Thesis (Ph.D.)--Vanderbilt University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Os dados obtidos da topografia, da geomorfologia, do sensoriamento remoto para a região do Camacho, litoral sul de Santa Catarina, foram reunidos e integrados no SIG GRASS. Durante a ocupação desta região pela população pré-histórica, de aproximadamente 5000 anos Antes do Presente (anos AP) até 1000 anos AP, o nível médio marinho local caiu aproximadamente 2m. Como a região é muito plana, esta regressão implicou em uma grande alteração da extensão da laguna, e, portanto, da área para coleta de moluscos e para pesca. O tipo e o tamanho dos peixes capturados, cujos restos podem ser encontrados nos sítios arquológicos deixados por este povo, permitem concluir que provavelmente os antigos moradores possuiam tecnologia de pesca, como barcos e redes. Ao redor da laguna estão espalhados mais de 50 sambaquis, alguns com centenas de milhares de metros cúbicos de volume. Pesquisa em alguns destes sítios mostram que tinham a função de cemitérios. Alguns destes sambaquis são contemporâneos. Com o tempo, antigos sambaquis eram abandonados e novos começavam a ser construídos. O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir no entendimento desta ocupação através da relação espacial que os sambaquis mantinham entre si e com a paisagem ao seu redor. Com os dados da topografia foi possível construir o Modelo de Elevação Digital da região. As informações geomorfológicas, geológicas e topográficas, reunidas e integradas no SIG, permitem simular a movimentação do nível médio do mar (NMM) no período desde aproximadamente 5000 anos AP até o momento atual. Modelos desenvolvidos no GRASS mostram a lagoa como espaço principal de circulação deste povo. / Data from the Camacho region, southern coast of the Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil, were collected and combined in the GIS GRASS. This region is a coastal plain, with many lagoons, and was occupied by a prehistoric population at least from c. 5,000 years before present (BP) to 1,000 years BP. In this period, the local mean sea level had fallen c. 2 m. As the region is very flat, this regression implied a reduction in the lagoon area, and consequently a reduction in the catchment area for these people. At the edges of the nowadays lagoons there are more than 50 shell mounds, some with volume greater than 100,000 m${}^3$, where the dead were buried. Some of that shell mounds are contemporary and were in use for thousand of years, but as the time passed, the ancient sites were abandoned and new sites began to be constructed. The objective of this work is to contribute to a better understanding of the spacial relationship between the shell mound and the landscape of the region. For this purpose the information about geology, geomorphology, topography, and datations were gathered and integrated in GRASS. A Digital Elevation Model was constructed and the movement of the mean sea level was simulated. The results are consistent with the occupation of the region. Other models, developed in GRASS, show that the lagoon was the main route of circulation of the prehistoric people.

St. Vincent Island is one of the barrier islands in the Florida panhandle between Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge encompasses all 5000 hectares of the island. Archaeological fieldwork in the summer of 2009 included a survey of the entire island and a test unit at one of the island's richest sites. In spring of 2010 a second test unit was excavated at another archaeologically rich site. A total of 16 known sites were investigated and two newly discovered sites recorded. This research combines all these data with information obtained from existing artifact collections and archives, as well as results of a widespread geological survey of the island, in order to characterize the prehistoric archaeological record on the island, which stretches back at least 4000 years or more, to the time of the island's first formation. Subsistence, settlement patterns, site use, and change through time in the human adaptation on St. Vincent are described in relation to the preexisting cultural chronology of the region, especially that of other barrier islands. Settlement from all time periods is concentrated on the north and east shorelines, with not much human use of the island interior until recent historic time. Geological indication of sea level fluctuations on the islands oldest shoreline section, on the northeast tip, is combined with archaeological evidence to suggest responses to rising sea levels.

