Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa

Early prehistoric sedentism and seasonal animal exploitation

in the Caribbean lowlands of Colombia
Peter W. Stahl
a

a,*

, Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo

Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, 1112 Turlington Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

Received 20 October 2006; revision received 13 February 2007

Available online 23 April 2007

Abstract
San Jacinto 1 represents a special-purpose settlement that was used by late Archaic foraging groups who logistically
moved from base camps to special-purpose camps in order to collect and process subsistence resources at the onset of
the dry season in the Caribbean savannas of northern Colombia. Situated in an optimal location for permanent water
and seasonal concentrations of dry season subsistence items, the sites location was part of a logistic strategy in which specic task groups were moved to resources during a short season of availability. Preserved vertebrate and invertebrate faunas at San Jacinto conform to expectations about assemblage ubiquity, richness, and evenness or equitability within the
early occupational strata at the site. Specic animals including turtles and sh were pursued, and may have been processed
with C3 plants and grasses in ubiquitous earth ovens. Certain local aquatic invertebrates were also procured along with the
collection of specic extra-local gastropods.
2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Archaic foraging; Logistic mobility; Sedentism; Seasonality; Zooarchaeology; Neotropical savannas; Colombia; Diversity
indices

Our earliest evidence for ber-tempered pottery

in the western hemisphere is found at the site of
San Jacinto 1 in the savannas of northern Colombia
(Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani, 2005). We consider
it likely that other pottery-bearing sites in this
region may yield earlier dates because the end of
the areas preceramic sequence remains unknown
(Raymond et al., 1998; Reichel-Dolmato, 1986);
however, San Jacintos early pottery is important
as it appears in association with evidence for sea*

Corresponding author. Fax: +1 607 777 2477.

E-mail addresses: pstahl@binghamton.edu (P.W. Stahl),
caycedo@u.edu (A. Oyuela-Caycedo).

sonal subsistence rounds, social mobility, intensive

plant processing, and the scheduled procurement
of animal resources. Its high resolution contexts
provide us with a unique opportunity to study early
human subsistence in an inland savanna and to analyze the circumstances surrounding early sedentism
and the origins of pottery and food production.
In particular, it is suggested that San Jacinto 1
was a special-purpose settlement for foraging
groups that logistically moved from base camps to
special-purpose camps as they collected and processed plants and animals at the onset of the dry
period in a highly seasonal tropical savanna which
was probably drier than today (Oyuela-Caycedo

0278-4165/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2007.02.004

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P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

and Bonzani, 2005:2). Evidence suggests that San

Jacinto 1s inhabitants focused on the availability
of starchy seeds and other resources concentrated
along a small stream during the driest months of
the year from November through January, and possibly into March. Previous analyses of the site have
focused on plant and invertebrate exploitation
within the context of seasonal mobility (Bonzani,
1995,1997; Oyuela-Caycedo, 1993,1996,1998; Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani, 2005), and here we incorporate information from analyses of all associated
archaeofaunas. We begin with a brief summary of
some important theoretical implications for understanding the early onset of sedentism and its relationship to early pottery and food production in a
highly seasonal savanna and active ood plain environment, and identify possible material correlates of
logistic mobility. We then introduce San Jacinto 1
within its temporal and environmental setting. The
remainder of the paper considers associated vertebrate and invertebrate archaeofaunal evidence at
the site within the context of hypothetical expectations of early logistic mobility during the dry season
in the northern Colombian savannas.
Theoretical expectations: sedentism, early pottery,
food production, and seasonality
San Jacinto 1 is an important and high resolution
archaeological context for investigating the relationship between sedentism, early pottery, the origin of
food production, and group territoriality in a markedly seasonal environment. Here, we use a general
concept of sedentism which considers reduced
mobility and increased territorial control through
the constant presence of one group in the same location (Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani, 2005:34). We
are interested in why these Archaic inhabitants of
the seasonal savannas in northern Colombia might
have changed mobility strategies to become increasingly sedentary. We pay particularly close attention
to variations in mobility as cultural strategies which
can be employed in uctuating environments and
that are closely related to temporal and spatial variations in resources (see Steward, 1938; Thomas,
1983; Bettinger, 1991; Kelly, 1995:116120; Binford,
1978,1980,2001).
Mobility is one of several buering mechanisms
or cultural responses to variations in the timing,
spatial structure, relative intensity, and predictability of subsistence resources (Halstead and OShea,
1989; OShea, 1981). In heuristic fashion, Binford

(1978,1980,2001:256257) distinguishes between

subsistence foraging and collecting strategies that
correlate with mobility strategies along a graded
continuum at whose extremes lie residential and
logistic mobility (see discussions in Bettinger,
1991:100103; Ebert, 1992; Humphreys, 1987;
Kelly, 1995; Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani,
2005:175; Preucel, 1990:1213; Price and Brown,
1985; Thomas, 1983). Foraging strategies map
consumers on to critical resources through frequent
movement of residential bases from and to which
foragers leave and return on a daily basis in order
to exploit resources in the locations where they are
encountered. Collecting strategies use logistically
organized task groups to procure critical resources
at temporary eld camps or special-purpose locations which supply a larger group of consumers
located at residential bases (Binford, 1980).
Under what conditions do populations become
sedentary? Reduced mobility is a common denominator between the origins of pottery, an increase in
sedentism, and the beginnings of food production
in tropical America (Piperno and Pearsall, 1998;
Raymond, 1998). A strategy of reduced mobility
can occur during environmental changes, which
leads to social intensication (social storage as
dened in Binford, 2001:370371) and/or economic
intensication (Testart, 1982). Social and economic
intensications are strategies selected to average
out resources in space and time by reducing the risk
of unpredictability (Cashden, 1992; Kelly, 1995:144
152). Intensication of social activities would
include means to maintain conict resolution as
numerous groups are usually attracted to the same
resources found in patchy and seasonal environments. Social mechanisms for conict resolution
might include activities that involve the development
of reciprocal exchange networks often labeled under
the term of feasting (Hayden, 1990,1995, 2001).
Economic intensication could be expressed in activities related to the processing of food resources
(Stahl, 1989), with expected increases in the diversity
of artifacts used in processing (i.e., groundstone
and/or pottery), and the recovery of subsistence
remains suggesting a focus on only a few species at
specic site locations. This economic intensication
is also interpreted as an initial stage in the processes
leading toward full time food production (Bar-Yosef
and Belfer-Cohen, 1992; Bonzani, 1995:153, 1997;
Flannery, 1986; MacNeish, 1992; Piperno and
Pearsall, 1998), division of labor and hierarchy
(Binford, 2001:424433), and ideological changes

