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The excavation of shell middens and mounds is an important source of information regarding past human diet, settlement, technology, and paleoenvironments.The contributors to this book introduce new ways to study shell-matrix sites, ranging from the geochemical analysis of shellfish to the interpretation of human remains buried within. Drawing upon examples from around the world, this is one of the only books to offer a global perspective on the archaeology of shell-matrix sites. r “Investigations of site formation processes, landscapes, zooarchaeological content, artifacts, macro- and micro-botanical remains, and human skeletal remains, by contributors from many parts of the world, provide a broad picture of the great diversity of human activities that result in such sites.There is even information on how to see possible overexploitation of shellfish beds, sustainability of subsistence practices, and human management of forest species. Many contributors bring new kinds of analyses or special studies of previously unexamined types of materials (such as craniometrics, paleodemography, residues on teeth and stone tools, phytoliths, and starch grains).The addition of so many diverse biological perspectives is enormously welcome. One archaeologist can never become expert in all the research aspects of such sites, so learning of so many other possibilities for interpreting them is a major contribution.” —nancy marie white, coeditor of Late Prehistoric Florida:Archaeology at the Edge of the MississippianWorld “A substantial contribution to the literature on the subject.Will be essential reading for archaeologists and others who work on this type of site.” —barbara voorhies, author of Coastal Collectors in the Holocene:The Chantuto People of Southwest Mexico r anthropology • archaeology Mirjana Roksandic is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Winnipeg. Sheila Mendonça de Souza is a professor of public health at Fundacão Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro. Sabine Eggers is an associate professor of biology at the Universidade de São Paulo. Meghan Burchell is an assistant professor of archaeology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Saint John’s. Daniela Klokler is an associate professor at the Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão. Cover illustration courtesy the State Archives of Florida Photographic Collection university of new mexico press unmpress.com • 800-249-7737 ISBN 978-0-8263-5456-3 9 0 0 0 0 9 780826 354563 > ...

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