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Archaeology underwater has experienced a renaissance in both popular and professional interest as witnessed in numerous movies, television specials, academic papers, conference symposia, and a spate of recent textbooks. For most archaeologists, as well as in the public imagination, underwater archaeology is the romantic discovery and study of shipwrecks. While many of the authors illustrate the obvious similarities between prehistoric and shipwreck research underwater, particularly in the areas of exploratory technologies, they also highlight how submerged site archaeology is fundamentally different from shipwrecks and traditionally nautical archaeology. Underwater archaeology, although a relatively new branch of academic research, has mirrored the development of modern archaeology. [Extracted from the article]

AbstractWhat constraints and conditions are conducive to the innovation of more advanced watercraft technology? This paper explores this question by modeling ancient voyages in the Channel Island region of southern California. The Chumash and Tongva cultures of this region invented an advanced form of boat, the sewn plank canoe, around 500 CE. This new technology led to a rapid increase in maritime travel and transformed the maritime political economy of the region. In this paper we use agent-based ocean voyage modeling to examine the capacities of a range of indigenous boat types to travel important routes in the Channel Region at different times of the year. Our results indicate that while several different boat types would have been conducive for voyaging from the mainland coast to adjacent islands such as Limuw (Santa Cruz) and Pimu (Catalina), voyages to outlying islands, including Tuqan (San Miguel) and especially Haraasnga (San Nicolas), would have been difficult for much of the year in dugout or reed boats. We argue that early mariners plying these routes would have been under strong pressure to innovate faster and more seaworthy craft, possibly leading to the eventual development of the sewn plank canoe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural interaction and exchange across the Bering Strait of northern Alaska played a central role in the emergence of Arctic maritime adaptations. Yet poor chronological control limits our ability to explore processes of cultural change over the last 5000 years. We address this problem by synthesizing the available radiocarbon record for the region, carrying out Bayesian analysis of a regional radiocarbon database, and analyzing the BAR-1 (Birnirk) site using new dates published in this paper. Our synthesis and our illustrative analysis of the BAR-1 site highlights several intriguing temporal and spatial trends with implications for interaction between cultural groups. Our analysis also underscores the uncertainty associated with dating cultural phases and identifies specific areas where additional research is needed to further our understanding of cultural interaction in this complex region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper presents the results of dietary stable isotope analyses performed on Migration Period (450–550 AD) and Pre-Viking Age (550–800 AD) populations of Lepna and Viidumäe, Saaremaa Island, Estonia. To date, research on dietary stable isotope analysis in Estonia has mainly focused on populations from other historical periods with an exclusion of material from the fifth to ninth centuries AD. Moreover, the research has been mainly conducted on populations from mainland Estonia, with three Stone Age groups from Saaremaa Island previously studied. The results of this paper suggest that the individuals buried at Lepna and Viidumäe had a diet of mainly terrestrial resources with minimal input from fresh- or brackish-water fish and marine resources. These results are supported by previous zooarchaeological material from Saaremaa, as well as additional analysis of the animal bones found in the Lepna grave. Although the dietary isotope values of Lepna and Viidumäe are similar to previous Estonian data from the Bronze Age (1750–500 BC) up to the Medieval Period (1225–1550 AD), the isotope values of these two populations show variations from the data collected from Iron Age sites in Latvia, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland thus far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists, archaeologists, and others have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various ethnographic descriptions relating to cultural material objects stenciled on various rock art sites in Auwim, Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea (PNG). In addition to the rock art, the broader area has one of the most environmentally intact freshwater basins with lowland rainforests in Melanesia, and is famous for its architectural carvings and spirit houses. This paper reports new research that articulates local ethnographic knowledge about rock art with the art-work itself. The rock art panels contain a wide range of stencils primarily consisting of hands but also, importantly, several objects, one of which is the kina, gold-lip pearl (Pinctada maxima) shell. The kina shell stencils are, among other things, indicative of the remarkable distance over which the shells were traded and traditionally used. The Auwim case study is important because it is one of the relatively few sites across PNG for which we still have ethnography of rock art and therefore provides us with important insight into the past-present rock art practices and, concurrently, notions of cultural continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a mesoscale approach to the study of the urban landscape surrounding the fourteenth–sixteenth century Swahili site of Songo Mnara just off the southern Tanzanian coast. The study is based on a systematic, intensive survey of the town's immediate island hinterland. Such an approach, we argue, exposes a set of activities that extend out from the urban core and situates the traditional objects of study (urban center, rural villages) in an integrated landscape. This scale of activity is particularly apparent in an island context where urban activities encompassed the island itself. This example demonstrates why urban societies in island contexts must be considered in their landscape setting, as a range of territorial relationships can be discerned in the past that were an integral part of the ways that urban lives were constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of shellfish to ancient subsistence has been overlooked in many archaeological studies in Central-East Polynesia. Archaeomalacology, however, can shed light on a wider range of exploited mollusks. In this paper we investigate the exploitation of the chiton Acanthopleura gemmata from the Hane Dune site, Ua Huka, Marquesas Islands. Although several previous studies have highlighted the importance of chitons in Hane's archaeological record, little information has been presented about this important subsistence item as it is seldom identified with precision and is usually quantified by weight. Using zooarchaeological methods, spatial analysis, and biometry, we demonstrate the importance of chitons in past 'Enata subsistence. We highlight the intensive exploitation of A. gemmata during the first three centuries of occupation of the site, beginning ca. AD 950, until its abrupt depletion, correlated with the progressive exploitation of the limpet Cellana radiata. Through this case study, we stress the importance of precise taxonomic identification and refined recovery protocols to better understand subsistence trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates cave use strategies in insular environments, focusing on a case study from Santorini (Thera) island in Greece. The paper has a two-fold aim to propose and test a methodological framework for noninvasive archaeological evaluation of cave sites and to explore the ways that people, not only on Santorini, but also on similar small islands, have engaged with caves through time. Santorini is famous today as a holiday destination; however, a large part of the island's historic landscape has disappeared. This is due to the Bronze Age volcanic eruption that covered the majority of the island with a thick layer of tuff and pumice, as well as intensive building and agricultural activity in the second half of the twentieth century, all of which have dramatically transformed the island's natural environment. Today, our accounts of the island's prehistory come from the extraordinary preservation of the Akrotiri site, and considerable knowledge gained from other locations, about the role that the island played diachronically in the history of the Aegean. We are, however, still missing valuable information about the relationship between the island's inhabitants and their environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new palaeogeographical reconstructions of the Spencer Gulf and Yorke Peninsula/Guuranda region of South Australia for the period ca. 20,000–6000 cal. BP. The rich complexity of traditional Aboriginal (Narungga) sea-level narratives is also explored. These narratives, which form a highly significant system of knowledge, are considered together by the Narungga and non-Narungga authors of the paper to generate a new dialogue about Aboriginal traditions and scientific data. The dialogue between the Narungga knowledge systems and palaeogeographic mapping reveals a strong concordance for events/time slices inclusive of the onset of marine transgression, the creation of northern Spencer Gulf and the formation of some islands—while also establishing that there are deeper complexities inherent within Narungga narratives that demonstrate layers of meaning at multiple scales. The palaeogeographic reconstructions are also considered in relation to the known archaeology and geomorphology of the region as well as new observations arising from this research. Targets for future underwater (and terrestrial) investigation relating to the periods of marine transgression are also outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeology of the immediate coastline of West Africa remains surprisingly little understood, and what research has been undertaken has often focused on questions relating to sea-based interactions and the precolonial polities lying slightly inland. This paper reports the results of excavations on Ohlinhoué, a small lagoonal island in the western Republic of Bénin. A locally manufactured ceramic assemblage was recovered, together with a small suite of artifacts, including glass, metal, shell, and smoking pipes. These archaeological data provide insights into a small-scale, likely fishing and salt-producing community in this area between sea and river. As such, they provide an alternative to historical readings relating to well-known precolonial polities and trade entrepôts that feed popular historical narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The analysis of dugong bone mounds in the Torres Strait Islands has traditionally focused on ritualized deposition and treatment of remains, the distinction between formalized ritual and midden refuse, and their socio-political