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Historical Ecology of Eastern North America
Historical Ecology of Eastern North America
The bulk of my work in North America concerns the sustainability (and unsustainability) of animal resource use by both Indigenous and colonial European societies. Specifically, I am investigating pre-colonial and colonial period exploitation of white-tailed deer in relation to climate change, anthropogenic ecosystem engineering, human demography, and capitalist commodification. I am also analyzing changes in northern quahog clam abundance in the 17th century Long Island sound to explore the ecological effects of the wampum trade.
Weitzel, Elic M. (2023) Resilience of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to human hunting in precolonial New England: The faunal remains from the Morgan Site (6HT120), Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 48:103913. [link]
Weitzel, Elic M. (2023) Environmental rebound and disruption of Indigenous land management following European colonization of southern New England. In Questioning Rebound: People and Environmental Change in the Protohistoric and Early Historic Americas, edited by Emily Lena Jones and Jacob L. Fisher. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 97-115.
Weitzel, Elic M. (2021) The Ecology of the First Thanksgiving. Scientific American. [link]
Weitzel, Elic M. (2021) Investigating overhunting of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the Late Holocene Middle Tennessee River Valley. Southeastern Archaeology 40(1):1-19. [link]
Historical Ecology and Demography of Albanian Tribal Society
Historical Ecology and Demography of Albanian Tribal Society
I am also working with several colleagues to analyze the ethnohistory of early modern period Albanian tribes, with specific foci on tribal demography, geography, and cultural rules concerning resource use. As part of this larger project, I am co-leading a team of archaeologists working in southern Montenegro to document the cultural heritage of this region.
Weitzel, Elic M., Erina Baci, and Daniel Plekhov (2023) Geographic predictors of early 20th century northern Albanian tribal demography. Kosova Anthropologica 1(1):1-21. [link]
Weitzel, Elic M., Erina Baci, and Daniel Plekhov (2023) Parashikuesit gjeografikë të demografisë fisnore të Shqipërisë veriore në fillim të shekullit 20. Kosova Anthropologica 1(1):1-21. [link] (Albanian translation)
Image credit: Susan Walton
Origins of Domestication
Origins of Domestication
I am also working to better understand the ecological context of the initial domestication of native crops in interior eastern North America. This project tests the hypothesis that food production is a technological innovation that follows from economic intensification and reduced economic efficiency. To assess this, I have worked with several colleagues to analyze human population proxies, site location data, and animal bone remains from the southeastern and midwestern United States.
Weitzel, Elic M., Brian F. Codding, Stephen B. Carmody, and David W. Zeanah (2022) Food production and domestication produced both cooperative and competitive interpersonal dynamics in eastern North America. Environmental Archaeology 27(4):388-401. [link]
Weitzel, Elic M. (2019) Declining foraging efficiency prior to initial domestication in the Middle Tennessee River Valley. American Antiquity 84(2):191-214. [link]
Weitzel, Elic M. and Brian F. Codding (2016) Population growth as a driver of initial domestication in Eastern North America. Royal Society Open Science 3(8):160319. [link]
Additional Collaborations
Additional Collaborations
I have also been involved in several collaborations with ethnographers, demographers, paleontologists, and other archaeologists to conduct research into a variety of topics all united by an interest in resource use and demography. These include Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, the evolution of alloparental care, and archaeological settlement patterns.
Weitzel, Elic M., Kurt M. Wilson, Laure Spake, Susan B. Schaffnit, Robert Lynch, Rebecca Sear, John H. Shaver, Mary K. Shenk, and Richard Sosis (2024) Cost structures and socioecological conditions impact the fitness outcomes of human alloparental care in agent-based model simulations. Evolution and Human Behavior 45:106613. [link]
O’Keefe, F. Robin., Regan E. Dunn, Elic M. Weitzel, Michael R. Waters, Lisa N. Martinez, Wendy J. Binder, John R. Southon, Joshua E. Cohen, Julie A. Meachen, Larisa R.G. DeSantis, Matthew E. Kirby, Elena Ghezzo, Joan B. Coltrain, Benjamin T. Fuller, Aisling B. Farrell, Gary T. Takeuchi, Glen MacDonald, Edward B. Davis, and Emily L. Lindsey (2023) Pre-Younger Dryas megafaunal extirpation at Rancho La Brea linked to fire-driven state shift. Science 381(6659). [link]
Broughton, Jack M. and Elic M. Weitzel (2018) Population reconstructions for humans and megafauna suggest mixed causes for North American Pleistocene extinctions. Nature Communications 9(1):5441. [link]
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