Woodland-period fisheries on the north-central coast of the Gulf of Mexico

ABSTRACT

Despite the prevalence of Woodland-period middens on the Gulf of Mexico’s northern coast, Woodland fisheries remain poorly known. Vertebrate and invertebrate assemblages from Plash Island (1BA134; cal AD 325–640) and Bayou St. John (1BA21; cal AD 650–1040) suggest this period was more than a prelude to Mississippian farming. Much of the coastal Woodland economy centered on reliable, productive estuarine resources, particularly molluscs and fishes that provided communities with multiple options in a resilient strategy employed for at least 700 years. A nuanced interpretation of coastal life as an array of flexible, managed responses to a dynamic estuarine environment is more plausible than a model that postulates seasonal abandonment of a productive coastal territory and valuable gear. We posit a more parsimonious interpretation: residents of Woodland fishing villages on the north-central Gulf coast skillfully and flexibly managed the opportunities and challenges of complex multi-season, year-round fisheries.

KEYWORDS:

• Coastal fisheries
• north-central Gulf of Mexico
• Woodland period
• Weeden Island
• Mobile Bay
• zooarchaeology

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions made to this study by Kevin S. Gibbons, Kelly L. Orr, and Maran E. Little (Georgia Museum of Natural History, University of Georgia); Robert J. Speakman, Alexander Cherkinsky, and Cristin Lucas (University of Georgia’s Center for Applied Isotope Studies); Raven Christopher and Tara Potts (Center for Archaeological Studies, University of South Alabama); and Evan Peacock, Jonathan Frisch, Rinat Gabitov, Bradley Carlock, and Kate Henderson (Mississippi State University). We also are grateful for the assistance of Georgia Museum of Natural History interns Erica Barton, Elizabeth Devasia, Alexandra Emmons, Austin Guy Garner, Amanda Knapp, Amber Knowles, Nekhil Patel, Rachel Sussman, Charlsie Thomas, and Claire Woestmann. In addition, Kelly Ard, Sarah Hill, Joe Lambert, Ginny Newberry, and Gabrielle Purcell provided invaluable aid. Figure 1 was drafted by Susan Duser. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thoughtful and constructive comments by Rebecca Saunders and two anonymous reviewers guided our editorial revisions. Finally, we thank the Caswell Development Company, LLC (Tom Mitchell), Welter Development LLC (Tom Mitchell and Janet Cobb), and Leonard Kaiser (Kaiser Realty) for supporting excavations at our study sites.

Data availability statement

Data are provided within the text or supplemental files. Isotopic data are available in Hadden et al. (2021). Materials and records are curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies, University of South Alabama.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Research was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of Collaborative Research Project: Woodland Subsistence Seasonality on the Northern Gulf Coast (Award #BCS 1026167), to Andrus, Reitz, and Waselkov, and by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Hadden.

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth J. Reitz

Elizabeth J. Reitz, professor emerita at the University of Georgia, studies the consequences of human use of marine resources at sites dating from the Late Pleistocene into the twentieth century throughout the Americas.

Carla S. Hadden

Carla S. Hadden is Director of the the University of Georgia’s Center for Applied Isotope Studies, where she specializes in geochemical studies of archaeological shells, teeth, and bones. Her research interests include radiocarbon dating method development, environmental archaeology, and the role of humans as ecosystems engineers.

Gregory A. Waselkov

Gregory A. Waselkov, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of South Alabama, studies ancient coastal adaptations, especially at shell midden sites in southeastern North America. His other research interests include human-animal interactions, colonialism, and revitalization movements.

C. Fred T. Andrus

C. Fred T. Andrus, professor of geological sciences at the University of Alabama, focuses on paleontology, paleoclimatology, and paleoecology as revealed through isotopic and elemental archives in carbonate structures. He is particularly interested in the influence of climate on organisms and ecosystems.