Prehistoric and Ancient Historic Interactions Between Humans and Marine Turtles

1123_C01.fm Page 1 Thursday, November 14, 2002 11:23 AM 1 Prehistoric and Ancient Historic Interactions between Humans and Marine Turtles Jack Frazier CONTENTS 1.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................1 1.2 Zooarchaeology: Archaeological Specimens of Marine Turtles ....................2 1.2.1 Zooarchaeological Remains in the Mediterranean, Arabian Peninsula, and Indian Ocean Basin ......................................................................3 1.2.2 Zooarchaeological Remains in the Western Hemisphere ..................6 1.2.3 Summary of Zooarchaeological Remains ........................................18 1.3 Archaeology: Cultural Artifacts Related to Marine Turtles .........................19 1.3.1 Cultural Artifacts of Marine Turtles in Arabia and the Middle East ...........................................................................19 1.3.2 Cultural Artifacts of Marine Turtles in the Western Hemisphere.....22 1.3.3 Summary of Cultural Artifacts of Marine Turtles ...........................25 1.4 Ancient Historic Accounts of Human–Turtle Interactions ..........................26 1.5 Conclusions and Discussion .........................................................................29 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................31 References................................................................................................................31 1.1 INTRODUCTION A usual opening for descriptions about marine turtles is to announce proudly that they have been around for hundreds of millions of years, and have outlived even the dinosaurs. Our species, of course, has been on the planet for much less time, just a few hundred thousand years; commonly there has been a tacit assumption that interactions between these ancient reptiles and people have really only become significant in historic or contemporary times. The object of this chapter is to explore the antiquity and complexity of human–turtle relations by providing a summary 0-8493-1123-3/03/$0.00+$1.50 © 2003 by CRC Press LLC 1 1123_C01.fm Page 2 Thursday, November 14, 2002 11:23 AM 2 Biology of Sea Turtles, Volume II and synthesis of widely scattered information on prehistoric and ancient historic interactions between marine turtles and people in different societies, in different parts of the world. The information is grouped into three principal themes: zooarchaeology (or archaeozoology), cultural artifacts, and ancient textual accounts. The following summaries do not pretend to be complete; they focus on two separate geographic regions for which relatively large amounts of information are readily available: one is the western Indian Ocean basin, particularly the Arabian Peninsula; the other is the southeast U.S., Caribbean, and Yucatán Peninsula areas. As a result, vast regions have been omitted or very superficially covered in this review, namely the shores of Africa, Asia, Mediterranean, Oceania, and much of South and Central America. For the time period, it was arbitrarily decided to use the European conquest of the Americas as an end point. This means that there is a gap of half a millennium between this chapter and Chapter 12, which focuses on contemporary issues. As a result, valuable ethnographies that detail and elucidate human–turtle interactions in numerous societies around the world are omitted. Accounts of societies in which marine turtles play, or have played, central roles — the Carancahua of coastal Texas (Hammond, 1891), the Miskito of Caribbean Hon- duras and Nicaragua (Nietschmann, 1973; 1979), the Seri (or Comcaac) of the Sea of Cortez (Felger and Moser, 1991; Nabhan et al., 1999), the Vezo of western Madagascar (Astuti, 1995), Renaissance Christian-pagan comportments in the Med- iterranean (Maffei, 1995), and nineteenth-century ladies of high society in Buenos Aires (Gudiño, 1986), to name but a few — are simply not included here. However, Thorbjarnarson et al. (2000) provide a recent review of human use of marine turtles from around the world, focusing mainly on the last few centuries. As Campbell (Chapter 12) explains, it is much easier to appreciate “culture” when it is distinct from one’s own. Another common conception of culture is that it is something to be displayed, as in a museum. The accounts in this chapter are very much about “other” cultures: those that were part of societies that no longer exist, and those that produced curious artifacts from bygone days that are routinely put on display. If we can appreciate better the diversity of ways in which people and marine turtles have interacted over the ages, by focusing on the other cultures, perhaps it will enlighten our view of contemporary and future relations between Homo sapiens and these marine reptiles. 