Continuity and resilience in the central Georgia Bight (USA) fishery between 2760 BC and AD 1580

Continuity is a hallmark of a broad-based fishery at archaeological sites from coastal Georgia (southeastern Atlantic coast, USA) despite changes in the biogeochemical and cultural contexts within which fishing occurred. This continuity probably is not due to a lack of adverse impacts of both non-anthropogenic and anthropogenic origins, but instead to the ecosystem's resilience. Resilient ecosystems are easily altered but recover quickly. The most ubiquitous and abundant fishes are characterized by flexibility and resilience, enabling them to flourish within an environment with considerable spatial heterogeneity and biogeochemical properties that change annually and with each tidal cycle. The fishing strategies practiced by people living along the coast also were flexible and resilient. Perhaps the fishery was managed through cultural institutions that avoided overfishing and a system-wide collapse. This conclusion is drawn from evidence for flexibility, resilience, and possible overfishing found in two aspects of the zooarchaeological record: (1) relative exploitation of different taxa and (2) subsistence efficiency.