Differential Recovery of Pacific Island Fish Remains: Evidence from the Moturakau Rockshelter, Aitutaki, Cook Islands

Abstract

Effects of differential recovery on faunal remains from archaeological sites have been documented by numerous researchers in Europe and North America. However, similar research is lacking for Pacific Island fish assemblages. Here, the fish assemblage from the Moturakau rockshelter in the Cook Islands is analyzed to determine effects of recovery bias on relative abundance, number, and kinds of taxa represented. Smaller-mesh screens are shown to have significant effects on relative abundance estimates for smaller samples and for increasing sample size and number of taxa across all samples. Kinds of taxa recovered are shown to be dependent on both body size and element size of the taxa. Implications of these findings for Pacific Island subsistence interpretations are discussed and suggestions are made for curbing the effects of differential recovery. KEYWORDS: faunal analysis, screen size, Pacific Islands, fish remains.