A pinniped is a marine mammal, such as a seal or sea lion. They were an important food source to early coastal residents of the New World. Evidence of their consumption in Archaic sites has been found at the sites of Tahkenitch Landing in Oregon and at two sites near the Point Bennett Pinniped Rookery in California's Channel Islands.
Marine mammals, along with shellfish and seaweed, may well have represented a large portion of much of the diets of the original colonizers of the Americas. See the glossary entry for the Pacific Coast Migration Model for more information on this theory.
Sources
Johnson, William M. and David M. Lavigne. 1999. Monk seals in antiquity. The Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) in ancient history and literature. Mededelingen 35. The Netherlands Commission for International Nature Protection, Leiden: 1-101., 17 figs.
Johnson, William M. 2004. Monk seals in post-classical history. The role of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) in European history and culture, from the fall of Rome to the 20th century. Mededelingen 39. The Netherlands Commission for International Nature Protection, Leiden: 1-91, 31 figs.
Lyman, R. Lee. 2003. Pinniped behavior, foraging theory, and the depression of metapopulations and nondepression of a local population on the southern Northwest Coast of North America. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22(4):376-388.
Walker, Phillip L. et al. 2000. Archaeological investigations at the Point Bennett Pinniped Rookery on San Miguel Island. In The Fifth California Islands Symposium. D. R. Brown, K. C. M. Mitchell, and H. W. Chaney, eds. Pp. 628-632. U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service, Pacific OCS Region.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
