Comparing Oyster Harvesting Practices over a 500-Year Period on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, USA
Research Poster Social & Behavioral Sciences 2025 Graduate ExhibitionPresentation by Matthew Picarelli-Kombert
Exhibition Number 60
Abstract
Since arriving on Ossabaw Island ca. 5,000 years ago, Indigenous Guale communities have been embedded in complex estuarine socioecological systems. One of the most conspicuous manifestations of these human-ecosystem dynamics in the archaeological and modern ecological records are the large quantities of eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) consumed and deposited by these Indigenous communities. Guale people living at the town at Middle Place (9CH158) on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, ca. 500 – 1000 years ago, consumed and deposited oyster refuse en masse across the site. This research leverages data from 25 archaeological contexts of deposited shell associated with the Indigenous occupation of the town (e.g., household refuse from daily life) to illuminate long-term shellfishing practices and human-ecosystem dynamics through time and space across the history of single community. More specifically, using evidence of the presence and abundance of epibiont/parasitic activity (i.e. boring sponge and polychaeta worm) damage to shells recovered from the archaeological record, trends are evaluated related to the habitats and ecological conditions from which oysters were harvested. This study finds that evidence of boring sponge damage on oysters collected by Indigenous inhabitants increased over the 500-year occupation of the town, while the polychaeta worm damage slightly decreased. Given the specific environmental conditions within which these parasites are active in estuarine ecosystems, these datasets provide insight into shifting human uses of oyster beds across the estuarine system. Interpretations of these results serve as a proxy for understanding changes in human-ecosystem dynamics, especially in the context of both environmental and demographic change.
Importance
The archaeological record is a key database of long-term human-ecosystem dynamics, preserving material remnants of past human-environmental interactions, especially across critical environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic changes. In island and coastal environments, epibiont/parasitic evidence on shell deposited by past communities can provide insight into shifting human-environmental relationships, resource exploitation practices, and their sustainability over the long term. More specifically, records of shellfish pathologies preserved in the archaeological record can illuminate both shifting ecological conditions within estuarine landscapes and how related human decisions adapted to internal and external pressures. This study on a past, southeastern Atlantic Indigenous community demonstrates that epibiont representation across archaeological contexts can provide proxy data on relationships between demographic trends, environmental change, and the complex dynamics of socioecologies.