Inferring Human Predation and Land Use: An Examination of the Northwestern Coast Shell Midden Records Amid Environmental Change

Shell middens of Guyana’s northwestern coast are a tangible record of prehistoric occupation and land use during the Holocene, an era saw increased human impacts on the landscape. Drawing from regional and local environmental data, this paper reviews archival and recently excavated zooarchaeological, bioarchaeological and environmental data sets as an aid to understanding prehistoric land-use, shell midden function, and the complex relationship between Archaic populations and their landscape. We analyse archival and previously published materials which coverers the spectrum of faunal exploitation and incorporates recent isotopic data of human and faunal remains from seven Early to Mid-Holocene Guyanese shell middens as a proxy to infer land use and human predation. We conclude that climate fluctuations during the Mid Holocene influenced fishing intensification and subsequently a shift in human predation, which affected small-to medium-sized fauna as well as vegetation patterns. These changes were shaped by landscape manipulation, influenced by shoreline movement and population mobility. Together these processes left enduring ecological legacies along the northwestern coast of Guyana.