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

(Cauvin, 2000a; Hastorf, 1994,1999), or what Hastorf (2006:99) refers to as creating identity and territoriality with plants and trees.
What conditions might favor a strategy in which
consumers map on to critical resources and which
might favor a logistically organized strategy? Based
on ethnographic estimates of residential mobility
for hunter-gatherer populations, Binford (1980:14;
2001:269276) has suggested that the highest incidences of mobility are found in extremely productive equatorial environments and less productive
arctic environments, while reduced mobility prevails
in temperate and boreal zones. Labor is reorganized
in logistical strategies where consumer or residential
mobility is restricted, and where critical resources
are incongruent. Logistic mobility is favored when
critical resources are spatially incongruent as collectors move their residential camps closer to the
resource with the greatest bulk demand while making use of special task groups that extract targeted
resources in special-purpose locations for consumption in the base camp. Temporal incongruence can
be solved through preservation and storage, which
by exacerbating spatial incongruence through the
accumulation of bulk in one place, can further
increase the logistical component of the settlement
system (Binford, 1980:15). Binford (1980:18;
2001:260) has also argued that the prevalence of
storage is correlated with a decrease in the growing
season, and that the expected role of logistic mobility is greater under conditions of increased seasonal
variability.
When the availability of critical wild resources is
relatively predictable yet highly seasonal, mobility
strategies and territoriality are adjusted to the timing and location of the resource. Mobility decreases
and sedentism increases to coincide with seasonal
abundance. (Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani,
2005:150). We expect to see a strategy of logistic
mobility in the strongly seasonal savanna environment as organized task groups spatially and temporally focused their extractive eorts on specic
critical resources in order to ensure availability in
times of scarcity. It is important to consider the patterned variability in archaeological assemblage
properties that might be expected between specialpurpose sites located where resources are extracted,
and residential locations to where extracted
resources are relocated for consumption by the larger group. In markedly seasonal settings, variability
in the content of assemblages between dierent sites
is expected to increase as these assemblages are

331

associated with particular procurement strategies

undertaken at special-purpose extraction sites.
Greater content redundancy is also expected in
these assemblages, due to very high re-use of the
same special-purpose location (Binford, 1978:
482497).
Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani (2005:4849) presented a number of related hypothetical expectations associated with early logistic mobility in the
highly seasonal savannas of northern Colombia.
They explored material patterning in the preserved
assemblage of San Jacinto 1, which was considered
as a special-purpose extraction site occupied during
the dry seasons. These included: increased assemblage redundancy and feature clustering as specic
tasks were repeatedly undertaken at the same location in serial fashion during dry season occupations;
intensication in food processing and the presence
of large quantities of associated artifacts; and, the
adoption of specialized pottery to assist in social
and economic intensication. They further presented evidence of critical subsistence resources in
the form of preserved botanical remains that were
dominated by seasonally abundant plants which
could be processed into storable subsistence items
for potential consumption at an associated residential site. In this paper, we add to the case for early
logistic mobility at San Jacinto 1 by exploring the
likelihood that the sites associated faunal assemblage is similarly dominated by seasonally available,
concentrated, and easily captured species that might
also have served as potentially storable resources.
San Jacinto 1
San Jacinto 1 is the older of two sites found near
the modern town of the same name, in the Department of Bolvar approximately 85 km to the southeast of the city of Cartagena (Fig. 1). The site lies at
210 m asl on the edge of the Serrana de San Jacinto,
a series of foothills that rise to an elevation of 700 m
asl. The surrounding Sabanas de Bolvar experience
mean annual temperatures of 27.5 C and strong
annual contrasts between a protracted dry season
from December to April/May with another short
dry period in July/August, and the wettest month
in October with a shorter rainy period in May/June
(Oyuela-Caycedo, 1993:2436).
Cultural strata at the site had originally been
exposed through stream cutting by the adjacent
quebrada San Jacinto, revealing a prole of anthropic occupation layers under 4 m of overburden

332

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

Fig. 1. Location of San Jacinto 1 and later formative sites in the area.

(Fig. 2). Initial auger testing conrmed a total of 26

strata, with strata 9 through 20 yielding the Archaic
materials. Excavation of a 5 m by 15 m area consisted of removing overburden (strata 1 through 8)
followed by the detailed stratigraphic excavation
of strata 9 through 26. The stratigraphy in strata 9
through 20 was clearly dened by darker anthropic
soils separated by lighter colored sterile alluvium
which had been deposited through the accretion of
a point bar during the rainy seasons. Some 75 m2
of an estimated 346 m2 of site deposits were excavated, with 875.66 kg of otation samples taken
from oors and features.

Evidence for the earliest human activity at San

Jacinto 1 was recovered in strata 9, 10, 12, 14, 16,
18, and 20 (Fig. 2). Thirteen uncalibrated radiocarbon dates bracket these occupation layers between
5940 60 BP (Pitt, 0155) and 5190 40 BP (Beta
183291). Wet season ooding was dened by separate layers of yellowish alluvium in Strata 11, 13,
15 17, and 19. From stratigraphic and geoarchaeological perspectives, migration of the stream channel
aected the development of the living oors and
produced cross-bedding stratigraphy as San Jacinto
1s inhabitants had settled in a point bar environment which was abandoned during the rainy season

Fig. 2. Prole of site stratigraphy in western and northern excavation walls.