Os dados obtidos da topografia, da geomorfologia, do sensoriamento remoto para a região do Camacho, litoral sul de Santa Catarina, foram reunidos e integrados no SIG GRASS. Durante a ocupação desta região pela população pré-histórica, de aproximadamente 5000 anos Antes do Presente (anos AP) até 1000 anos AP, o nível médio marinho local caiu aproximadamente 2m. Como a região é muito plana, esta regressão implicou em uma grande alteração da extensão da laguna, e, portanto, da área para coleta de moluscos e para pesca. O tipo e o tamanho dos peixes capturados, cujos restos podem ser encontrados nos sítios arquológicos deixados por este povo, permitem concluir que provavelmente os antigos moradores possuiam tecnologia de pesca, como barcos e redes. Ao redor da laguna estão espalhados mais de 50 sambaquis, alguns com centenas de milhares de metros cúbicos de volume. Pesquisa em alguns destes sítios mostram que tinham a função de cemitérios. Alguns destes sambaquis são contemporâneos. Com o tempo, antigos sambaquis eram abandonados e novos começavam a ser construídos. O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir no entendimento desta ocupação através da relação espacial que os sambaquis mantinham entre si e com a paisagem ao seu redor. Com os dados da topografia foi possível construir o Modelo de Elevação Digital da região. As informações geomorfológicas, geológicas e topográficas, reunidas e integradas no SIG, permitem simular a movimentação do nível médio do mar (NMM) no período desde aproximadamente 5000 anos AP até o momento atual. Modelos desenvolvidos no GRASS mostram a lagoa como espaço principal de circulação deste povo. / Data from the Camacho region, southern coast of the Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil, were collected and combined in the GIS GRASS. This region is a coastal plain, with many lagoons, and was occupied by a prehistoric population at least from c. 5,000 years before present (BP) to 1,000 years BP. In this period, the local mean sea level had fallen c. 2 m. As the region is very flat, this regression implied a reduction in the lagoon area, and consequently a reduction in the catchment area for these people. At the edges of the nowadays lagoons there are more than 50 shell mounds, some with volume greater than 100,000 m${}^3$, where the dead were buried. Some of that shell mounds are contemporary and were in use for thousand of years, but as the time passed, the ancient sites were abandoned and new sites began to be constructed. The objective of this work is to contribute to a better understanding of the spacial relationship between the shell mound and the landscape of the region. For this purpose the information about geology, geomorphology, topography, and datations were gathered and integrated in GRASS. A Digital Elevation Model was constructed and the movement of the mean sea level was simulated. The results are consistent with the occupation of the region. Other models, developed in GRASS, show that the lagoon was the main route of circulation of the prehistoric people.

A total of 17 samples were collected for OSL dating from a Swift Creek archaeological site, known as Harrison Ring, which lies on the Tyndall Air force peninsula in northwest Florida. High-resolution vertical sampling conducted at 10 cm intervals from the surface was performed in order to determine the timing of occupation at the site, and to look for patterns in radiation dosimetry and post-depositional disturbance that can compromise OSL results. We find OSL ages determined using both 0.5 mm aliquots and single grains at the archaeological levels (approximately 1751 ± 339 years ago) to be consistent with the timing of early Swift Creek cultures on the Florida Gulf Coast. The ages we report are both consistent with radiocarbon dates taken at Harrison Ring, and those taken at other Swift Creek sites on the Gulf Coast. In general, we find OSL equivalent doses that show high overdispersion and skewness that we attribute to beta-microdosimetry and possible bioturbation in the profiles. We also present results from a test with a novel dosimetric technique employing Al2O3:C chips. By using Al2O3:C dosimeters, we find that large variability in beta dose rates exist in the sedimentary profile at Harrison Ring. By testing a combination of dosimetric techniques in a site with a well-constrained age, we find that the best agreement with independent age control exists when calculating ages using a beta dose rate from NAA/DNC and gamma dose rate from Al2O3:C dosimetry. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

There is a tendency in archaeology dealing with watercraft landing sites in a wider context to assume a direct relationship between sites in coastal and shore-bound areas and the practise of landing, without any deeper practical or theoretical exploration of the reality of any such relationship. This problem has its origins in the poor archaeological and conceptual definitions of watercraft landing sites obstructing any real understanding of the role of these sites in the maritime cultural landscape. Landing sites are taken for granted and they are undervalued as an archaeological source of explanation; notwithstanding, the concept of the landing site is readily used in archaeology in order to underpin archaeological interpretations on the maritime activities of past societies. In order to break away from the simplified understandings of past water-bound strategies based on the undefined concept of the landing site, this dissertation suggests a definition of watercraft landing sites in a wider social sense as water-bound contact zones; places of social interaction that can be archaeologically identified and investigated. This perspective integrates the understanding of the intentional character of human activity related to watercraft landing with the remaining archaeological traces. Archaeological definitions of landing sites that can be tested against the archaeological data are provided, and thereby, the dissertation contributes with the possibility to archaeologically evaluate and approach the social function of watercraft landing sites. This dissertation demonstrates that there can be an archaeology of landing sites.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The focus of this work is on characterization of occupations precolonial in the Holocene dunes, in other words, formed from and built upon the Holocene Marine Terrace. To develop the proposed theme we chose to analyze the archaeological site Cardoso. Located in the newly presented Sapucaia River Basin, which before would be the boundary between the River Basin of Japaratuba River and the São Francisco River, between two fixed dunes, delimited by the Lagoa Redonda spillway and the plain seaside. Therefore, the overall objective of this dissertation is to understand the occupation of the Sergipe coast by the implantation of precolonial groups in Holocene dunes, considering the bias of Archaeology Landscape. The specific objectives were designed to meet the details regarding the theme worked, where they are divided between (1) Conducting of literature survey on the paleoenvironment period of formation of the physical landscape; (2) Questioning the functionality of coastal sites for groups that occupied them, and (3) analyzing the deployment of sites in the landscape, a perspective microespacial (intrassites), mesoespacial (between landscape and sites) and macroespacial (region). The results obtained (four archaeological sites) were analyzed facing a discussion of the landscape and were identified the visibility strategies based on analysis of the ithic material's spatial distribution analysis, mobility and acquisition of the different raw materials and testing of ceramic material. / O foco desse trabalho está centrado na caracterização das ocupações pré-coloniais nas Dunas Holocênicas, ou seja, formadas a partir e construídas em cima do Terraço Marinho Holocênico. Para desenvolver o tema proposto, optamos por analisar o sítio arqueológico Cardoso. Localizado na recém-apresentada Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Sapucaia, onde antes seria o limite entre a Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Japaratuba e da Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio São Francisco, entre duas dunas fixas, delimitado pelo sangradouro da Lagoa Redonda e pela planície litorânea. Portanto, o objetivo geral dessa dissertação é compreender a ocupação do litoral sergipano através da implantação de grupos pré-coloniais em Dunas Holocênicas, considerando o viés da Arqueologia da Paisagem. Os objetivos específicos foram pensados para atender as particularidades relativas à temática trabalhada, onde são divididos entre (1) Realizar levantamento bibliográfico sobre o Paleoambiente do período de formação da paisagem física; (2) Questionar funcionalidade dos sítios litorâneos para os grupos que os ocuparam e (3) Analisar a implantação dos sítios na paisagem, de uma perspectiva microespacial (intrassítio), mesoespacial (entre paisagem e sítios) e macroespacial (região). Os resultados obtidos (quatro sítios arqueológicos) foram analisados voltados para uma discussão da Paisagem e identificadas as estratégias de visibilidade com base na análise da distribuição espacial, análise do material lítico, mobilidade e aquisição das distintas matérias-primas e análise do material cerâmico.

