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WAC 5
International Symposium:
The Prehistoric Cultural Ecology of the Northern Pacific Rim.
Organizing
Committee:
Jim Cassidy, Department
of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara
e-mail: jdc2@umail.ucsb.edu
and
Michael A.
Glassow, Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara
e-mail: glassow@anth.ucsb.edu
and
Nina A. Kononenko, Institute of
History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the peoples of the Far East, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Far Eastern Branch.
Presented at the
Fifth
World Archaeological Congress
Under the theme:
Past Human Environments in Modern Contexts[1]
Convened by Maximilian O. Baldia, Timothy K. Perttula, and Douglas S. Frink.
The Catholic
University of America
Washington
D.C., USA
Saturday, June
21st through Thursday, June 26th, 2003
WAC 5 is held in partnership with the Anthropology Department of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute.
SESSION ABSTRACT
Correlation Between Cultural
and Environmental Change Across the North Pacific Rim
Human populations have occupied
coastal regions of the north Pacific Rim since the Late Pleistocene, and
archaeology has revealed that prehistoric coast-dwelling populations exploited
a broad range of terrestrial, riverine, lagoonal, estuarine, and marine
resources. For the purpose of this
symposium, the north Pacific Rim is defined as extending from southeastern
Korea, north to the Bering Strait, and then south to the southern boundary of
California. In regions of the
north Pacific Rim with long records of occupation, it is evident that
prehistoric coast-dwelling peoples responded to many different kinds of
environmental change, including those caused by such factors as climatic
fluctuation, sea level rise, changes in water salinity, and infilling of
lagoons and estuaries. As well, human population growth, expansion, and
competition affected ecological relationships. Papers presented in this symposium concern three principal
topics: archaeological evidence of past coastal environments and environmental
change, human response to environmental change, and the manner in which
prehistoric cultures adjusted to new environments as populations expanded into
new territories.
ABSTRACTS
Robert E. Ackerman, Department of Anthropology
Washington State University
Early Maritime Cultures in the North Pacific Region.
Abstract:
The hypothesis of an early coastal movement into the Americas by
Beringian maritime-adapted hunter/gatherer groups has gained support from the
iscovery of several early prehistoric sites along the Pacific shores of North
and South America. Within the North Pacific coast of North America, the
position of archaeological sites relative to sea level is complex due to
variable rates of sea level rise and land emergence during the late Pleistocene
and early Holocene. In the Northwest Coast culture area of North America the
earliest maritime occupation (c. 10,000 BP) is marked by two lithic
industries: (1) a bifacial industry with projectile points whose cultural
progenitor is as yet undecided, and (2) a microblade industry with wedge shaped
microblade cores whose origins have been linked to the Paleoarctic or Beringian
tradition of Alaska and the Diuktai culture complex of Siberia. The
cultural priority of these two industries is yet to be clearly demonstrated as
are their relationships to other similarly dated cultural complexes on the
western coast of North America. Within the greater North Pacific region, a
further consideration is whether the artifact assemblages from the earliest
sites along the Pacific coast of North America and the northern and eastern
coasts of Siberia are the result of specific responses to local conditions or
are expressions of a wide-spread marine based subsistence pattern.
Roy L. Carlson, Department
of Archaeology
Simon
Fraser University
Human Response to Environmental Change on the Coast of British Columbia.
Abstract:
As a whole the culture history of
coastal British Columbia is characterized more by cultural continuity than by
disruptions caused by environmental change, although such disruptions were
probably responsible for some changes in local cultural sequences. The earliest
colonists so far discovered arrived during the cold dry Younger Dryas (12,300 -
11,400 cal BP), but are not well represented in the archaeological record until
the temperature rise of the early Holocene (11,400 - 9000 cal BP). The
environment had shifted from an herb tundra at 12,300 to a open parkland with
alder by11,400, and then by 10,300 to the dense coastal forest that has
continued with some variations in conifer genera up to the present day. The earliest known colonists had a
lithic technology similar to that of the arctic adapted Nenana Complex of
central interior Alaska, and it is probable that these colonists were hunters
who followed the caribou through the Yukon on to the coastal tundra where
caribou are known from before there is direct evidence for humans, and then
continued down the coast at least as far as the Fraser River. A second wave of
colonists may have brought microblade technology to the northern coast about
400 years later. Both isotopic and
faunal evidence indicate that these peoples were well adapted to the marine
environment of the coast by 10,000 cal BP. The process of cultural change was
one of adapting existing arctic technology to the ecological niches of the
coastal environment. This process continued as new niches evolved and were
discovered, and with population growth and circumscription of territories,
resulted in a seasonal round of resource collection at specific localities, and
the erection of permanent structures at sites suitable for storage of surpluses
and residence during the winter season. New niches that expanded during the
Holocene were the cedar forests that arrived about 6000 cal BP, and the
development of large salmon runs by 8000 cal BP which when capitalized to their
fullest extent using fish traps and preservation and storage of the catch,
permitted the development of complex societies based on wealth with social
rank, specialists in art and technology, and elaborate ceremonialism. These
developments took place between 6000 and 4000 cal BP. It has been customary in
the past to view the anadromous salmon resource as more stable than the crops
of agricultural societies whereas recent studies have shown that at least in
some parts of the salmon area there were major fluctuations in salmon abundance
in response to poorly understood climatic factors. These fluctuations may have
been responsible for discontinuities in the archaeological record of several
coastal localities in which case the human response was probably the dispersal
of population aggregates and more reliance on the localized resources of the
seasonal round, which in turn resulted in a reduction in social complexity.