1.2 ZOOARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS OF MARINE TURTLES As zooarchaeologists have explained, “animal remains from archaeological sites represent not only a piece of nature but more significantly, the relationship between culture and the natural environment” (Hamblin, 1984:17). The data allow for analy- ses of types and intensities of utilization, in relation to past cultures and their environments, providing insights into prehistoric subsistence strategies (Wing and Reitz, 1982: 14; see also Daly, 1969: 146). Not only are marine turtle remains distinctive, but the bones are large and relatively robust, making them resistant to degradation after death, and hence available to zooarchaeological investigations. 1123_C01.fm Page 3 Thursday, November 14, 2002 11:23 AM Prehistoric and Ancient Historic Interactions 3 However, there has been no systematic compilation of marine turtle remains in archaeological sites. Even so, a rapid review of the literature clearly illustrates diverse prehistoric human interactions with these animals from around the world. For the present study, we will focus on only a few select geographic areas. Typically, fragments of the bony carapace dominate the zooarchaeological specimens that are recovered, which may or may not have relevance to cultural aspects at the time when the bones were deposited. One way or the other, these specimens are rarely identifiable beyond the family level. To date, nearly all — if not all — zooarchaeological specimens have been identified as belonging to the taxonomic family of hard-shelled marine turtles, Cheloniidae; there appear to be few, if any, records from the family Dermochelyidae. 1.2.1 ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, ARABIAN PENINSULA, AND INDIAN OCEAN BASIN Some of the oldest evidence of interactions between humans and marine turtles comes from the Arabian Peninsula and other nearby localities (Table 1.1). Dalma Island, United Arab Emirates (UAE), has a habitational site dating to about 5000 B.C.E.,1 and fragments of cheloniid turtles were reported from several layers (Beech, 2000). Another Ubaid2 site of about the same age, at As-Sabiyah, Kuwait, has also yielded marine turtle bones (Beech, 2002). Mediterranean remains, although not quite as old, also date back millennia; a fragment of the plastron of a cheloniid turtle (possibly Chelonia mydas, the green turtle) was recovered from the Early Bronze age site (about 3600–3300 B.C.E.) of Afridar on the Israeli coast near Ashkelon (Whitcher-Kansa, in press). Several sites in eastern Arabia have yielded bones of marine turtles, often in relatively large numbers. Characteristically on the seashore, many of these sites have been identified as Bronze Age, and some have been dated at more than 3000 years B.C.E. Among the oldest are Abu Khamis, at Ras az-Zor (or Ras as-Zoror), Saudi Arabia, one of a number of Ubaid sites on the Arabian Gulf (Masry, 1974), and Ra’s al-Hamra, on the Batnah coast of Oman, both dated to about 3500 B.C.E. At the latter site, remains of marine turtles are found on the ancient surface of the site, and shallow graves often include animal remains, usually fish or turtle: “The shell of the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) was more common in the graves than the remains of any other animal, and thus seems to have had particular significance for the ancient inhabitants of Ra’s al-Hamra” (Potts, 1990: 71; see also Durante and Tosi, 1977). Elsewhere in Oman there are relatively large numbers of marine turtle remains at Ras al-Junayz that date from 4000 to 2000 B.C.E. (Bökönyi, 1992) and at Ra’s al- Hadd, a Bronze age site dating to about 2000 years B.C.E. (Mosseri-Marlio, 1998). 1 The time scale is divided into B.C.E., before the common era, or before 2000 years ago, and C.E., common era. 2 The term “Ubaid,” which derives from the small ancient site of Al’ Ubaid (or “Tell al Ubaid”) near the Sumerian city of Ur along the banks of the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq, is used to refer to a particular pottery style, as well as an associated cultural period in Mesopotamia and the Arabian Gulf, and usually dated from about 5500–4000 C.D.E. (Oates, et. al., 1977; Moorey, 1994; xix; Potts, 1997:xi- xii; Postgate, in litt. 4 June 2002). 1123_C01.fm Page4Thursday,November14,200211:23AM 4 TABLE 1.1 Summary of Marine Turtle Remains in the Arabian Gulf, Mediterranean, and Western Indian Ocean Site Period and Estimated Date Species* Remarks Source Arabian Gulf Ubaid Dalma Is. UAE 5000 B.C.E. chl Habitational site Beech, 2000 As-Sabiya, Kuwait ~5000 B.C.E. chl Beech, 2002 Mediterranean Bronze Age Afridar, Israel 3600–3300 B.C.E. Cm? Whitcher-Kansa, in press Arabian Gulf Bronze Age Abu Khamas, Saudi Arabia 3500 B.C.E. Reported as “Ubaid” Masry, 1974 Ra’s al-Hamra, Oman 3500 B.C.E. Cm Most common animal remains in Durante and Tosi, 1980; Potts, 1990 graves Ra’s al-Junayz, Oman 4000–2000 B.C.E. Cm? >3400 turtle bones Bökönyi, 1992 Ra’s al-Hadd, Oman 2000 B.C.E. Cm? >3000 fragments; signs of butchery Mosseri-Marlio, 1998 and burning Umm an-Nar, Abu Dhabi 2700 B.C.E. Cm?> 4000 turtle bones Hoch, 1979; 1995 Arabian Gulf Dilmun II Volume Biology ofSeaTurtles, Tell Abraq, Abu Dhabi 2200–300 B.C.E. Cm >3100 fragments Stephan, 1995; Potts, 2000; Uerpmann, 2001 Ghanda Island, UAE ~2300 B.C.E. chl Yasin Al-Tikkriti, 1985 Qala’at al Bahrain, Bahrain 2150–1900 B.C.E.

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