and spiritual role within Torres Strait Islander seascapes. Research has consistently targeted the abundance of specific skeletal elements in a mound, with interpretations frequently based on the calculation of common quantitative units (i.e., NISP and MNI) or relative weight to assess proportional representation. Far less research has focused on the taphonomic history and processes embodied by these mounds. This paper presents a novel zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of dugong bone mounds where qualitative and quantitative data are combined. Through the analysis of two assemblages from Woeydhul Island (Western Torres Strait, Australia), this paper provides inferences regarding deposition time span and formalized depositional behaviors. Our research examines the age distribution of represented animals and differential butchery practices associated with anatomical provenance, while also suggesting new methods for identification of sex ratios in these assemblages. Our results provide new approaches to investigate dugong hunting by past Torres Strait communities, proposing the combination of sex, butchery patterns, and meat utility indices to interpret the meaning of dugong bone mounds in the Western Torres Strait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal artifacts from the Paleometal Epoch (ca. 1100 BC–400 AD) of the Primorye (Russian Far East) have shed new light on the introduction of the earliest bronzes into the Pacific coastal areas of prehistoric Eurasia. However, little is known about raw material circulation and the role of metal in the context of inter-regional exchange. This paper investigates 12 copper artifacts from major Paleometal settlements using alloy composition, trace elements, and lead isotopes to explore the metal sources and distribution networks. The results suggest that most objects are made of a copper-tin alloy, but some have arsenic as a significant minor element. Geologically, copper is unlikely to have come from local ore sources, but rather from the Liaoxi corridor and Liaodong Peninsula in Northeast China. This may indicate an inland route of metal trade across Northeast China or alternately, a coastal route via the northern Korean Peninsula. Archaeologically, the combined study of artifact typology and chemistry indicates two possible origins for the metal: the Upper Xiajiadian culture in Northeast China and Slab Grave culture in Mongolia/Transbaikal. Remarkably, the connection with Upper Xiajiadian communities parallels the transport route along which millet agriculture spread from Northeast China to the Primorye during the Neolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper stresses the importance of shark fisheries at the site of Gramalote, an early Initial Period (1500–1200/1100 cal BC) fishing settlement, which has yielded the largest amount of shark remains ever reported along the coast of Peru. The article discusses fishing techniques utilized to capture such dangerous fish with limited technology. Moreover, it highlights the economic importance of this abundant source of marine food for small-scale residential settlements along the north coast of Peru. Based on current evidence, sharks may have played an important role in the domestic and community-level rituals at Gramalote. Due to the abundance of shark remains, it is suggested that the surplus of its flesh was processed in storage facilities at family level and later was traded with residential settlements for products not available on the coast. Finally, this article suggests that, during the Late Preceramic and Initial Periods, a subsistence pattern may have emerged: while the Central Coast and the Norte Chico regions relied on anchovy as one of the most important fish species for subsistence and other needs, on the north coast of Peru sharks may have played a pivotal role for daily subsistence and economic transactions at the household level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gironde estuary in SW France is the largest in Western Europe and has attracted human populations since prehistoric times. From the 1970s to the 1990s, intense archaeological research was undertaken on the long and highly dynamic coastline just south of the estuary mouth. In recent years, the combined action of increased coastal erosion and human pressure has proved a serious threat to the integrity of archaeological sites in the area. As a consequence, a whole array of previously unrecorded archaeological remains across the intertidal zone and coastal strip is being exposed. In this context, innovative interdisciplinary research since 2014 is yielding new information about the settlement and landscape dynamics and about the long-term interaction between human societies and the environment. The sedimentary context and the exceptional preservation conditions of organic remains have made possible a multi-proxy approach combining archaeological, geomorphological, palaeobiological, and archaeoentomological methods. In this paper we discuss the different approaches and the way they jointly contribute to the project. The results obtained so far from this multi-proxy approach challenge the traditional view of the historic occupation and the landscape dynamics around the Gironde estuary from prehistoric times to antiquity. They show that the intense occupation of this area during certain periods of human history is related to the development of marshy environments, which can now be analyzed at higher temporal resolution owing to this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the La Plata Basin, indigenous populations used canoes