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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