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Coastal archaeology is vulnerable to climate change, making the development of new techniques for the rapid recovery of information from the most threatened sites essential. The authors report a systematic kayak survey of a Chesapeake Bay sub-estuary undertaken during the winter months, when low tides and reduced vegetation maximise the visibility of archaeological material. Locations in the vulnerable intertidal zone were targeted for survey. Data were collected for 24 archaeological sites, illuminating local settlement chronology. This technique could be used for the survey of endangered coastal archaeology in other regions of the world. Keywords: North America, Chesapeake Bay, shell midden, heritage management, Introduction The consequences of twenty-first century climate change, including rising sea levels, rapid erosion and increased storm intensity, pose significant risks to coastal archaeological sites. The scale of this challenge [...]

The island laboratory concept has long been an important construct in island archaeology, with an emphasis on human biogeography and issues of isolation, connectivity, interaction, evolution, and extinction. The Pacific Coast of Alta and Baja California contains several offshore islands that offer a framework for evaluating a variety of cultural and ecological issues. The California Islands include large islands (>100 km2) with abundant resources that were attractive to ancient people for 13,000 years and numerous small islands (5 km2 in area or less), many of which contain evidence of human occupation for centuries to millennia. Most of these small islands have seen limited archaeological research and often are presumed to have been marginal locations for past human settlement. Today, small islands from San Francisco Bay to Baja California provide key habitat for endemic species, breeding seabirds and marine mammals, and rare plants. Here, we review the archaeology of small islands on California's outer coast, focusing on paleogeography, human settlement dynamics, and ecology and biodiversity. Synthesis of archaeological and environmental data demonstrate the utility of small islands as model systems for evaluating changes in island ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeobotanical remains recovered from a large ∼8000-year-old-shell midden (CA-SRI-666) on Santa Rosa Island provide the first ancient plant data from this large island, shedding light on ancient patterns of plant use, subsistence, and sedentism. Faunal data from shell midden samples retrieved from three site loci contain evidence for harvesting of rocky intertidal shellfish and estuarine clams and oysters from a paleo-estuary in the vicinity. CA-SRI-666 appears to have been an Early Holocene village site occupied year round. A key to the development of early sedentary societies on the island may have been geophytes, especially Brodiaea-type corms, which provided an abundant source of carbohydrates and calories that complemented marine resources rich in fat and whole animal proteins. Our data demonstrate the value of integrating paleobotanical and zooarchaeological data from island and coastal archaeological sites to help elucidate human social, cultural, and environmental dynamics, including sedentism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]