for colonizing islands, moving people, fishing, transporting loads, and warfare. According to sixteenth century chronicles, dugout canoes were large, up to 24 m in length, and had a capacity for 40 people. In this paper, four dugout canoes recovered in La Plata River, and in the Paraná Delta, are studied. Their context of discovery, dimensions, radiocarbon dating, and the wood taxonomic identification are presented. Canoes were vital for the riverine populations that inhabited the study area since at least two thousand years ago but constitute a rare record given the low likelihood of preservation. The studied canoes measure between 10–8 m in length and 0.9–0.7 m beam. Two of the canoes were dated between 1509–1647 and 1414–1465 cal AD, 1σ. The diagnostic characters identified in the wood link all the samples to Enterolobium contortisiliquum. The use for centuries of the same species in different areas shows the importance of the type of raw material selected and reflects a shared knowledge of the properties of the dry wood: light and porous that contributes to buoyancy, easy to work, and with mechanical resistance. This, in addition to the size of the tree, up to 30 m high and 2.5 m in diameter, has favored its preference for the manufacture of hulls. These watercrafts constitute a unique cultural heritage on the pre-Hispanic naval engineering of the skilled navigators of the La Plata Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractDue to road construction, the University Museum of Bergen conducted a rescue excavation in Vika, Bømlo County, some 5 km from the large greenstone quarry Hespriholmen on the Norwegian west coast. The site revealed two distinct occupation phases. In the Early Mesolithic (10,500–11,000 cal BP), Vika was a small hunting station, while in the Late Mesolithic (8000–7000 cal BP), Vika served as a specialized workshop site for the production of adze preforms out of blanks shipped from the Hespriholmen quarry. Because of the mid-Holocene transgression, most of the archaeological record was covered by a beach ridge at the Vika site. The build up of the ridge is described by conducting a series of radiocarbon datings and by analyzing the distribution of reworked and non-reworked lithics throughout the different strata of the beach sediments. The paper emphasizes the potential for obtaining significant results despite the absence of in-situ archaeological remains and their exposure to redeposition. The Vika site provided valuable insights into the displacements of shorelines, characteristics of beach ridges, and the influence of the dynamic Holocene environment on Mesolithic sites along the coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractOceanic islands constitute 0.05% of emerged land masses but account for 2% of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Physical constraints have determined that the history of these remote territories is marked by globally unique forms of colonization and human cultures. A significant part of this heritage, located in coastal areas, is threatened by the mean sea level rise (SLR) due to anthropogenic climate change. This paper presents a regional approach to the risk estimation of SLR in the cultural heritage of oceanic islands, taking the Canary Islands (Spain) as an example. The Canary Islands is one of the most prominent oceanic archipelagos in the world (∼1500 km of coastline), where cultural heritage, preferentially located in the coastal areas (up to 50% in the first 1 km), nicely represents the two major stages of human occupation of islands (aboriginal and European). Through process-based modeling, high resolution flood maps were obtained for 20 climate scenarios and complete coverage of the archipelago. These maps were combined with detailed planimetries of 343 officially designated cultural heritage sites, applying damage functions to relate flood depth with the type of construction and the historical period. The results indicate potential damage to 55 cultural heritage sites of the Canary Islands which could be significant in 15 of them. For these cases, it is recommended to study specific adaptation measures aimed at mitigating the flood risk, such as moving the heritage assets away from the hazard areas or reinforcing and protecting the structures to reduce their vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the analysis of plant macroremains (except wood), primarily seeds and fruits, from Cabo San Pablo 2017 (CSP2017), an archaeological site close to the Atlantic coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. CSP2017 has a great diversity of archaeological materials, including faunal, lithic, carpological, and anthracological remains. The data are especially relevant due to the scarcity of information regarding plant use at coastal sites in the region. At CSP2017 eleven taxa were identified. The results obtained provide data on plant use at the site and, at the same time, enable discussion of the management and use of these types of resources on Isla Grande. By placing these results in context with previously studied coastal and hinterland sites, research at CSP2017 contributes to a better understanding of plant use by hunter-gatherers of the southernmost part of South America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, the Cape Porpoise Archaeological Alliance recovered a dugout canoe located during a surface survey of the Cape Porpoise tidal flats in Kennebunkport, Maine. A sample of the canoe dated to between 1275 and 1380 cal AD making it the oldest known from the region. Professional archaeologists and volunteers excavated the