Temporal variability in shell mound formation at Albatross Bay, northern Australia

Autor: Fiona Petchey, Simon Holdaway, Patricia C. Fanning, Geoffrey N. Bailey, Justin Shiner, Kasey Allely
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Stratigraphy
lcsh:Medicine
Social Sciences
Albatross
History
18th Century
01 natural sciences
Deposition (geology)
law.invention
Geographical Locations
law
Animal Products
Medicine and Health Sciences
0601 history and archaeology
Radiocarbon dating
Carbon Radioisotopes
lcsh:Science
History
Ancient
Multidisciplinary
060102 archaeology
biology
Fossils
Geology
Agriculture
06 humanities and the arts
Radioactive Carbon Dating
Oceanography
Archaeology
Bays
Research Article
010506 paleontology
Bivalves
Meat
Oceania
Shell (structure)
Research and Analysis Methods
Animal Shells
Animals
Chemical Characterization
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Isotope Analysis
Nutrition
lcsh:R
fungi
Australia
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
Molluscs
Bivalvia
biology.organism_classification
Invertebrates
Diet
Food
Northern australia
Archaeological Dating
People and Places
Earth Sciences
lcsh:Q
Bay
Zdroj: PLoS ONE
PLoS ONE, Vol 12, Iss 8, p e0183863 (2017)
ISSN: 1932-6203
Popis: We report the results of 212 radiocarbon determinations from the archaeological excavation of 70 shell mound deposits in the Wathayn region of Albatross Bay, Australia. This is an intensive study of a closely co-located group of mounds within a geographically restricted area in a wider region where many more shell mounds have been reported. Valves from the bivalve Tegillarca granosa (Linnaeus, 1758) were dated. The dates obtained are used to calculate rates of accumulation for the shell mound deposits. These demonstrate highly variable rates of accumulation both within and between mounds. We assess these results in relation to likely mechanisms of shell deposition and show that rates of deposition are affected by time-dependent processes both during the accumulation of shell deposits and during their subsequent deformation. This complicates the interpretation of the rates at which shell mound deposits appear to have accumulated. At Wathayn, there is little temporal or spatial consistency in the rates at which mounds accumulated. Comparisons between the Wathayn results and those obtained from shell deposits elsewhere, both in the wider Albatross Bay region and worldwide, suggest the need for caution when deriving behavioural inferences from shell mound deposition rates, and the need for more comprehensive sampling of individual mounds and groups of mounds.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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