Geological Examination of Archaeological Middens in the Dominican Republic

摘要

My research applies traditionally geochemical and paleontological approaches to investigate important and ongoing areas of scientific inquiry in the Caribbean, principally recent climatic patterns, the status of important biological coastal resources, and the island's original residents who experienced the beginning of American colonialism. This dissertation examines study sites on the north and south shores of the Dominican Republic, encompassing both Atlantic and Caribbean coastal environments, El Tamarindo on the northwest coast and La Cangrejera on the southeast coast. Radiometric dates established a temporal datum from which I built this investigation into the paleoecology, paleoclimate, and archaeology of the Dominican Republic. Carbon and oxygen stable isotope analyses of select marine gastropods serve as proxies of shallow marine sea-surface temperatures during the molluscs' lifetimes, and by extension, expands the environmental parameters of the late Holocene record for the neotropics. Taxonomic identifications of 11,570 bivalve and gastropod individuals and 5,472 body size measurements facilitated reconstruction of the paleoecology of these shallow-water coastal sites and established baselines for coastal resources in the Dominican Republic before the arrival of Europeans. The elemental composition of ceramics found excavated with the thousands of mollusc shells were analyzed to determine their elemental relationship to other ceramics from the region and geologic sources. The results of this investigation indicated proximity to geologic provinces is a significant factor in the elemental composition of ceramics instead of typological motifs. I anticipate this approach will yield significant insight into movement and interaction of prehistoric peoples as the elemental database for Caribbean ceramics expands. The interdisciplinary approach explored in this dissertation highlights the significant contributions facilitated through integration of geologic and archaeological methods to approach diverse questions from the peopling of the Americas to conservation of tropical coasts and Quaternary climate patterns.