In this dissertation, I examine trajectories of cultural evolution among complexhunter-gatherers and middle range societies. Broadly, I consider the theoretical issuesrelated to these two areas of study and how we should conceptualize the study of socioculturalevolution in societies organized at this scale. I apply these ideas to the study ofthe prehistoric hunter-gatherers who occupied Sapelo Island, Georgia, U. S. A.Specifically, I examine the Archaic period (4200 – 3000 B. P.) occupation of the SapeloShell Ring complex, located on the western side of the island. In particular, I study issuesof sedentism, settlement aggregation, mound construction, and the emergence of socialinequality as they relate to shell rings in the southeastern United States, as well as otherareas of the world. One of the central problems for studying these sites is whether shellrings form by gradual accumulation or by intentional construction and the concomitantsocial formations associated with these two different behaviors. Using geophysicalsurvey, artifact distributions, and radiocarbon dating, I examine the use and nature ofspace at the site as well as site formation processes. I present the results of both thegrowth band analysis on clams and the isotopic analysis on clams and oysters from thesite in order to address season of occupation. In addition to this new data, a reanalysis ofprevious excavations is presented. Combined, these data lend important insights intodifferent dimensions of socio-political complexity. Specifically, these data suggest thatthe Sapelo Shell Ring complex population was relatively large for its time. It addition, itseems that at least some portion of the population occupied the site year-round. Despiteit large population size and reduced mobility the occupants of the site maintained at leastsome degree of egalitarian social relations.

Weedon Island, a peninsula located on the western inner shoreline of Tampa Bay, Florida, is the location of a collaborative geological and archaeological project that aims to relate the present day geomorphology to natural processes and human occupational activity during the middle to late Holocene. The area is known for extensive archaeological sites, which were originally investigated in the 1920s, although they have received relatively little scientific attention during most of the last century. We hypothesize that activities associated with pre-historic human occupation of Weedon Island at various times during the last ca. 5,000 years influenced the geomorphic evolution of the peninsula. An interdisciplinary approach, including geomorphic mapping, sediment-coring, and archaeological survey and excavation, is being used to test our hypothesis and is expected to reveal the extent to which natural processes and human activities interacted to shape the present-day configuration of the peninsula. More recent human impacts on the peninsula have impeded our efforts in some areas. During the twentieth century, dredging, mosquito ditching, and road construction, have disturbed the surface and portions of the upper sediment record in many locations. Sediments below obvious disturbances or in unimpacted areas of the peninsula, along with radiocarbon dating, have helped reconstruct the mid to late Holocene paleoenvironments and paleolandscape of Weedon Island.

ABSTRACT Recent archaeological investigations indicate that coastal Fort Walton cultures in the St. Joseph Bay region of northwest Florida emphasized marine and estuarine foraging. These late prehistoric (A.D. 1000-1500) peoples collected fish, shellfish, and other aquatic resources. At the Richardson's Hammock site (8Gu10), radiocarbon-dated to about A.D. 1300, as at dozens of other shell middens around this salty bay, large gastropods were a major subsistence component. This adaptation is in sharp contrast with that of contemporaneous inland Fort Walton societies, who relied on maize agriculture. It is unknown whether coastal groups represent separate hunter-gatherer-fisher populations or seasonal migrations by inland farming villagers. This thesis research uses stable oxygen and carbon isotope analysis on lightning whelks (Busycon sinistrum) to determine the seasonality of Fort Walton foraging, and compares the environment of prehistoric St. Joseph Bay with that of the modern bay. Oxygen isotope profiles suggest that shellfish collecting was relegated primarily to the summer months, producing a scheduling conflict with the primary growing season for maize in northwest Florida. Thus, it is argued that coastal and inland Fort Walton probably represent separate culture groups. The relationship between d18Oshell and d13Cshell indicates similar environmental and climatic conditions between prehistoric St. Joseph Bay and today. However, modern whelks are depleted in d13C compared to Fort Walton whelks, which reflects both twentieth century CO2 emissions and years of dredging and wastewater pollution entering the bay.

