The focus of this doctoral dissertation research project is to reconstruct the roles that coastal Native American societies played in the establishment and transformation of nearshore estuarine ecosystems. Previous geoscientific and archaeological work has studied the evolution of estuaries as non-anthropogenic or ‘pre-anthropogenic’ ecotones, and conceptualized Indigenous maritime societies as passive inhabitants of bountiful and dynamic environments. This dissertation research will integrate geoarchaeological and paleoecological approaches to reconceptualize coastal peoples as ecosystem engineers and tidal estuarine habitats as the products of deep-time human-environmental interaction. This dissertation research will produce historical reconstructions for the process of marine transgression along the Gulf Coastal strand, knowledge of estuary management by Native Americans, and pre-industrial baseline data for measuring modern sea-level rise and historical degradation.
The project will investigate the general hypothesis that ancient Indigenous societies engineered nearshore ecosystems through the construction and maintenance of terraformed shellworks. The research will be conducted at several well-preserved archaeological complexes along a large open-water estuary system that was intensively occupied by Native American populations. Sedimentological, paleobotanical, and radiocarbon analyses on sediment cores and archaeological excavation units will be correlated to reconstruct the geological and ecological relationships between Indigenous shell-terraforming and the establishment of protected, low-energy intertidal habitats. Feedbacks between anthropogenic habitat modification, subsistence production, and the emplacement of civic architecture will be assessed by comparing the core records with zooarchaeological assemblages and construction sequences of midden-mounds. This interdisciplinary dataset will contribute to improved ecological and anthropological understanding of intertidal ecosystems. The study will be carried out in consultation with local and regional land managers and conservation agencies with the explicit intent that results and research products may be integrated into management, conservation, and restoration planning.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
