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

Shell middens of Guyana’s northwestern coast are a tangible stratified archive of prehistoric occupation and land use during the Holocene, an era of increased human impacts on the landscape. This study integrates stable isotope and zooarchaeological evidence to understand prehistoric land use, shell midden function, and the complex relationship between archaic populations and their landscape. We synthesize recently excavated data and archival museum collection for seven sites dating between 7500 and 2000 BP including stable isotope results of 37 individuals. Zooarchaeological materials are pooled to provide long-term patterns of human predation during the Holocene while reducing site-specific noise. This we believe highlights patterns of prey selection and exploitation intensity. 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, estuary productivity and changes in vegetation patterns including mangrove expansion. These changes were shaped by landscape manipulation and influenced by shoreline movement and population mobility and seasonal resource use. Altogether, these processes left enduring ecological legacies along the northwestern coast of Guyana.