The dawn of the eighteenth century in the Apalachicola delta region of the Florida panhandle was a time of major social upheaval that has been underexplored by current research. There are no historic records that describe the events and peoples in the region during establishment of the Spanish missions in the Tallahassee area to the east. Archaeological evidence shows the disappearance of the late prehistoric Mississippian Fort Walton people and the brief emergence of the protohistoric Lamar archaeological culture during the time of the destruction of the Spanish mission system around 1704. The Lighthouse Bayou site, 8Gu114, in Gulf County, has both a Fort Walton and a Lamar component, and therefore offers an opportunity to understand this tumultuous time period better. Comparison of the ceramics shows a transition from incised rectilinear scrolling motifs during Fort Walton to a series of incised and stamped designs, along with the emergence of check-stamping as common surface decorations during Lamar. Temper choices are further indicative: pottery of both components has extensive sand and grit tempering, with only limited shell- or grog-tempered vessels, suggesting that indigenous peoples here did not identify with the missionized Apalachee Indians. The lithic data, while limited, show that both the Fort Walton and Lamar inhabitants were more likely retouching existing tools rather than creating new ones; however, the proportion of flake types suggest that the Lamar inhabitants may have exploited chert to a greater extent than did their Fort Walton counterparts. The faunal data show considerable difference in food source exploitation strategies. The Fort Walton inhabitants used the Lighthouse Bayou site specifically to procure shellfish and fish, while the Lamar inhabitants made use of a wider variety of protein sources throughout the area. These differences suggest a contrast between the two time periods: Fort Walton existed under the relatively stable aegis of the late prehistoric Mississippian era. The Lamar people, while not Apalachee Indians, must have been another group fleeing the conflict amid the destruction of the Spanish missions and the general social collapse in Florida’s early eighteenth century.

The impact of human activity on ecosystems is an issue at the forefront of global concern. Marine ecosystems are a particular concern, given their importance for human sustenance. Through the removal of species that are highly susceptible to the effects of overfishing, global fisheries have been driven to near collapse in recent decades. The long-term effects of such practices has resulted in declines in mean trophic level of aggregate fish catches over time, as well as decreasing diversity of species available for regular harvest (Jackson et al. 2001; Pauly et al. 1998). These supposedly “modern” problems have been recently identified in archaeological contexts, and attest to the extent of anthropogenic ecosystem alteration that has occurred since humans first began intensively exploiting marine ecosystems (Erlandson and Rick 2010; Quitmyer and Reitz 2006; Reitz 2004; Wing and Wing 2001). Here, I evaluate the degree of change in mean trophic level, diversity, and equitability of midden deposits at Crystal River and Roberts Island, two roughly contemporaneous Middle-to-Late Woodland Period (AD 1to 1000) mound complexes located on the west-central Florida Gulf Coast. This research identifies the extent to which humans altered the characteristics of the estuarine ecosystem surrounding the two sites, promotes alternative theoretical perspectives on past human-environment interactions, and provides modern ecosystems management agencies with a temporally-expansive data set to aid in future ecosystem conservation efforts.

Site 38CH1693 is a coastal site located in Charleston County, South Carolina. Thom’s Creek ceramics place the site in the Late Archaic/Early Woodland Period and radiocarbon dating corroborates this, placing the features present between 3650 and 3950 BP. Faunal analysis was undertaken to assess seasonality in order to understand the occupations that occurred at the site. Faunal seasonality, botanical seasonality, and sedentariness indicators are used to determine the sedentariness of the site. The presence of certain marine fish species is one of the most important seasonality indicators used. It is determined from the available evidence that at least one short-duration, year-round occupation is represented by the materials recovered at 38CH1693. Site 38CH1693 does not fit into the current Late Archaic settlement pattern models for the coast, calling for a reevaluation of these settlement pattern models and the sedentary sites within them.