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

from April to November when the possibility of

ooding was highest (Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani,
2005:52). During the dry season, the site would have
been an optimal location as a persistent source of
permanent water and for the seasonal concentration
of subsistence resources.
Archaeological excavations uncovered 174 features, of which 112 were dened as clay-lined earth
ovens or re pits (Fig. 3). As the most abundant features at the site, these ovens or pits reveal a high
redundancy of cooking activities typical of Archaic
food processing in the Americas during the transition
from foraging to part-time cultivation (Wandsnider,
1997). Sixty-eight pits were dened as cooking ovens,
characterized by shallow to deep pits with carbonized

333

layers at their bottom levels, and medium amounts of

re-cracked rocks used in boiling, cooking, and
steaming. Forty-four re pits used for direct and open
cooking were identied by small to medium pits with
carbonized layers at their bottom levels, and low
amounts of re-cracked rock.
A total of 78,697 g of plant ber-tempered pottery, mostly fragments of semi-globular and globular pots, was recovered from all the cultural strata.
Pottery fragments were relatively rare and found
in a restricted spatial distribution which never
included contexts of abandonment, caches for later
use, nor associations with cooking features or artifacts. Pottery was likely not used in cooking, but
rather performed a social role for fermented drinks

Fig. 3. Aerial perspective of redundant cooking features revealed in excavations at San Jacinto 1.

334

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

and serving. Vessels may have been curated and

transported in periodic seasonal moves to a base
camp. In addition to over two tons of recovered
re-cracked rock, lithic artifacts included slab,
block, and basin-shaped metates, manos, very small
mortars likely used as nutcrackers, and hammerstones, some discarded examples of which were reused as re-cracked rock. The abundant grinding
and pounding implements were probably used for
processing wild grasses or rhizomes. Lithic items
were all manufactured from local sources and typical of an expedient technology expected for groups
with reduced mobility and little need to travel far
for raw materials (Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani,
2005:106).
The technology suggests that the main cooking
activity was focused on producing a wet mush or
dry our from grass seeds or C3 plants. Macrobotanical remains recovered from all the anthropic
strata include: carbonized seeds of Malvastrum sp.,
possibly used as cordage or for leaf wraps in cooking; Portulaca sp. consumed as a pot vegetable;
Eupatorium sp. and Polygonum sp., both weedy
semi-aquatic succulent herbs; Cyperaceae, (cf. Cyperus sp. and Eleocharis sp.) found in swampy disturbed ooded areas; Leguminosae seeds and
fruits; and, carbonized culms, leaves or other monocot plant parts identied tentatively as Poaceae or
grass. One seed identied as belonging to the family
Sapotaceae was recovered from a posthole. Other
botanical remains that were initially thought to be
small seeds of grasses (Bonzani, 1995:152154,
1997) have undergone further analysis and are identied as spores of fungi, some of which were probably a wood-rotting type (i.e., Polyporous spp.) that
would have originated in dead branches collected
from the ground and used for rewood (Lee Newsom, personal communication, 2003). Microbotanical evidence includes indeterminate grass and
arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) phytoliths that
were identied in a sample collected from under a
cached block metate (Dolores Piperno, personal
communication, 1995). The recovered botanical
remains indicate that the site was utilized at the
beginning of the dry season in this area of the savannas when these plants are in the process of fruiting and seed dispersal (Bonzani, 1998).
Faunal exploitation at San Jacinto 1
We are interested in how inferences derived from
the preserved archaeofaunal assemblage at San Jac-

into 1 conform to hypothetical expectations of early

logistic mobility for faunal procurement in a highly
seasonal savanna environment. During the recurring dry season occupations of the site, we expect
that early foragers focused on the repeated exploitation of a restricted set of specic animal resources.
These resources became highly predictable subsistence items through increased seasonal availability,
local abundance, concentration, and/or ease of
capture during the dry season, when they could
potentially have been processed into storable food.
We expect specic patterns in the San Jacinto 1
archaeofaunal assemblage if prehistoric foragers
systematically and repeatedly exploited a restricted
range of key animals during each dry season occupation. In terms of prey ubiquity, specic animals
should be consistently present within each of the
anthropic strata that comprise the early occupations
of the site. In terms of assemblage richness, the
number of dierent kinds of exploited animals
should be relatively low within each of the early
anthropic strata, as inhabitants of San Jacinto 1
repeatedly focused their primary eort on a few
highly predictable subsistence items during the dry
season. In terms of assemblage evenness or equitability, the faunal component of each prehistoric
dry season occupation should be numerically dominated by these principal prey resources, alongside
smaller amounts of less important taxa. In terms
of food preservation, these principal dry season animal resources could be processed into potentially
storable subsistence products.
Assemblage accumulation and preservation
A total of 1647 non-human vertebrate and 24,522
invertebrate specimens were recovered in association with the earliest occupations at San Jacinto 1.
Table 1 lists the vertebrate archaeofaunal specimens, excluding a small concentration of non-subsistence-related human bones in stratum 9. The
vertebrate assemblage is numerically dominated by
poorly preserved specimens that could not be reliably identied to zoological class, and a signicant
amount of reptile fragments (Fig. 4). These latter
specimens comprise over one half of the assemblage
by weight (Fig. 5), and consist primarily of fragmented turtle shell.
Most of the vertebrate specimens in the sample
were fragmented and highly degraded. This was particularly noticeable in the extensive mosaic cracking
on broad surface areas of turtle carapace and

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

335

Table 1
Non-human vertebrate archaeofaunas associated with the earliest
anthropic occupation at San Jacinto 1
Taxonomic
category

Common name

Selachimorpha
Osteichthyes
Siluriformes
Anura
Reptilia
Testudines
Kinosternon
Emydidae
Rhinoclemmys
Trachemys
Geochelone
carbonaria
Crocodylidae

Sharks, skates, rays

Indeterminate bony sh
Catsh
Frogs and toads
Indeterminate reptile
Indeterminate turtle
Mud turtles
Pond turtles
Wood turtle
Aquatic turtle
Red-footed tortoise

3
45
27
1
6
408
5
10
4
44
29

13
3
3
2
8
6

Crocodiles, caiman,
alligators
Green iguana
Indeterminate snake
Boa
Indeterminate bird
Indeterminate mammal
Sloth
Nine-banded armadillo

4
1
2
2
235
1
1

Raccoon
Puma, jaguar
Peccary
White-tailed deer
Brocket deer
Indeterminate large rodent
Paca
Agouti
Indeterminate

1
2
5
8
8
4
2
7
777

Iguana iguana
Serpentes
Boa constrictor
Aves
Mammalia
Bradypodidae
Dasypus
novemcinctus
Procyon
Felis
Tayassu
Odocoileus
Mazama
Rodentia
Cuniculus paca
Dasyprocta
Indeterminate
Total

NISP

MNI
3
11
1

Fig. 4. Relative frequencies of vertebrate archaeofauna recovered

in association with the earliest occupation of San Jacinto 1.

