Christina Giovas will conduct excavation and analysis of animal remains from the archaeological sites of Grand Bay and Sabazan on the Caribbean island of Carriacou. This work will be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Donald Grayson in conjunction with the internationally directed Carriacou Archaeological Field Project. Carriacou, part of the nation of Grenada, is a small (32 km2) island located in the southern Lesser Antilles. Until the Carriacou Archaeological Field Project began its investigation here, very little was known about the island's prehistoric past. Excavation has revealed that Grand Bay and Sabazan were coastal villages, occupied from around AD 400 - 1200, where people cultivated crops, hunted and fished, built large dwelling structures, made pottery, and engaged in ceremonial activities. This research contributes to efforts to establish a basic culture historical understanding for the island and surrounding area.
Ms. Giovas will investigate the zooarchaeological record from these sites to evaluate the nature of the subsistence strategies their occupants pursued. The zooarchaeological record (bones and shells of animals discarded after consumption) represents the byproducts of human foraging activities and provides information about the types of animals people hunted, fished, and collected, the technology used to do so, the habitats exploited, and the ecological impacts incurred. The project focuses on poorly understood aspects of this foraging behavior, namely how behavioral differences shape resource exploitation strategies of groups within a larger population. For instance, will similar contexts result in similar foraging behavior? And, under what circumstances might divergent environmental impacts be expected to arise as a result? These questions are important to understanding social-historical processes as dynamic forces shaping landscapes, much as ecological forces do. Similarity in cultural and environmental constraints between research sites allows these issues to be addressed through a comparative analysis, where background variables, such as biodiversity, can be controlled. This project evaluates Grand Bay and Sabazan foraging strategies to determine if and how these differ and what cascading effects each may have had on the local ecology over time. It will enrich understanding of the most basic ways people interact with their environment, through meeting subsistence needs, and contribute to anthropological theory by explaining human behavior and decision-making in this context.
More broadly, this research has important implications for contemporary issues of species extinction and biodiversity. Enhanced understanding of how resource exploitation strategies are conditioned may allow scientists to establish more precise causal links between human actions and environmental consequences over time. Results from this research may help with management decisions in modern-day conservation biology efforts by deepening understanding of the role that prehistoric peoples played in shaping modern environments. Public outreach in Grenada will include a museum display relating findings on prehistoric diet to contemporary island foodways. Public talks will raise awareness of Carriacou's rich prehistory and the importance of community-level involvement in safeguarding this archaeological heritage. Research findings will be incorporated into teaching curricula and disseminated to the archaeological community through publication and conference presentations. Lastly, the project will provide the author continued graduate training in advanced techniques of zooarchaeological analysis.
