We report on an assemblage of well preserved fish remains recovered from the site of Chelechol ra Orrak in the Rock Islands of Palau. This is only the second such study to date in Palau and one of the few for the region, indicating the need to better understand the role marine resources played in the adaptation and development of early Micronesian societies. Results demonstrate that Palauans were fishing by at least 1700 BP, several hundred years earlier than previously recorded, and that they exploited a wide range of fish taxa, primarily from inner reef and lagoonal habitats. Our study also suggests that the diversity of fish decreased over time, perhaps due to overharvesting and/or changes in subsistence patterns, similar to what other researchers have reported in the Pacific.
Previous research at the Chelechol ra Orrak site in Palau, Micronesia suggested that fishing may have declined prehistorically over the past two thousand years. Here we discuss the analysis of an additional suite of archaeofish remains recovered from the site that significantly expands the size of the previous assemblage, providing a more robust interpretation of prehistoric fishing in the archipelago. Results indicate that although all phases of occupation show diverse and relatively equitable exploitation of fish taxa, there are statistically significant changes in fishing over time when feeding guild (general ecological niche) is considered. In addition, the number of fish remains declines by an order of magnitude between early (1400–1240 BP) and later (1290–720 BP and 500–0 BP) occupation phases. Although various factors may be responsible for this dramatic decrease, it is generally correlated with settlement changes and possible increasing agricultural production in Palau. Thus, a decline in the overall importance of fishing may account for the changes observed in the archaeofish assemblage over time.
Prior investigation at the Chelechol ra Orrak site (3000/1700 -0 BP) in Palau's Rock Islands revealed a decline in fishing and increased reliance on small-bodied, inshore and littoral molluscs, commensurate with evidence for declining foraging efficiency and prey switching that signal potential resource depression. Yet, standard markers for 'overfishing', such as diet-breadth expansion, increased taxonomic richness, and a switch to exploitation of offshore waters, are lacking at the site, undermining the case for anthropogenic resource (exploitation) depression as a cause of the observed patterning.Broad scale climate change similarly fails to account for these shifts. To investigate these conflicting patterns we performed a mean/median size analysis of two parrotfish (Scaridae) taxa, Scarus and Chlorurus, among the most heavily exploited fish at the site. Results indicate that Scarus size remains unchanged through 1500 years of exploitation, while Chlorurus become larger, substantiating previous findings for sustainable resource use at Orrak. With these results in mind, we critically evaluate prey size change as a metric for anthropogenic exploitation depression, noting that size diminution, in particular, may arise epiphenomenally due to multiple causes unrelated to human predation pressure. Results have broader implications for the detection and attribution of resource depression in studies of human paleoecology.
Archaeologists routinely reconstruct the types of marine environments fished by past human societies in order to understand economic systems, foraging behaviour, maritime technology and seafaring abilities. These reconstructions are based on ecological data provided by archaeofish identifications, but can be problematic where coarse‐grained designations, such as inshore or pelagic, are used, or the influence of fish behaviour and life history traits on movement between habitats is overlooked. In tropical waters, intra‐family diversity complicates habitat reconstruction by precluding lower‐level taxonomic identifications that provide precise habitat information (e.g. surge channels, dropoffs). Consequently, a single generalised habitat may be imposed on fishes that could be caught in multiple environments, thereby eroding the reliability of fishing zone reconstructions. This study employs the archaeofish assemblage from Chelechol ra Orrak (c. 3000–0 BP), Palau to examine the analytical impact of these variables on fishing habitat reconstruction based on a blind assessment of taxon‐derived environmental data by two analysts. We assesses how analysts’ variable decision protocols for the handling of imprecise environmental data impact resulting habitat exploitation profiles. Our results address the issue of spatial resolution in habitat information gleaned from fish assemblages like Orrak's, with important implications for the interpretation of foraging practices and maritime adaptations.
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