Jim Cassidy;
Department of Anthropology
University of California Santa Barbara
Correlations of Climate and Culture Change in the Primorye of the Russian Far East During the Formation of Proposed Bronze Age Cultural Complexes.
Abstract
Three
competing archaeological complexes have been proposed as “Bronze Age” cultures,
spanning a 1,500 year period, for the Primorye Region of the Russian Far
East. These are the Senii Gei
Culture that occupies the continental region; the Margarita Culture that is
located on the East Coast; and the Lidovka Culture which overlaps both geographic
landscapes. The classification of
all three of these proposed “Bronze Age” archaeological cultures primarily rely
on typologies of ceramics and stone tool industries. While the Senii Gei and Lidovka excavations have yielded
small quantities of bronze artifacts and groundstone replicas of “Bronze Age”
spears and knives, the Margarita sites have yielded neither. Further, none of the three have yielded
any evidence of either the extraction of metal ores, or knowledge of
metallurgical smelting processes.
Based on fieldwork conducted in the Primorye Region over the last five
years, this paper will review the archaeological evidence pertaining to these
three cultures from an ecological perspective. Specific attention will be given to potential changes in
cultural patterns as a result of influences from climatic oscillations, sea
level fluctuations, and the alteration of coastal resources regimes. It is proposed that alterations of the
Primorye climate and ecology resulted in the disruption of longstanding
cultural traditions and facilitated the rapid formation of new subsistence
strategies and a corresponding alteration of social interaction spheres.
Michael A. Glassow
Department of Anthropology
University of California Santa Barbara
Variation in Coastal Adaptation During
the Middle Holocene Prehistory of the Santa Barbara Channel, California
Abstract
About 6000 years ago populations living
along the Santa Barbara Channel began to intensify their use of marine
resources as well as certain terrestrial plant resources. These changes occur at a time when
population numbers appears to have increased significantly after a millennium
or more of relatively low density.
Available evidence, however, indicates that dependence on marine
resources, including nearshore fish, pinnipeds, and small cetaceans, varied
between the northern Channel Islands and the mainland, as well as along the
coastlines of both the islands and mainland. As well, data from a site on Santa Cruz Island reveals that
some degree of resource intensification occurred during the interval between
6000 and 5000 years ago.
Alternative and perhaps complementary explanations for the geographic
and temporal variation entail change in the marine environment, population
growth, and expansion of populations from beyond the Santa Barbara
Channel. Evaluation of alternative
explanations is difficult due to vagaries in archaeological and paleoenvironmental
data.
Fumiko Ikawa-Smith
Department of Anthropology
McGill University, Canada
The Japanese Archipelago towards the end of the Pleistocene
Abstract:
During the periods of glacial expansion, the Japanese
archipelago formed along peninsular projection on the northeastern Pacific Rim,
encircling the much reduced Sea of Japan, which may have been a lake at times,
and certainly a large bay opening to the south at the southern end of the
Korean Peninsula most of the time. Indirect evidence for navigational
capability , based on X-ray fluorescence analyses of lithic materials, exists
for the sparsely distributed population that inhabited the region some 30,000
years ago. The marked increase in the number of archaeological sites during the
period leading to the Last Glacial Maximum probably indicates an influx of
human groups as environmental conditions deteriorated in the interior of
Eurasia. Then follows a period of rapid cultural change, resulting in
technological and stylistic diversity of archaeological assemblages. New
technologies that appear in this context include the microblade production and
pottery making, that first appear around
24,000-23,000 and about 16,500 calendar years ago, respectively.
Utilization of anadromous fish is associated with the occurrences of
microblades and ceramic vessels at some of the sites dating to about 13,000
cal. BP, while shell-middens, containing a wide range of inshore and ocean fish
species, abound after about 10,000 calendar years ago.
Nina A. Kononenko
Institute of History, Archaeology and
Ethnology of the peoples of the Far East
Russian Academy of Sciences
Far Eastern Branch
On the
Earliest Evidence of Marine Resource Exploitation in the Russian Far East.
