Synopses & Reviews
For thousands of years, fisheries were crucial to the sustenance of the First Peoples of the Pacific Coast. Yet human impact has left us with a woefully incomplete understanding of their histories prior to the industrial era. Covering Alaska, British Columbia, and Puget Sound, The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries illustrates how the archaeological record reveals new information about ancient ways of life and the histories of key species. Individual chapters cover salmon, as well as a number of lesser-known species abundant in archaeological sites, including pacific cod, herring, rockfish, eulachon, and hake. In turn, this ecological history informs suggestions for sustainable fishing in today’s rapidly changing environment.
Review
"[The editors] hope that the creation of a baseline understanding of the complexities of fisheries through time, space, and cultural uses will yield the recognition that ancient data are relevant to the present and future of fisheries management--particularly the ways in which climate change may provoke fine-scale responses in the fisheries. . . . Recommended."
Choice
Review
“The goals of the volume are broad but manageable . . . [it] will be valuable to readers who are interested in the latest methods of extracting data from archaeological fishbone, who are interested in a current summary of data on precontact North Pacific fisheries and fish (also useful for fisheries management), and for those interested in the evolution of fisheries and fish in the North Pacific.” Kathlyn M. Stewart
Review
“The contributions to this volume, though just a sampling of the work currently being conducted around the eastern North Pacific, highlight the depth and range of approaches that characterize the state-of-the-art in the zooarchaeological analysis of fish remains.” American Antiquity
Review
“This volume provides important insights for all archaeologists working along the north Pacific coast.” Michael A. Etnier - Alaska Journal of Anthropology
Review
“Serious students of fisheries research are well advised to obtain this book.” Alan D. McMillan - Journal Canadien d'Arch�ologie
About the Author
Madonna L. Moss is professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon.
Aubrey Cannon is professor of anthropology at McMaster University in Ontario.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries: An Introduction
Madonna L. Moss and Aubrey Cannon
Section I: New Methodological Approaches to Archaeology of Fisheries
Chapter 2: Identification of Salmon Species from Archaeological Remains on the Northwest Coast
Trevor J. Orchard and Paul Szpak
Chapter 3: Little Ice Age Climate: Gadus macrocephalus Otoliths as a Measure of Local Variability
Catherine F. West, Stephen Wischniowski, and Christopher Johnston
Chapter 4: Pacific Cod and Salmon Structural Bone Density: Implications for Interpreting Butchering Patters in North Pacific Archaeofaunas
Ross E. Smith, Virginia L. Butler, Shelia Orwoll, and Catherine Wilson-Skogen
Section II: Salmon in Context: Regional and Local Variation
Chapter 5: Site-Specific Salmon Fisheries on the Central Coast of British Columbia
Aubrey Cannon, Dongya Yang, and Camilla Speller
Chapter 6: Heiltsuk Stone Fish Traps on the Central Coast of British Columbia
Elroy White
Chapter 7: Riverine Salmon Harvesting and Processing Technology in Northern British Columbia
Paul Prince
Chapter 8: Late Holocene Fisheries in Gwaii Haanas: Species Composition, Trends in Abundance, and Environmental or Cultural Explanations
Trevor J. Orchard
Chapter 9: Locational Optimization and Faunal Remains in Northern Barkley Sound, Western Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Gregory G. Monks
Section III: Pacific Cod and Other Gadids: “Cousins” of the Fish That Changed the World
Chapter 10: Pacific Cod in Southeast Alaska: The “Cousin” of the Fish That Changed the World
Madonna L. Moss
Chapter 11: Zooarchaeology of the “Fish That Stops”: Using Archaeofaunas to Construct Long-Term Time Series of Atlantic and Pacific Cod Populations
Matthew W. Betts, Herbert D.G. Maschner, and Donald S. Clark
Chapter 12: Processing the Patterns: Elusive Archaeofaunal Signatures of Cod Storage on the North Pacific Coast
Megan A. Partlow and Robert E. Kopperl
Chapter 13: Cod and Salmon: A Tale of Two Assemblages from Coffman Cove, Alaska
Madonna L. Moss
Section IV: Herring and Other Little-Known Fish of the North Pacific Coast
Chapter 14: Fish Traps and Shell Middens at Comox Harbour, British Columbia
Megan Caldwell
Chapter 15: An Archaeological History of Holocene Fish Use in the Dundas Island Group, British Columbia
Natalie Brewster and Andrew Martindale
Chapter 16: Patterns of Fish Usage at a Late Prehistoric Northern Puget Sound Shell Midden
Teresa Trost, Randall Schalk, Mike Wolverton, and Margaret A. Nelson
Chapter 17: Herring Bones in Southeast Alaska Archaeological Sites: The Record of Tlingit Use of Yaaw (Pacific Herring, Clupea pallasii)
Madonna L. Moss, Virginia L. Butler, and J. Tait Elder
Section V: Conclusion
Chapter 18: Conclusion: The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries
Aubrey Cannon and Madonna L. Moss
Contributors
Index