Interacting Pre-Columbian Amerindian Societies and Environments: Insights from Five Millennia of Archaeological Invertebrate Record on the Saint- Martin Island (French Lesser Antilles)

• Published in: Environmental Archaeology
• Main Authors: Serrand, Nathalie, Bonnissent, Dominique
• Other Authors: Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap), Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements (AASPE), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique (LAMPEA), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ministère de la Culture (MC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Saint-Martin island; anthropic/natural systems; palaeo-climate; palaeo-environment; archaeomalacology; [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; Martin Island
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02526948; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02526948/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02526948/file/2018_Serrand-Bonnissent_InteractPrecoAm%20Soc%20%26%20Enviro%205%20Mill%20Archaeo%20Inverteb%20Record%20StMartin_Environmental%20Archaeology.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2018.1450463

International audience Archaeological research, conducted on the French part of Saint-Martin, in the Lesser Antilles, documents the history of Amerindian communities on this island from the 4th millennium BC to the 15th century AD. Eight sites, spanning almost completely this sequence, have yielded extensive assemblages of invertebrate remains. Analysis and comparison of these assemblages with contemporaneous settlements from nearby islands reveal trends in the ways Amerindian communities exploited these resources. These results, especially when contrasted with a palaeo-climatic frame recently produced for Saint-Martin, reflect the intricate ways in which anthropic and natural systems interact.