, Thadra Stanton, Margo Schwadron, Emily Moss Powlen, and Jeff Shanks in particular. Mike, Margo, and Emily opened doors for my career in Southeastern archaeology. Mike got me started down the path of Weeden Island archaeology and introduced me to the archaeology of TAFB several years ago and provided logistical and intellectual support for this project. NPS-SEAC provided many of the tools and equipment used in the field. Mike, and Jeff, and Thadra also provided assistance in analyzing pottery and lithics. Andrew McFeaters provided access to electronic data curated at NPS-SEAC and was a pleasure to work with. Becky Saunders and Craig Dengel at Louisiana State University (LSU), and David O’Brien III at Tyndall Air Force Base (TAFB) made this project possible. Becky allowed me to tag along during the 2012 season of her field school and loaned archaeological material from the Harrison Ring Midden for analysis. She also treated me, a naïve graduate student, with unwavering patience and kindness. The project benefited greatly from the involvement of all of the 2012 LSU field school students. David Hadden, Maran E. Little, Craig Dengel, Mike Russo, and Jeffrey Shanks volunteered their time to assist me in the field. vii I’d like to thank all of the UGA Department of Anthropology faculty, staff, and students, but especially Margie Floyd and LaBau Bryan. Jen Birch helped me develop a plan during the early stages of writing. Amanda Thompson and Mark Williams allowed me to temporarily curate materials at the UGA Laboratory of Archaeology, and permitted isotopic analysis of deer remains from the Singer-Moye site. I received a lot of help and support from my fellow graduate students at the University of Georgia also. Carol Colaninno served as a sounding board for ideas and reviewed several early drafts. Jessica Cook Hale provided several of the maps used in this document. Stefan Brannan helped me select materials from his excavations at Singer-Moye. I enjoyed many conversations of an anthropological nature (broadly defined) with Carol Colaninno, Matt Compton, Stefan Branan, Pat and Amber Huff, Brandon Ritchison, Russell Cutts, Sarah Bergh, Matt Compton, Jake and Isabelle Lulewicz, KC and Travis Jones, Sakura Evans, Maran Little, John Turck, Cara Sipprelle, Jess Hamm, Joe Lanning, Sam Boring, Matt McDaniel, Lain Graham, Gretchen Eggiman, Gracie Riehm, Kristin VanderMolen, Jess Cook Hale, Tad Brown, Siavash Samei, and Katie Reinberger. Thanks to Walter Klippel, John Baker, John Slapcinsky, Gustav Paulay, Gary Rosenberg, Amanda Thompson, Stefan Brannan, Kelly Orr, Sarah Bergh, Greg Waselkov, and Mike Russo for providing access to materials and data. The participants of the Seasonality and Subsistence on the Woodland Gulf Coast symposium gave me lots of ideas, insights, and feedback: Greg Waselkov, Ed Jackson, Susan Scott, Samuel Butz, Kelly Orr, Maran Little, Trevor Duke, Tom Pluckhahn, Victor Thompson, Lori O’Neal, Karen Leone, John Krigbaum, Neill Wallis, Evan Peacock, Rinat Gabitov, Jonathan Frisch, Bradley Carlock, Kate Henderson, Laurie Steponaitis, viii and Joe Herbert. Thanks also to the attendees who participated in the discussion, especially Nancy White and Mike Russo. The Georgia Museum of Natural History, especially Betsy Reitz, Bud Freeman, Nicki Castleberry, and Kim Leissner, supported this project form the beginning. GMNH permitted me to work with several undergraduate student interns and volunteers in various stages of this research. Shelby Jarrett helped me gut, weigh, measure, and catalog hundreds of modern comparative specimens that were critical to this project. Nekhil Patel, Kelly Brown, Emma Cook, and Travis Taylor helped by washing and sorting bag after bag of archaeological shell and bone. Allison Grundel helped in various ways, and always made me smile. Emma Cook, Mary Shelley, Emily