1
1
1
2
2
3
4
1
1
4

1647

NISP refers to the total number of identied species. MNI refers

to the minimum number of individual skeletons separated by
natural strata, and estimated for identied taxa at the level of
order or higher.

plastron elements. Many specimens were encrusted

with variable amounts of calcrete (or caliche), which
is a material commonly formed through cementation, accumulation, and/or replacement in subsurface matrices that lie above the level of permanent
ground water in warm environments with limited
rainfall (Goudie, 1983:9395). X-ray diraction
analysis identied the adhering material as a siliclastic detritus composed principally of calcite with
minor contributions of quartzite and feldspar
(David Jenkins, 2004, personal communication).
Prior to examination, many vertebrate specimens
were pretreated in alternating baths of dilute acetic
acid and water (Stahl and Brinker, 1991). Large

Fig. 5. Relative weights of vertebrate archaeofauna recovered in

association with the earliest occupation of San Jacinto 1.

calcrete conglomerates which included minor

amounts of hydroxyapatite along with the common
weathering materials of hard rock were also completely disaggregated and examined microscopically.
Fragmented turtle/tortoise specimens dominate
those vertebrate specimens that could be identied
beyond the level of zoological class. Most of these
fragments (N = 497, 99.4%) were turtle shell, with
only a negligible fraction (N = 3, 0.6%) of appendicular elements. No cranial or mandibular specimens
were identied in the deposits. Moreover, most
specimens (N = 394, 79%) were highly fragmented;
the remainder (N = 106, 21%) were complete or
almost complete elements of the carapace or plastron. These patterns of element representation

336

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

appear to be consistent with turtle/tortoise assemblages that were deposited after human consumption (Sampson, 1998:992; 2000).
No evidence for carnivore alteration or human
butchery was observed in the highly degraded
assemblage, and only three indeterminate shell fragments had any noticeable indication of thermal
alteration. Archaeologists have characterized patterned burning on the dorsal side of carapace elements, through turning the animal upside down
and roasting it in its shell, as a distinguishing feature
of human consumption (Flannery and Wheeler,
1986:287; Sampson, 1998:998; Speth and Tchernov,
2002:473). Werner (1990:149) describes this practice
for the slaughter of tortoises by the Kayapo of Central Brazil as they ready ingredients for the preparation of meat pies in earth ovens, a culinary practice
which we explore in greater detail below. The reptiles plastron is broken open with axes in order to
expose edible meat which consists mainly of organs,
and leg and neck muscles. The heart is torn out, and
the tortoise is thrown upside down on burning rocks
which are used to heat the oven.
It is probable that the San Jacinto 1 assemblage
was subject to some degree of alluvial sorting, as
the occupied portion of the site was a point bar that
formed through relatively low energy accretion of
deposits during annual inundation at the height of
the wet season. The bulk of the vertebrate specimens
was recovered in association with anthropic sediments within each occupation stratum at the site
(N = 1569, or 95.3% of the total vertebrate assemblage), whereas only a minor portion (N = 78,
4.7%) was recovered in association with the alluvial
strata. Almost all identiable turtle/tortoise specimens (N = 472, or 94.4% of all turtle/tortoise
bones) were recovered in direct association with
the anthropic occupation oors. Element representation suggests minimal hydrodynamic sorting of
deposited specimens, as the predominant elements
in each stratum include various at shell bones with
large surface areas that would be expected to sort
early under low energy current (Shipman,
1981:30). However, Blobs (1997) experimental
studies, undertaken with anatomically dierent
soft-shelled turtle elements, indicate that small or
at bones may resist transport as they become
entrained in the low velocity viscous sublayer of
the stream prole. His study predicts variably intermediate and late dispersal for dierent elements of
the turtle shell. Each anthropic stratum at San Jacinto 1 contains preserved carapace and plastron

specimens; otherwise, skeletal elements potentially

susceptible to hydrodynamic transport are missing.
The absence of free vertebrae, cranial/mandibular,
and limb elements might be explained by uvial
winnowing; however, they might also be absent
for some other reason, including increased fragmentation or selective removal during processing by
humans (Sampson, 2000:786).
Table 2 lists the invertebrate archaeofaunas that
were recovered in association with the late Archaic
human occupations of San Jacinto 1. During site
excavation, mollusk specimens were separated by
type, after which representative samples were identied by Juan Parodiz (then of the Invertebrate
Section, Carnegie Museum of Natural History).
Due to errors in the eld, variation between two
species of Pomacea was not identied; therefore,
the table presents combined gures for this genus.
The invertebrate assemblage is numerically dominated by three taxa (Fig. 6).
Table 2
Invertebrate archaeofaunas associated with earliest occupation at
San Jacinto 1
Taxon
Bivalvia
Mycetopodidae
Anodontites hyrioides
Hyriidae
Diplodon
Ecuadorea hylaeus
Prisodon alatus
Gastropoda
Prosobranchia
Ampullaridae
Pomacea cornucopia/elegans
Poteriidae
Neocyclotus
Thiaridae
Doryssa
Conidae
Conus
Pulmonata
Indeterminate
Bulimulidae
Drymaeus cf. virgulatus
Orthalicus

Common name
Freshwater mussels

6
Freshwater mussels
1007
1
1
Operculated
gill-bearing snails
Apple snails
14308
Poteria snails
9144
Marsh snails
3
Marine cones
1
Non-operculated
lung-bearing snails
4
Bulimulid land snails
5
25

Total
Decapoda

NISP

24505
Freshwater crabs

Total
NISP refers to the total number of identied specimens.