canoe from the intertidal in the summer of 2019 for analysis and conservation. This paper provides new insight into pre-Contact watercraft technology in the Far Northeast and emphasizes the promise of citizen science initiatives for identifying and recovering delicate archaeological materials that are exposed and under threat from rapidly changing coastlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater and inundated prehistoric archaeology is usually celebrated because it highlights unique cultural behaviors (e.g., Windover and Old World bogs), preserves organic materials exceptionally well (e.g., Little Salt Springs and Bouldnor Cliff), or identifies early human presence (e.g., Page Ladson and Hoyo Negro). However, as research has progressed, it is increasingly clear that underwater archaeology is an essential tool for understanding how humans adapt to changing landscapes and the water/land boundaries around them. When appropriate, archaeologists should consider the dynamics of changing water levels, where nearby human occupations may preserve, and whether terrestrial or inundated landforms may help answer research questions. In the Great Basin USA, Nevada's Walker Lake is an ideal location for applying this approach. As a lake that has undergone repeated rise and fall over the last 15,000 years, research on human behavior and regional adaptations must consider landforms that have been subject to inundation and are now above and/or below the current waterline. This paper discusses identification and analyses of sites around Walker Lake, investigations revealing intact buried terrestrial landforms under the lake, and how this research provides an improved picture of human behavior and landscape adaptations in the Western Great Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, is widely known for its crucial role as a crossroads for human colonization from the Holocene through to at least the Middle Ages. Yet the role played by Sicily in terms of human dispersal along the coastal margins of the western and central Mediterranean during the Pleistocene remains largely unclear. For instance, Sicily is often cited in the literature as being the first Mediterranean island to have been populated by Aurignacian human groups—a scenario that has been heavily debated, if not entirely disproven. In this paper, I present a critical reanalysis of the purported early colonization events of the island known from the literature, together with recently published radiometric dates and sophisticated geological modeling, to show that there is currently no basis to postulate a Sicilian Aurignacian phase (∼45 − 33 ka BP). Additionally, I suggest that there is cause to reconsider the timing and modalities of the colonization of the island by Epigravettian human groups and that the colonization of Sicily could represent the first evidence of an island in the Central and Western Mediterranean colonized by watercraft. Contextualizing the relevance of Sicily in the early seafaring debate, the conclusions presented further suggest a reconsideration of the current pre-Holocene model of human dispersion for the entire Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renewed Mesolithic research in the Greek mainland and the islands has been providing new insights into the lively maritime activity within the region; however, the southwest coast of Turkey has been virtually devoid of related investigations until the commencement of the Bozburun Prehistoric Survey project in 2017. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the prehistoric sites discovered at the Bozburun Peninsula during the 2017–2019 field seasons. Preliminary results indicate that the area is rich in prehistoric activity. While Middle Paleolithic chipped stone industries were identified at the sites of Kayabaşı Cave, Çakmak, and Sobalak, flake based microlithic chipped stone industries typical of the Aegean Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene were identified at the sites of Sarnıç, Hurma, Sobalak, Zeytinlik, and Çakmak. A variety of artifacts, suggestive of the Neolithic, were also recorded at the sites of Hurma, Zeytinlik, and possibly at Sobalak and Sarnıç. In specific, the presence of carinated end-scrapers, burins and polyhedric cores at Sarnıç, as well as some geometric microliths at Hurma, demonstrates that Bozburun was frequented during the Upper Paleolithic and the Epipaleolithic. The presence of a few geometric microliths made on Melos obsidian at Hurma also demonstrates that the region was connected to the Aegean obsidian network routes at least by the beginning of the Holocene. If our relative dating is correct, this constitutes the earliest known use of Melos obsidian in the Anatolian mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAccording to archaeological data, Otaria flavescens and Arctocephalus australis were exploited at the mouth of the Santa Cruz River by hunter-gatherers in the late Holocene. These studies suggest the past existence of reproductive colonies from where individuals of different ages were taken, highlighting the offspring available in the austral summer. This paper presents new information on sex, age, and season of death based on the study of teeth growth layers and rings recorded on canines of both species recovered in three archaeological sites located in Punta Entrada, on the southern bank of Santa Cruz River. The results confirm that otariids were captured in the austral summer and show that winter and spring were also important seasons. Prey included females, pups, and adult males captured according to the abundance of each age