| This research assesses the effects of climate change and fluctuating resource abundance on prehistoric fisheries using stable isotope analysis, zooarchaeological remains, and salmon abundance data. Hunter-gatherers living along the northeastern Pacific Rim depended heavily on salmon as a resource, and data produced by Finney et al. (2002) indicate that there have been significant fluctuations in salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) populations over the last 2200 years. These fluctuations in fish abundance are thought to have been driven by changes in North Pacific climate (Finney et al. 2002). Based on this idea, this dissertation uses salmon abundance data, local records of climate change based on fish otoliths, and archaeological fish remains in the context of optimal foraging models to test the hypothesis that people accommodated climate change and fluctuations in resource availability by moving their fisheries from the riverine to the marine environment.;To address this hypothesis, I analyzed fish remains from the Karluk-1 and Karluk-31 sites in the Kodiak Archipelago. This analysis indicates that there were changes in fishing strategy during the last 2000 years that are not clearly coincident with regional fluctuations in climate and salmon availability. Analysis of local climate data in archaeological fish otoliths reflects these regional climate changes, but there is no statistical correlation with the zooarchaeological remains. Further, there is no strong evidence that the salmon abundance data can explain salmon relative abundance in the archaeological record. While other studies of human subsistence have shown that climate and resource availability influenced foraging strategies, the change in salmon relative abundance at the Karluk sites does not appear to be closely related to either variable. Therefore, it is likely that there are other reasons, such as population growth, storage technology, or other cultural factors, that may explain the changes in fishing strategy seen at the Karluk sites.;This project underlines the complexity of the mechanisms influencing foraging strategies, as well as the potential of archaeological and paleoenvironmental data to contribute to an understanding of the large, long-term processes affecting Native Alaskan fisheries, the marine environment, fish ecology, and human-environmental interaction in island Alaska. |