17
24522

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

Fig. 6. Relative frequencies of invertebrate archaeofauna recovered in association with the earliest occupation of San Jacinto 1.

Again, only a minor portion (N = 369, 1.5%) of

the mollusk specimens was recovered in direct association with the alluvial strata. The available evidence strongly suggests that the deposition of
Pomacea and Neocyclotus can be attributed to cultural activity. All of the deposited specimens are
of large adults. A similar exploitation of these two
species, some 1000 years later, is recorded for the
distant site of San Jacinto 2. Clusters of intentionally discarded adult snails, which seem to be the
product of singular storage events in perishable containers, are redundant in strata 10, 12, and 14.
Moreover, a spatial analysis of the two genera in
stratum 9 indicates concentrations into separate
clusters on the oor, with Neocyclotus being more
spatially concentrated than Pomacea. In particular,
Neocyclotus is an extra-local snail which is not
found anywhere in the immediate vicinity of the site,
but was imported by San Jacinto 1s human
occupants.
Dry season vertebrate exploitation
The preserved turtle and tortoise specimens at the
site include at least four identied genera that currently inhabit the area (Table 1). Most are aquatic
or semi-aquatic taxa that prefer quiet waters with soft
bottoms, and that often congregate in pools or burrow in mud during the dry season. Trachemys scripta,
in particular, is known to bask along river margins in
large numbers and nest during the dry season when
females deposit up to 35 large eggs (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Savage, 2002). Turtles, and in particular
their eggs, are singularly important dry season
resources for contemporary savanna dwellers of central Brazil, whose seasonal forays are intended for
gathering eggs on exposed beaches, along with intensive hunting and shing (e.g., Coimbra et al.,

337

2002:161, 167; Cormier, 2003:47; Maybury-Lewis,

1974:39; Murphy and Quain, 1955:27; Wagley,
1977:52; Werner, 1990:106). Also during the dry season, shing with traps, poisons, or bow and arrow is
greatly facilitated by receding water levels, decreased
turbulence, and concentration of sh within intermittent pools (e.g., Coimbra et al., 2002:166; Cormier,
2003:47; Werner, 1990:97).
Other vertebrate prey can persist near rivers and
in gallery forests during dry periods, as seasonally
decreasing food resources continue to be available
in these areas. Iguanas can be plentiful, especially
females who annually lay up to 70 eggs in sandy
beaches and river terraces during the dry season in
order to ensure that the emergence of hatchlings
coincides with the onset of rains (Muller, 1972).
The Miskito of eastern Nicaragua search inland
beaches, lagoons, and swamps for Trachemys and
Iguana during the dry season, when both taxa
assume dietary importance (Nietschmann, 1973:91,
115). Today, in the lower basin of the Magdalena
River and the Serrania of San Jacinto, Icoteas (Trachemys) meat and Iguana eggs and meat are collected and consumed mainly between March and
April. In the seasonal savanna climate, caiman congregate in remnant water bodies during the dry season (Ojasti, 1996). The common large agouti is
particularly susceptible to trapping during periods
of fruit shortage (Smyth, 1978:3), and the larger
paca concentrates in or near forest galleries where
both food and protection are available throughout
the dry season (Collett, 1981:555556, 564). Other
mammals like felids, peccary, deer (all presently
extinct in the region), and raccoons also frequent
water bodies and riverside galleries in savanna areas
where they nd food and cover, particularly at the
height of the dry season.
Vertebrate ubiquity
Table 3 lists the frequency with which recovered
vertebrate specimens are associated within each
early occupation stratum at San Jacinto 1. The
grouping of categories includes indeterminate
specimens and corresponds roughly to zoological
Order while accommodating some separation for
ecological purposes. In addition to indeterminate
specimens, two categories of identied vertebrates
are found in recurrent association with each of the
repeated human occupation oors at the site.
Turtle/tortoise specimens are almost as ubiquitous
as indeterminate fragments within each of the

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P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

Table 3
Numerical distribution of non-human vertebrate archaeofaunas associated with the earliest anthropic strata at San Jacinto 1
Identied faunas
Taxon
Shark
Bony sh
Catsh
Frog/toad
Turtle/tortoise
Crocodile
Iguana
Snake
Reptile indet.
Bird
Edentate
Raccoon
Large cat
Peccary
Deer
Large rodent
Mammal indet.
Indeterminate
Total

Stratum
9

10
1
9
3

1
5
5

55

108

1
5
2
62
141

3
2
1
1
1
1
1
3
7
4
76
176

280

395

12

14

16

18

Total

12
56

1
2
16

4
36
117

1
1
11
248

13

3
44
26
1
472
5
4
3
6
2
2
1
2
5
15
12
199
767

181

57

317

324

15

1569

3
1
1
103
1

11
27

1
1

10
5

1
15
1

20

135
4
1

44

1
1
1
2

occupational strata, and we strongly suspect that

many of these indeterminate fragments likely
include unidentiable carapace or plastron fragments. Bony sh, particularly catsh, are also
ubiquitous within the human occupation levels at
San Jacinto 1. To a lesser extent, deer and large
rodents are also recurrently associated with the
repeated occupations, whereas most other vertebrate categories are only intermittently associated.
Vertebrate richness
We expect that the numbers of dierent kinds of
vertebrate prey items found in association with each
occupation stratum should be relatively low if the
early human occupants of San Jacinto 1 were
repeatedly pursuing a restricted set of resources during their dry season occupations of the site. Using
the data in Table 3, we plot the values of common
diversity measures for each occupation stratum.
Each maintains a somewhat consistent relationship
until the largest subsample (stratum 18) and smallest subsample (stratum 20) are encountered
(Fig. 7). However, interpretation of these indices is
not at all clear because richness values are strongly
and signicantly correlated to sample size dierences between the dierent strata (Grayson, 1981).
When corresponding numbers of vertebrate specimens within each occupation stratum are used as

