Interacting Pre-Columbian Amerindian Societies and Environments: Insights from Five Millennia of Archaeological Invertebrate Record on the Saint- Martin Island (French Lesser Antilles)

Nathalie Serrand (1, 2) , Dominique Bonnissent (3)

1 Inrap - Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives
2 AASPE - Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
3 LAMPEA - Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique

Archaeological research, conducted on the French part of Saint-Martin, in the Lesser Antilles, documents the history of Amerindian communities on this island from the 4th millennium BC to the 15th century AD. Eight sites, spanning almost completely this sequence, have yielded extensive assemblages of invertebrate remains. Analysis and comparison of these assemblages with contemporaneous settlements from nearby islands reveal trends in the ways Amerindian communities exploited these resources. These results, especially when contrasted with a palaeo-climatic frame recently produced for Saint-Martin, reflect the intricate ways in which anthropic and natural systems interact.

Mots clés: Saint-Martin island; anthropic/natural systems; palaeo-climate; palaeo-environment; archaeomalacology

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Nathalie Serrand, Dominique Bonnissent. Interacting Pre-Columbian Amerindian Societies and Environments: Insights from Five Millennia of Archaeological Invertebrate Record on the Saint- Martin Island (French Lesser Antilles). Environmental Archaeology, 2021, 26 (1), pp.99-114. ⟨10.1080/14614103.2018.1450463⟩. ⟨hal-02526948⟩