With support from the National Science Foundation, and full support from the identified Native American Most Likely Descendant (MLD), Drs. Jelmer Eerkens and Eric Bartelink will conduct stable isotope analysis on nearly 250 prehistoric human skeletons recently excavated from the Marsh Creek site (CA-CCO-548). The site is located in the Delta region of central California and the burials date to approximately 4500-3000 years ago, a window of time often referred to as "Windmiller" or the "Early Period."
The Early Period is generally recognized as the time when societies in the Delta began to settle down and establish permanent villages, a process known as sedentism. It is unclear if this transition occurred abruptly or developed over hundreds or even thousands of years. The main goal of the research is to examine the effects of sedentism on human populations, as reflected in stable isotope data. Moreover, with AMS radiocarbon dates on the majority of the burials, the data will be collected at a fine-scale level that will reveal how quickly the transition occurred.
There are three main components to the research that provide life-history data for individuals buried at Marsh Creek. The first seeks to understand the effects of sedentism on diet, as reflected in stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. As societies settled down, archaeologists predict increasing plant and small fish consumption (r-selected species). The second examines the effects of sedentism on migration and post-marital residence patterns, as reflected in strontium isotopes. If people increasingly relied on plants and small fishes, archaeologists predict an increased reliance on, and value in, womens labor, and by extension, matrilocality (where men, after marriage, move to the women's village to live and raise families). The third explores the effects of sedentism on weaning as determined by nitrogen isotope analysis of teeth. If women were working harder, the prediction is earlier ages at weaning, which should concomitantly decrease inter-birth intervals and ultimately lead to population increase.
The broader impacts of the study will contribute novel information to California prehistory that will shed light on longstanding archaeological issues such as the origins and correlates of sedentism among hunter-gatherer cultures. Using newly developed analytical techniques, it will demonstrate the value of archaeometric and bioarchaeological research in reconstructing the past. This will be the first isotopic migration study on human burials from California. Likewise, this is the first study to examine ancient weaning patterns in this region. Anthropology faculty and graduate and undergraduate students will all contribute to the project, which will provide an avenue for training the next generation in new analytical methods. Finally, the site is within the John Marsh property owned by California State Parks. A visitor's center including archaeological and ethnographic displays will be constructed in the near future. With the support of the MLD, the project results and visitor's center will provide a venue for archaeologists, Native Californians, and the general public to interact, dialogue, learn about and bring alive California's past.