cumulative increments toward sampling to redundancy (e.g., Lepofsky and Lertzman, 2005; Lyman
and Ames, 2004), asymptote is not reached until
700 to 800 specimens are recorded, which far
exceeds the totals for any of the recovered stratum
samples.
We next explored rarefaction (e.g., Gotelli and
Colwell, 2001; Raup, 1975; Tipper, 1979) in order
to compare vertebrate richness between the occupation strata. A rarefaction curve for vertebrate
remains at San Jacinto 1 was generated, using Analytical Rarefaction Ver. 1.3, created by Steven Holland and available on the University of Georgia
Stratigraphy Lab web page (http://www.uga.edu/
strata/software/Software.html). The overall curve
shape does not rise steeply, suggesting that the samples are numerically dominated by a few items
(Gotelli and Colwell, 2001:382), which we examine
in the following section. Fig. 8 illustrates the relationship between assemblage richness (Sample S)
and estimated richness based on rarefaction (Estimated S) for each stratum at its respective sample
size, along with upper and lower 95% condence
intervals. The richness gures suggest some variability between the occupation strata: strata 18 and 20
fall below the lower 95% condence interval, strata
12 and 16 are comparable to estimated values, strata
14 and 9 fall below the estimate but within the lower
condence interval, and stratum 10 exceeds the

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

339

Fig. 7. Diversity indices for vertebrate archaeofaunas arranged by stratum.

upper 95% condence value. We compare these values with Kintighs (1984,1989,1992) widely used
simulation which tests the null hypothesis that separate assemblages are random samples drawn from
a parent population. Fig. 9 plots the relationship
between richness (ordinate) and sample size
(abscissa) along with mean values and 90% condence intervals for each early occupation stratum.
The results are somewhat comparable, as only the
richness value in stratum 10 exceeds the upper
90% condence interval and strata 12 and 16 are
similar to estimated values; however, strata 9 and
14 clearly join strata 18 and 20 below the 90% condence interval. It appears that the richness values
for vertebrate faunas in many of the earliest occupation levels tend to be depressed, suggesting that a
relatively narrow range of dierent faunas was accumulated and deposited at San Jacinto 1. We suspect
this outcome may in part be due to late Archaic foragers repeatedly pursuing the same restricted set of

prey items in each of the dry season occupations at

the site.
Vertebrate evenness
This interpretation is supported by the gradual
slope of the rarefaction curve, and a comparable
examination of evenness values for vertebrate taxa
in the occupation strata, each of which is strongly
dominated by a restricted set of categories. Using
Kintighs technique, Fig. 10 plots the relationship
between evenness (ordinate) and sample size
(abscissa) along with mean values and 90% condence intervals for vertebrate categories associated
with each of the early strata. The analysis clearly
reveals the repeatedly uneven distribution of specimens within the represented categories. Each stratum is disproportionately dominated by certain
vertebrate categories, principally turtles, sh, and
indeterminate fragments (Table 3).

340

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

Fig. 8. Rarefaction curves plotting estimated richness (Estimated S) and 95% condence intervals with sample richness (Sample S) along
sampling sizes by stratum for vertebrate archaeofaunas.

Dry season invertebrate expolitation

The preserved invertebrate specimens at the site
are dominated by three identied genera (Table 2).
Diplodon is a freshwater mussel that was deposited
in appreciable quantities on the occupation oors,
and which would have been locally available in
the stream that runs past the site. The bulk of the
invertebrate assemblage is comprised of two dierent genera of operculated snails. Pomacea elegans
and P. cornucopia are today the only mollusks
found in the river during the driest point of the season. Pomacea are amphibious snails that possess a
mantle cavity with both lung and gill, enabling them
to respire terrestrially or while submerged at the
water surface where they lay their egg masses. Neocyclotus, on the other hand, is extra local. This
genus is found in very humid subandean cloud forest environments with large amounts of palms, such
as in the Cerro Maco which is located in the upper
part of the Serrana de San Jacinto, less than 10 km
distant. It is also important to mention the presence

of two tree snails, Drymaeus cf. virgulatus (Ferussac)

and Orthalicus cf. maracaibensis (Pfeier, 1856),
also reported as undatus (Bruguiere). Ecological
data for these genera from the Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta (Breure, 1984) and from the Cordillera
de la Costa National Park Henry Pittier in Venezuela, conrm an association with dry xerophytic
communities or arid thorn woodlands with annual
precipitation below 500 mm. This corroborates
interpretations based on column analyses and shell
midden formation (Oyuela-Caycedo, 1996) that
the environment was more arid than today, with a
prolonged dry season.

Invertebrate ubiquity
Table 4 lists the frequency of invertebrate specimens associated with the early occupation strata
at San Jacinto 1. Both Pomacea and Neocyclotus
are found in recurrent association with each
repeated human occupation at the site; otherwise,

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

341

Fig. 9. Relationship between richness (ordinate) and sample size (abscissa) for vertebrate archaeofaunas in each early occupation stratum
at San Jacinto 1, with mean and 90% condence intervals plotted.

Fig. 10. Relationship between evenness (ordinate) and sample size (abscissa) for vertebrate archaeofaunas in each early occupation
stratum at San Jacinto 1, with mean and 90% condence intervals plotted.

only Diplodon appears in any appreciable quantity

in most of the occupation strata.
Invertebrate richness
The data in Table 4 suggest that the early occupants of San Jacinto 1 were repeatedly pursuing a
restricted set of invertebrate resources during their

dry season occupations of the site. Using these

gures, we plot the values of dierent diversity
measures for each occupation stratum which maintain a highly consistent relationship until the largest
subsample (stratum 18) and smallest subsample
(stratum 20) are encountered (Fig. 11). Unlike the
vertebrate samples, the richness values are not
correlated to dierences in subsample sizes between

342

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

Table 4
Numerical distribution of identied invertebrate archaeofaunas in the lowest anthropic strata at San Jacinto 1
Identied Faunas
Taxon
Anodontites
Diplodon
Ecuadorea
Prisodon
Pomacea
Neocyclotus
Doryssa
Drymaeus
Orthalicus
Pulmonates Indet.
Decapoda
Total

Stratum
9

10

275
1
1940
402

14
3

2635

12

14

16

18

20

1
646

1
78

1
2

3
1

7044
2185

2319
1885

773
1270
1

1
1733
2649
2

266
614

4
1
1

1
14

4289

2048

4403

881

5
6

9887

2
6

Total
6
1002
1
1
14077
9011
3
5
25
4
16
24151

Fig. 11. Diversity indices for invertebrate archaeofaunas arranged by stratum.

the dierent strata, certainly as the invertebrate

sample has quickly reached asymptote by the third
lowest subsample at roughly 2000 specimens.