Em meio aos manguezais de Cananéia (extremo sul do litoral de SP), foram identificados, no âmbito do Programa Arqueológico do Baixo Vale do Ribeira, oito sambaquis que apresentam vestígios arqueológicos submersos. Com o objetivo de compreender a ocorrência desses sambaquis e de contextualizá-los espaço-temporalmente em meio às flutuações holocênicas do nível do mar, esta dissertação fundamentou-se em uma adaptação da técnica do Vibracoring, em métodos e técnicas da Arqueologia Subaquática, na abordagem geoarqueológica proposta por Waters (1992) e no estudo dos Processos de Formação adotados por Stein (1992). Dessa maneira, o presente trabalho pode identificar que o potencial de preservação e a distribuição dos sambaquis nessa região apresentam uma forte correlação com as oscilações do Nível Relativo do Mar, que ocorreram após o último máximo regressivo holocênico. Essas evidências indicaram também, que além de existirem chances reais de sambaquis totalmente submersos terem se preservado, nem sempre sítios relativos a um antigo nível marinho acabaram sendo destruídos ou ficando submersos. Em alguns casos, sambaquis que deveriam ter sido destruídos ou estarem submersos, encontram-se em terra, recobertos por sedimentos costeiros mais recentes ou protegidas por alguma formação geológica. Além de sua contribuição para o desenvolvimento e amadurecimento de uma Arqueologia Subaquática científica e para o estudo das curvas de Variação do Nível Relativo do Mar, esta pesquisa identificou algumas evidências importantes para a compreensão do fenômeno dos sambaquis, como por exemplo, a ocorrência de seqüências estratigráficas que atribuem diferenças funcionais e uma intencionalidade à construção de alguns sítios, assim como, datações que remetem a ocupação sambaquieira de Cananéia a uma antiguidade de quase 8.000 anos. / Among the Cananéia mangrove swamp (extreme south of São Paulo’s coastline), it was identified within the Archeological Programme of the Lower Ribeira Valley, eight shell middens within which could be found archeological submerged traces. Aiming at the understanding of these shell middens occurrence and the contextualisation in space and time in relation to the holocenic variations of the sea level, this monograph was based on an adaptation of the Vibracoring technique, underwater archeological methods and techniques, on the geoarcheological interpretation of Waters (1992), and on the studies of Formation Process adopted by Stein (1992). Thus, the shell middens preserving potential and distribution in this area shows a strong correlation with the sea related level changes, that occurred after the last holocenic regressive maximum. These evidences also indicated that not only were there real chances that completely submerged shell midden were preserved but also that it is not always that sites related to an ancient sea level ended up into being destroyed or kept submerged. In some cases, some that should have been destroyed or kept submerged, are seen in land covered by recent coast sediments or protected by any geological feature. Besides contributing to the development and maturation of the scientific underwater archeology and for the studies of the curves of the sea related level changes the research also identified some important evidences to the understanding of the shell middens phenomenon such as the occurrence of stratigraphic sequences that attach functional differences and an intention in building some sites, such as the one dated back to almost 8.000 years ago when Cananéia was first inhabited by the people of the shell middens

Em meio aos manguezais de Cananéia (extremo sul do litoral de SP), foram identificados, no âmbito do Programa Arqueológico do Baixo Vale do Ribeira, oito sambaquis que apresentam vestígios arqueológicos submersos. Com o objetivo de compreender a ocorrência desses sambaquis e de contextualizá-los espaço-temporalmente em meio às flutuações holocênicas do nível do mar, esta dissertação fundamentou-se em uma adaptação da técnica do Vibracoring, em métodos e técnicas da Arqueologia Subaquática, na abordagem geoarqueológica proposta por Waters (1992) e no estudo dos Processos de Formação adotados por Stein (1992). Dessa maneira, o presente trabalho pode identificar que o potencial de preservação e a distribuição dos sambaquis nessa região apresentam uma forte correlação com as oscilações do Nível Relativo do Mar, que ocorreram após o último máximo regressivo holocênico. Essas evidências indicaram também, que além de existirem chances reais de sambaquis totalmente submersos terem se preservado, nem sempre sítios relativos a um antigo nível marinho acabaram sendo destruídos ou ficando submersos. Em alguns casos, sambaquis que deveriam ter sido destruídos ou estarem submersos, encontram-se em terra, recobertos por sedimentos costeiros mais recentes ou protegidas por alguma formação geológica. Além de sua contribuição para o desenvolvimento e amadurecimento de uma Arqueologia Subaquática científica e para o estudo das curvas de Variação do Nível Relativo do Mar, esta pesquisa identificou algumas evidências importantes para a compreensão do fenômeno dos sambaquis, como por exemplo, a ocorrência de seqüências estratigráficas que atribuem diferenças funcionais e uma intencionalidade à construção de alguns sítios, assim como, datações que remetem a ocupação sambaquieira de Cananéia a uma antiguidade de quase 8.000 anos. / Among the Cananéia mangrove swamp (extreme south of São Paulo’s coastline), it was identified within the Archeological Programme of the Lower Ribeira Valley, eight shell middens within which could be found archeological submerged traces. Aiming at the understanding of these shell middens occurrence and the contextualisation in space and time in relation to the holocenic variations of the sea level, this monograph was based on an adaptation of the Vibracoring technique, underwater archeological methods and techniques, on the geoarcheological interpretation of Waters (1992), and on the studies of Formation Process adopted by Stein (1992). Thus, the shell middens preserving potential and distribution in this area shows a strong correlation with the sea related level changes, that occurred after the last holocenic regressive maximum. These evidences also indicated that not only were there real chances that completely submerged shell midden were preserved but also that it is not always that sites related to an ancient sea level ended up into being destroyed or kept submerged. In some cases, some that should have been destroyed or kept submerged, are seen in land covered by recent coast sediments or protected by any geological feature. Besides contributing to the development and maturation of the scientific underwater archeology and for the studies of the curves of the sea related level changes the research also identified some important evidences to the understanding of the shell middens phenomenon such as the occurrence of stratigraphic sequences that attach functional differences and an intention in building some sites, such as the one dated back to almost 8.000 years ago when Cananéia was first inhabited by the people of the shell middens