Digital Companion to 'Molluscs as Food in a Prolific Coastal Environment: Evidence for Selective Foraging and Taphonomy from Cueva de los Vampiros (Central Panama)'

Project Note

This content pertains to the chapter “Molluscs as Food in a Prolific Coastal Environment: Evidence for Selective Foraging and Taphonomy from Cueva de los Vampiros (Central Panama)” in The Archaeology of Mesoamerican Animals (Christopher Götz and Kitty F. Emery, eds.), published by Lockwood Press. The Archaeology of Mesoamerican Animals is an edited volume that links many of its chapters to rich digital content published open access with Open Context. The authors have chosen to link their chapters to related online content (including primary data, maps, and additional images) in order to provide additional research resources in their subject area. The Archaeology of Mesoamerican Animals is available for purchase from ISD.

Overview

Excavations at the Vampiros rockshelters produced a large quantity of invertebrate and vertebrate specimens, as well as ceramics and stone-tool artifacts, dating between ca. 2200 and 1150 BP. At this site people were exploiting shells near the coast along intertidal mudflats close to the river’s mouth. When both rockshelters were first occupied by ceramic-using communities around 2300 BP, the surrounding marine ecosystem consisted of clear water and a hard substrate shoreline not far from the coast. At the end of the occupation, the species reveal ecosystems characterized by mangrove, mudflats, mud sand-rubble, a few sandy beaches, and turbid waters. The information on the variety of mollusc sizes suggests that pre-Columbian people were using baskets to collect shells. The differences in molluscan taphonomic agents, fragmentation and heating treatment between both shelters were also related to the pre-Columbian inhabitants who lived at Vampiros-2 and processed fish at Vampiros-1. The digital resources presented here were the malacological database from the 2005 excavations at Vampiros rockshelters. The information included taxonomical and taphonomic data.

Site Name

Vampiros Rock Shelter

Period

2200 and 1150 BP

Creator

Carvajal Contreras, Diana Rocío, Departamento de Arqueología, Facultad de Estudios de Patrimonio Cultural, Universidad Externado, Bogotá, Colombia, Calle 10A N° 3-15 Este, Código Postal 111711, diana.carvajal@uexternado.edu.co