An exploration of the relationship of richness

within each occupation stratum using rarefaction,
again reveals a gently upcurving slope which

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

may suggest uneven distribution of plotted categories. Fig. 12 illustrates the relationship between
assemblage richness (Sample S) and estimated
richness based on rarefaction (Estimated S) for
each stratum at its respective sample size, along
with upper and lower 95% condence intervals.
The richness gures also suggest some variability
within the site: strata 18 and 10 fall below the
lower 95% condence interval, strata 9, 12, 16,
and 20 fall below estimated values yet lie within
the lower 95% condence interval, and only stratum 14 lies slightly above the estimated richness
gure, but well within the upper 95% condence
value. Fig. 13 uses the Kintigh simulation to plot
the relationship between richness (ordinate) and
sample size (abscissa) along with mean values
and 90% condence intervals for invertebrate categories associated with each early occupation.
With the exception of strata 18, and perhaps 10,
the relationship between richness and respective
sample sizes is dicult to separate.

343

Invertebrate evenness
Using Kintighs simulation, evenness values for
invertebrate taxa within the occupational strata
clearly indicate that, with the exception of stratum
20, each is dominated by a restricted set of categories (Fig. 14). Stratum 20, the earliest of the occupational strata at San Jacinto 1 has a relatively small
sample size (N = 8) with both Pomacea and Neocyclotus present. These two genera are disproportionately dominant in all the other strata (Table 4).
Discussion
San Jacinto 1 is the rst high resolution Archaic
archaeological site with ber-tempered pottery in
Latin America that illustrates the complexity of
variation in site formation, features, and material
culture associated with the complex circuit of mobility and territorial resource use in highly seasonal
tropical environments. Contextual and associational

Fig. 12. Rarefaction curves plotting estimated richness (Estimated S) and 95% condence intervals with sample richness (Sample S) along
sampling sizes by stratum for invertebrate archaeofaunas.

344

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

Fig. 13. Relationship between richness (ordinate) and sample size (abscissa) for invertebrate archaeofaunas in each early occupation
stratum at San Jacinto 1, with mean and 90% condence intervals plotted.

Fig. 14. Relationship between evenness (ordinate) and sample size (abscissa) for invertebrate archaeofaunas in each early occupation
stratum at San Jacinto 1, with mean and 90% condence intervals plotted.

data suggest that Archaic foragers of northern

Colombia were repeatedly occupying San Jacinto
1 in the fourth millennium before the Christian era
and using it as a preferred logistic camp during
which they assumed particular tasks and procured
specic game at the height of the savanna dry season. The spatial distribution of features suggests
that the site had been utilized annually on a
seasonal basis at the beginning of the dry season,

and all strata except stratum 9 correspond to expectations for special-purpose sites of logistically
mobile populations (Oyuela-Caycedo, 1993:112
124, 1998). Feature density is high, use is redundant
and there is a near random distribution of features.
These results are expected with seasonal re-occupations of a site. In this case, the degree of redundancy
follows the expectations of a pattern that is very
likely the product of a logistically mobile group that

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

used the site as a seasonal special-purpose camp

(OConnell, 1987; Binford, 1978:495497). Further,
it is very likely that the site was occupied for a
few days at a time during each season.
A restricted range of redundant and primarily
small prey dominates the faunal prole of the occupation strata at San Jacinto 1. Lupo and Schmitt
(2005) demonstrate how behavioral variation, along
with other factors like length of site occupation and
seasonal precipitation can obscure assemblage interpretation and lead to erroneous conclusions if the
results of focused foraging choices are considered
as representative of the entire prehistoric diet. San
Jacinto 1 is an archaeological context with relatively
unambiguous patterning that resulted from short
term and redundant occupations. Only when considered together with contemporaneous sites that
reect a variety of dierent seasonal and task foci,
might we begin to understand the entire diet of late
Archaic Colombian savanna foragers (Lupo and
Schmitt, 2005:350).
It is dicult to identify specic preservation technologies from the recovered sample of vertebrate
remains. Certainly, the capture and subsequent penning of live turtles is feasible, as is the collection of
turtle eggs on nearby beaches. Smoking, salting,
sun-drying, or parboiling surplus turtle, sh, and
sundry meats are also possibilities (e.g., Coimbra
et al., 2002:167; Nietschmann, 1973:211212). However, the relatively large amount of turtle shell debris, in frequent association with thermally altered
soil and re-cracked rock, reminds us of the welldocumented accounts of meat pies produced in
earth ovens by various Brazilian savanna dwellers,
for whom turtle collection is an essential feature of
seasonal life. In general, the earth oven consists of
a pile of rewood topped by large rocks. After the
fuel is ignited and while the pile is burning, the meat
pies are prepared. Banana or Heliconia leaves are
covered with a manioc paste, to which lumps of
meat are added, often topped by another layer of
paste, after which the leaves are folded over and tied
to form a large wrapped pie. After the fuel has been
burned, the ovens contents are swept out, the pies
are laid in the center, and the rocks are piled on
top. A nal, heavy pile of dirt is placed over the contents in order to insulate the oven. After cooking,
the oven is dug up, and the pies are removed for distribution and consumption (cf. Nimuendaju,
1967:3435; Maybury-Lewis, 1974:45; Werner,
1990:72). Vegetable foods cooked in the numerous
earth ovens could have included tubers or a mash