Abstract
The beginning of
maritime adaptation among the prehistoric cultures of the Russian Far East have
focused upon several problem, including environmental change, identification of
early coastal populations, the transition from land-based hunter-gatherer
subsistence practices to the exploitation of river and littoral resources, and
accompanying changes in social organization and technology. Global warming at the Late
Pleistocene-Early Holocene transition altered paleo-coastal landscapes through
an increase in plant and animal diversity, rising sea levels, the inundation of
the coastal plane and the formation of ingression bays. In this altered
landscape, early sites exhibiting the use of both river and marine resources
have been found as far inland as 30 km from the coast. These include the sites of
Ustinovka in the Zerkalnaya River Basin dated between 12,000 and 9,500 BP and
the Rudnaya Early Neolithic culture (7,500-6,000 BP). The presence of bifacial
tools, stone fish effigy, early ceramics, simple ground dwellings and lithic
caches at the Ustinovka-3 site suggests that this site functioned as a seasonal
base camp for a population with a hunting-gathering and fishing economy. The
Early Neolithic sites are located just one river valley north of the Zerkalnaya
Basin and exhibit close cultural affinity to the Ustinovka cultural tradition.
The site Rudnaya-Pristan is located 4 km from the coast and possesses pit house
structures where the inventory clearly points to well developed fishing,
hunting, and gathering of terrestrial and littoral resources. A second important Rudnaya site is found
at Chertova Vorota cave, situated about 30 km inland. This contained a three
ground structures, an abundance of pottery, and artifacts made from stone,
bone, and marine shell; including a sea mammal effigy. The rich faunal assemblage from the
cave reflects the full diversity of potential terrestrial, riverine and marine
resources available in this landscape. All of this suggests that the northern
Sea of Japan was favorable for the onset of maritime adaptations at least from
the Early Holocene period.
Sarah M. Nelson
Department of Anthropology
University of Denver
Cultural and Environmental Change in Coastal Korea
Abstract:
Some coastal sites in Korea have been
inhabited since the Pleistocene.
Sites on the east coast tend to be found near fresh-water lagoons, but
in the southeast the sites are often on islands. This paper considers differences in subsistence adaptations
along the long relatively straight northeast coast and the multiple islands in
the south, not only in terms of micro-adaptations but also change through time
at specific sites. Even after the
spread of plant and animal domestication throughout the Korean peninsula,
coastal sites continued to be oriented toward the sea.
Yuri E. Vostretsov
Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of
the peoples of the Far East
Russian Academy of Sciences
Far Eastern Branch
Environmental Changes and Migrations: Case of Study
Abstract:
The North-Western part of the Sea of
Japan basin is characterized by a combination of both subtropical and
sub-arctic climatic influences, complicated coastal and continental relief, and
opposing streams of hot and cold ocean currents. These conditions resulted in a
highly patchy ecological landscape. Climatic occilations and resulting
fluctuations in sea levels during the Middle Holocene were of importance factor
involved in the appearance and interaction of both terrestrial and coastal
forms of prehistoric adaptations. In addition to fluctuating ecological
conditions, processes of population migration also played a role. When cycles of dramatic ecological
changes served to compromise local subsistence patterns, then the migrations of
populations took place. Migrants
introduced new cultural traditions of adaptation to a region that resulted in
changes in the trajectory of cultural evolutions. The simultaneous interaction of both ecological and
migratory processes resulted in significant changes in the local subsistence
systems, settlement patterns and demographic distribution of populations during
the Middle Holocene.
David R. Yesner
University of Alaska Anchorage
and
Alexander N. Popov
Museum
Far Eastern State University
Paleoecology of the Boisman Culture in North Pacific Perspective
Abstract:
The evolution of maritime adaptations
in northeast Asia occurred against a backdrop of climate and sea level change
that has previously been well documented for the Jomon culture of Japan, where
the beginnings of coastal lifeways extend to at least 9,500 C14 yr BP. Such changes have been slower to be
recognize in the Russian Far East, but it is now clear that coastal lifeways
probably extend back to 8,500 yr BP in Primorie, although the first
well-preserved evidence occurs with the Boisman Early Neolithic Culture of ca.
6,500 yr BP. As in the Jomon
culture, there is evidence for a combination of shellfish collection, fishing,
bird hunting, sea mammal hunting, and whale scavenging. The Boisman cultural florescence
coincides with the so-called “Jomon Transgression,” in which numbers of coastal
sites flourish across the Sea of Japan.
In both areas it has also been suggested to coincide with a period of
climatic cooling, which in the Japanese case has been linked to increased sea
mammal hunting activities.
Although once in dispute, the Boisman culture definitively involved sea
mammal hunting as reflected in faunal remains and harpoon styles. Some of the latter styles are highly
coincident with those of the Early Ocean Bay Culture of Kodiak Island and the
Alaska Peninsula, dated to the same time period, which may suggest widespread
cultural teleconnections; intervening sites have probably been lost to sea
level rise in an area of a broad continental shelf. After 5,000 yr BP, the Boisman Culture disappears in
conjunction with a marine regression, but a second major marine transgression
in Late Jomon/Yankovsky Culture times (around 2,000 yr BP) may be associated
with even stronger climatic cooling that may have increased sea ice, decreased
shellfish populations, and created impetus both for increased sea mammal
hunting and the acceptance of agriculture originating in the north Chinese
basin.
Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.
For additional WAC
information go to http://wwwehlt.flinders.edu.au/wac5/indexhomepage.html