Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2004 An Analysis of Faunal Remains from the Bird Hammock Site (8WA30) Claire Elizabeth Nanfro Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AN ANALYSIS OF FAUNAL REMAINS FROM THE BIRD HAMMOCK SITE (8Wa30) By CLAIRE ELIZABETH NANFRO A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2004 The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Claire Elizabeth Nanfro defended on August 12, 2004. ___________________________________ Rochelle Marrinan Professor Directing Thesis ___________________________________ Glen Doran Committee Member ___________________________________ William Parkinson Committee Member Approved: _________________________________________ Dean Falk, Chair, Department of Anthropology The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables v List of Figures vi Abstract vii 1.CHAPTER ONE:INTRODUCTION 1 2.CHAPTER TWO:LITERATURE, METHOD, AND THEORY 6 Chronology and Culture History 6 The Woodland Period 6 Methodological and Theoretical Overview 10 Introduction 10 Faunal Remains and Archaeological Theory 11 Methodology (NISP, MNI, Biomass) 12 Introduction 12 NISP Defined 12 NISP Critique 13 MNI Defined 14 MNI Critique 15 Biomass Defined 16 Biomass Critique 16 Conclusion 17 3.CHAPTER THREE:THE NATURAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT OF BIRD HAMMOCK 18 The Natural Environment, Location, and Features of Site Locality 18 Bird Hammock Site History 21 Overview of Excavation and Recovery Techniques 24 4.CHAPTER FOUR:THE SELECTED FAUNAL SAMPLE 26 Feature 1 27 Feature 2 28 Feature 3 29 Feature 4 30 Lab and Analysis Methods 32 5.CHAPTER FIVE: ANALYSIS 33 Introduction 33 Feature 1 35 Feature 2 36 Feature 3 38 Feature 4 39 Level 5 41 Comparison of Features and Level 42 iii Vertebrate and Invertebrate Faunal Classes 44 Diversity and Equitability 50 6.CHAPTER SIX:INTERPRETATION OF THE SAMPLE 53 Introduction 53 Patterns of Use at Bird Hammock 53 Examination of Diet/ Resource Exploitation 54 Environmental Exploitation 55 Methods of Procurement 57 Site Comparisons 58 Modeling the Behavior of Bird Hammock’s Inhabitants 67 7.CHAPTER SEVEN:SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECCOMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 69 APPENDICES 73 BIBLIOGRAPHY 94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 102 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Assigned Field Specimen Numbers 32 Table 5.1 Standard Analysis Measures for the Selected Faunal Assemblage 34 Table 5.2 Feature 1 Faunal Remains by Class 35 Table 5.3 Feature 2 Faunal Remains by Class 36 Table 5.4 Feature 3 Faunal Remains by Class 38 Table 5.5 Feature 4 Faunal Remains by Class 39 Table 5.6 Level 5 Faunal Remains by Class 41 Table 5.7 Species Presence/ Absence List for Features and Level 43 Table 5.8 Seasonal Mean Shell Height 49 Table 5.9 Diversity and Equitability Data 51 Table 6.1 Site Comparison by Taxa 59 Table 6.2 Snow Beach Comparative Level 62 Table 6.3 MNI Calculations from the Melton Site (From Cumbaa 1972) 64 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Early Weeden Island Sites in Northwest Florida (After Milanich 1994:165) 3 Figure 2.1 Deptford, Swift Creek, and Santa Rosa Swift Creek Sites in In Northwest Florida (After Milanich 1994:121) 7 Figure 2.2 Weeden Island Cultures (After Milanich 1994:161 8 Figure 3.1 Mound b and Surrounding Vegetation (Phelps Photo # 15-3 FSU Department of Anthropology Archaeological Collections) 19 Figure 3.2 Salt Marsh Food Chain (After Montague and Wiegert 1990:495) 21 Figure 3.3 Bird Hammock Site Map (After Bense 1969:80-81) 23 Figure 4.1 Excavation Unit -160L45 Level 5 South Profile (Bense Photo # 34-64 FSU Department of Anthropology Archaeological Collections 26 Figure 4.2 Feature 1 (-160L45) Showing Scapula and Vertebrae (Bense Photo # 34-8 FSU Department of Anthropology Archaeological Collections) 27 Figure 4.3 Excavation Unit -160L45 Feature 1 Level 2 (Bense Offical Plot 1968) 28 Figure 4.4 Feature 2 Excavation Unit -160L45 Shell and Bone Concentration (Bense Official Plot 1968) 29 Figure 4.5 Feature 3 (-160L45) Burned Area (Bense Official Plot 1968) 30 Figure 4.6 Feature 4 (-150L45) Level 4 Showing Numerous Pits and Burned Areas (Bense Official Plot 1968) 31 Figure 5.1 Average Shell Heights by Features/ Level 50 vi ABSTRACT This study examines Middle to Late Woodland subsistence practices in the Gulf coastal zone through faunal analysis of the archaeological features excavated at the Bird Hammock site (8Wa30). Bird Hammock was excavated by Judith Bense in 1968 under the direction of David Phelps. She concluded that the site was occupied by Late Swift Creek (A.D. 150 – 350) and Early Weeden Island (A.D. 200 – 1000) peoples. Bense’s thesis focused on ceramic and lithic analysis, but contained only a preliminary faunal identification. Because faunal studies and zooarchaeology were just beginning to be developed, Bense did not quantify the faunal remains. A primary goal of this study, therefore, is to quantify the faunal remains utilizing modern zooarchaeological methods. Vertebrate and invertebrate remains from four features, and one comparative midden level, were selected and analyzed. Using these data, and a sample of comparative sites, a secondary goal of this thesis is to model Middle to Late Woodland subsistence practices in the Gulf coastal zone of Florida. vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION This study presents an analysis and interpretation of the faunal remains recovered from the Bird Hammock site (8WA30). The site has been the subject of two masters theses (Bense 1969; Penton 1970) based on excavations under the direction of David S. Phelps, then a member of the Department of Anthropology faculty at Florida State University. The purpose of this study is to define and further describe subsistence patterns, particularly faunal utilization, originally presented by Bense (1969). When Bense wrote her thesis, zooarchaeological studies were just emerging. She noted then that a complete identification of faunal remains was impossible due to a lack of comparative materials (Bense 1969:52). Utilizing current zooarchaeological methodology, I intend to refine Bense’s original characterization of the subsistence practices of the people of Bird Hammock, and to use the Bird Hammock data to create a model of Middle to Late Woodland subsistence in the Gulf coastal zone. Middle Woodland sites such as Kolomoki, McKeithen, and Letchworth serve as examples of the level of political and ceremonial complexity that Swift Creek and Weeden Island cultures attained, while maintaining a subsistence base ostensibly lacking agriculture. These Middle Woodland ceremonial centers have received considerable research attention in recent years (Sears 1956; Pluckhahn 2003; Milanich et al. 1984, Tesar et al. 2003), but the researchers have specifically focused on the mounds and earthworks, rather than habitation areas (Anderson 1998:282). This is yet another reason why it is prudent to reexamine the Bird Hammock site. Seemingly occupied year round, Bird Hammock can be viewed as a small village with two adjacent burial mounds, and thus offers a glimpse of the daily lifeways of Late Swift Creek and Early Weeden Island peoples in the coastal zone. Along with Bird Hammock, work by Bense (1998) at the Bernath and Horseshoe Bayou sites and Snow (1977) in the Ocmulgee River Valley is correcting this bias in Middle Woodland studies. A second kind of bias involves the current heightened degree of interest among archaeologists in Mississippian culture and lifeways, but less concern for the cultural accomplishments that precede it. Mississippian cultures, however, cannot truly be examined without understanding the cultures and traditions that supported their 1 development. The Woodland period along the Gulf coast can be viewed as societies that maintained hunting and gathering – based economies and social systems, but at the same time adapted to the changes that occurred during this time period. Greater populations, heightened pressure on environmental resources, and greater spheres of contact all played a major role in the transition from Woodland to Mississippian cultures. In the Gulf coast region of Florida, however, hunting, gathering, and fishing played an important role up to the time of contact (Marrinan personal communication 2004). Through subsistence studies, models of Middle Woodland lifeways seem different from their agriculturally based Mississippian descendants, in that Swift Creek and Weeden Island cultures continued to rely on hunting, gathering, fishing, and perhaps cultivating certain plants. Milanich (1994:145) characterizes the subsistence practices of Swift Creek villages located in coastal salt marsh-tidal stream systems as focusing predominately on resources available in these locations. Phelps (in Milanich 1994: 145) estimated that 95 percent of their meat diet came from fish and shellfish and, like the preceding Deptford culture, they supplemented this fish/shellfish diet by hunting and collecting terrestrial animals. At Bird Hammock, Bense (1969:61) concluded that a wide range of faunal exploitation occurred. She suggested that fish constituted 50 percent of the total faunal remains, and were “the most abundant single source of food” (Bense 1969:61). At this point the reader expects research questions derived from the initial