South Africa contains many archaeological resources including shell middens from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA). These shell middens give researchers insight into the behaviour of modern humans where the first fossil evidence appears in Africa around 200 000 years ago (Klein, 2008). Research into shell middens is therefore vital to understand the origin of human kind. This study investigates whether Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is a useful tool for predicting locations of unknown shell midden sites using the characteristics of known areas of modern human habitation. This was done using suitability analysis and expert mapping techniques. Ground truthing of the results of the desktop analysis revealed that GIS is not a useful tool for predicting sites of modern habitation as the characteristics that determine human habitation are too variable.

Evidence of large earthquakes occurring along the Pacific Northwest coast is reflected in coastal stratigraphy from Oregon to British Columbia, where there also exists an extensive archaeological record of Native American occupation. Tse-whit-zen, a large Native American village dating between 1824 and 54 cal B.P. located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, was excavated with exceptionally fine stratigraphic control allowing for precise comparison of natural and cultural records. Here I report on the >10,000 fish remains from one 2x2 m excavation block; this assemblage spans one earthquake event, allowing study of changes in relative taxonomic abundance through time that may coincide with earthquakes or other environmental changes. Results indicate use of a wide range of marine fish taxa including various sculpins (Cottidae), flatfish (Pleuronectiformes), herring (Clupea pallasii) and salmon (Oncorhynchusspp.). This illustrates a highly diverse diet throughout occupation, though relative abundances of more offshore taxa decrease through time in favor of some nearshore taxa, possibly indicating the presence of a coseismic event. This thesis serves as part of a pilot study for a collaborative project that is underway. This larger project addresses human response to both gradual and abrupt environmental change through the analysis of all classes of Tse-whit-zen faunal remains, which provide a link to impacts on animal populations and in turn human subsistence.

This study uses the predictive modeling program Sea-Levels Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) to evaluate sea-level rise hazards, such as erosion and inundation, on coastal archaeological sites with a vertical rise of sea level of .98 meters from 2006 to 2100. In total 177 archaeological site locations were collected and georeferenced over GIS outputs maps of wetlands, erosion presence, surface elevation, and accretion. Wetlands data can provide useful information about characteristics of the wetland classes, which make a difference in the ability for coastal archaeological sites to combat sea level rise. Additionally, the study evaluated predicted erosion of archaeological sites by presence or absence of active erosion on a cell-by-cell basis. Elevation map outputs relative to mean tide level allowed for a calculation of individual archaeological site datums to use NOAA tidal databases to identify the potential for their inundation. Accretion maps acquired from the SLAMM run determined the potential for the archaeological site locations to combat rising sea levels and potentially provide protection from wave effects. Results show that the most significant hazard predicted to affect coastal archaeological sites is inundation. Approximately 54% of the total archaeological sites are predicted to be inundated at least half the time by 2100. The hazard of erosion, meanwhile, is expected to affect 33% of all archaeological sites by the end of the century. Although difficult to predict, the study assumes that accretion will not be able to keep pace with sea-level rise. Such findings of hazards prove that SLAMM is a useful tool for predicting potential effects of sea-level rise on coastal archaeological sites. With its ability to customize and as it is complementary, it provides itself not only an economical choice but also one that is adaptable to many scenarios.