345

made of seed our which was wrapped in the leaves

of either grass or species of Marantaceae. The cooking process was completed by sealing the pit, either
with a cover or with earth. Once the food was
cooked, the oven had cooled, and the food was
extracted, the pit was relled with earth.
We suspect that the species of Pomacea were
exploited for food in the adjacent San Jacinto
stream when they were easier to locate during the
dry season. Neocyclotus, on the other hand, would
have been gathered in the humid forest of the Serrana de San Jacinto, perhaps by a task-specic group
that journeyed there and back in the same day. Considering that the amount of meat that can be
extracted from either snail is not high, it is conceivable that they were perhaps an occasional or secondary source of protein. Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani
(2005) have suggested the use of their opercula in the
manufacture of beads. Juan Parodiz (1993, personal
communication) identied the calcied opercula of
Neocyclotus snails which had not been recorded previously for Colombia or the neotropics. The operculum is a dorsal plate on the posterior portion of the
snails foot that seals the aperture when the body
retracts into the shell. It serves to protect the snail
from predators as well as to maintain interior
humidity during the dry season. The complex structure of the operculum is formed by calcareous layers
(Hunt, 1976) and may, therefore, be a good marker
of growth and seasonality of deposition. All specimens represent adults between four and six years
of age, based on the uniform size of shells and opercula within the assemblage, and assuming that their
dark markings correspond to halted growth periods
during yearly dry season.
The most probable season of occupation for all
strata was the dry season when ooding did not
endanger or aect the activities of the occupants.
The collection of mollusks of the genus Pomacea
in streams close to the site is easiest in this season
when they were most likely utilized as an occasional
food source. The recovered botanical specimens also
indicate site utilization at the beginning of the dry
season from November through January. During
this period, plants such as grasses and species of
Malvaceae and Sapotaceae are in the process of
fruiting and seed dispersal in this region of the savannas of Bolvar (Bonzani, 1998). The climate also
appears to have been much drier than it currently
is in this area, potentially extending the dry season
by one or more months. The abundant availability
of seeds from grasses and certain trees, and

346

P.W. Stahl, A. Oyuela-Caycedo / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 329349

potentially other plant food sources during only a

few months of the year may help to explain the need
to intensify activities around the collection and processing of these resources. These collection and processing activities occurred independent of whether
or not the plants were cultivated or wild (Hastorf,
1994:139154, 1999:3558). Intensication of processing is clearly evident in the lithic artifacts that
include 145 complete and fragmented metates and
101 manos, ethnographically known to be used to
process seeds, often those of maize, into our (Stahl,
1989).
Given the dry season occupations of San Jacinto
1 over hundreds of years, the inhabitants appear to
have moved to the site seasonally to collect and process abundant recurrent resources which were
potentially stored at a base camp to which they
returned for the duration of the dry season. The
strategy most likely used is one associated with the
monitoring of resources and a spatialtemporal or
circumscribed territoriality whereby resources were
watched for and utilized in the landscape and
throughout the year (Dillehay et al., 2003; Flannery,
1986; Oyuela-Caycedo, 1993:137142, 1995, 1996;
Raymond, 1998).
The collection of Neocyclotus also suggests a
logistic mobility strategy in that these mollusks
grow only in the humid tropical forest, the closest
of which is located approximately 10 km from the
site. The inhabitants of San Jacinto 1 would have
had to send special task groups to collect the mollusks and return to the site. The lack of other exotic
materials at the site, such as those used to make the
lithic artifacts and re-cracked rocks, also points to
restricted territoriality of the groups occupying San
Jacinto 1. This restricted territoriality can be considered as evidence of demographic packing in the
region (Binford, 2001:363399). However, dierent
ecological settings were utilized which points to
the likelihood that a centralized base camp was
occupied at various times of the year from which
task groups would have left to visit these other ecological settings in order to collect resources.
In this context, the function of pottery appears to
be associated more with social behavior than with
economic process (Oyuela-Caycedo, 1993:101
108). No evidence was found of burned surfaces
on the pottery or of indirect cooking by rock boiling. The pottery was also not associated directly
with the re-pits or re-cracked rocks (Oyuela-Caycedo, 1995). This lack of association with cooking
activities, however, does not mean that pottery

was not used for other purposes in food processing

such as fermentation. In this case, pottery at San
Jacinto 1 would have been used in the process of
intensifying social interactions for reasons that
may relate to increased contacts with other groups,
in social storage in the form of gift exchanges (i.e.,
food or drink), and in the demand for labor (Bonzani and Oyuela-Caycedo, 2006:345). The need for
increased labor was most likely tied to the seasonal
nature of the utilized resources while the increase in
contact between groups would have resulted from
overlapping territories in which dierent groups
were attracted to similar seasonal resources.
Social and ritualistic behaviors may have been
occurring as a means to alleviate conict or competition in areas where the territories of adjacent
groups overlapped (Bonzani, 1992; Cashden, 1983;
Peterson, 1972:49; Rowley-Conwy, 2001). Such
activities can be seen as a means of social intensication or the beginnings of ritualized behavior
(Aldenderfer, 1998:303305; Cauvin, 2000a,b; Hastorf, 1994,1999), which allow dierent groups to
co-interact together and avoid conict. This activity, related to a spatialtemporal territoriality, could
then have developed into extended social networks
and alliances (MacDonald and Hewlett, 1999) with
the necessity of symbolically marking the group
through various means including highly stylized
ceramic vessels. The development of new technologies, such as pottery, could have played an important role in this process. In this context, the
origins of pottery are better understood as social
obligations described very well by Mauss (1967) in
terms of gift giving. The data do indicate that the
early pottery at San Jacinto 1 was not associated
with economic cooking functions but was probably
involved in social functions such as serving vessels
of fermented drinks or hallucinogens (Oyuela-Caycedo, 1993:101108, 169173, 1995; see also Pratt,
1999; Hastorf, 2006:102104)). The use of pottery
and other resources at the site, that would have been
a minor component of the inhabitants yearly diet,
probably helped to relieve stress more on a social
level and by social means than by economic ones.
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