group at different seasons of the year. These data are in agreement with those obtained from other lines of evidence, such as osteometry and sclerochronology, which indicate this sector of the Patagonian coast was occupied recurrently to hunt otariids as one of the main resources taken by hunter-gatherers when visiting Punta Entrada at different times of the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper presents the most extensive 87Sr/86Sr datasets from Late Prehistory contexts in addition to bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr values for baseline characterization on the Balearic Islands. A total of 149 caprine dental enamel samples from Mallorca, Menorca, and Formentera islands (Spain), and 35 environmental baseline samples covering the main geologies of these islands are presented here. In addition, a combination of strontium and oxygen sequential analysis was performed on seven individuals from two sites that showed some of the most diverse 87Sr/86Sr values to better understand their mobility patterns. The main goal of this research is to provide more information about isotopic variability of bioavailable strontium on the Balearic Islands and livestock management during the Bronze and Iron Ages, thus allowing us to understand how human communities exploited their landscape and interacted with other populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A century of archaeology has identified hundreds of potential sites north of the Corinthian Isthmus on the Greek mainland and in the northeast Aegean contemporary with the Middle Helladic-Late Helladic I Period (MH-LH I, ca. 2100-1550 BC). This paper presents an exploratory nearest neighbor network model to examine connectivity in a scenario where maritime movement included widespread access to the sail (known from the wider Aegean). Analysis of clustering and centrality in the modeled network shows that nodes along the Euboean Gulf were the most important for overall connectivity, and that seemingly geographically isolated sites in the Sporades archipelago and Chalkidiki were crucial for integrating the northern Aegean with central Greece. The later Late Bronze Age palatial centers of Thebes, Orchomenos, and Dimini/Volos on the other hand do not score highly on any centrality measure in this scenario, suggesting that their inherent position on the modeled network did not greatly contribute to their eventual success. This observation is in line with recent scholarship, increasingly pointing to an important endogenous aspect to emerging complexity in central Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The island of Formentera, with its small extension and flat orography, was settled relatively late in Mediterranean prehistory between the third and second millennium BC. The sites presented in this paper, Cova des Fum and Cova des Riuets, offer evidence of the island's first occupation. Cova des Fum comprises a necropolis of the Bronze Age and two sanctuary spaces (used, at least, from 2035 cal BC), with hearths and water management structures. Cova des Riuets is a habitation site from the beginning of the Bronze Age (available dates ranging from 2030 to 1760 cal BC). This landscape study, among the first on the ancient occupation of the island, focuses on the plant macro-remains from both sites, providing new data on the vegetation of the surrounding areas and the use of both wild and domesticated plant resources for various daily and ritual tasks. The firewood came from evergreen thermo-Mediterranean formations well adapted to drought and summer heat, as well as rocky environments, and could have been collected in the vicinity of the sites. The autochthonous character of some species, such as the fig tree, has also been investigated and has provided the oldest existing date for this species on the island. This study reveals some peculiarities in the island's subsistence strategy that are relevant to the study of small islands more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes different forms of violence identified among the ancient Canarians, a population that settled an oceanic island and remained there, without regular external contacts, for more than a millennium. Specifically, we focus on a funerary deposit composed of 14 individuals with high rates of violence, in some cases of a lethal nature. The study uses forensic anthropology techniques to characterize the individuals' injuries. It also explores the chrono-cultural framework in which they were inserted for an historical explanation. The high frequency of individuals with evidence of violence, the features of traumatic injuries, and the radiocarbon data suggest an event of extreme physical violence. This episode appears to be linked to socioeconomic changes, including population growth, marked social differences, rivalry between groups, and competition for control of the resources in a small and diverse territory. The different patterns of violence identified among the skeletal remains in Gran Canaria serve to explore the nature of human relations over a prolonged period in an insular context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museum-based archaeological research is multifaceted due to the diverse excavation histories, sampling strategies, curation practices, and available documentation for museum collections. Museum-based studies provide an opportunity to analyze previously excavated materials from sites that were historically destroyed or are no longer accessible for further research. In this paper, we present new insights into the ancient fishery of the Par-Tee site, a large shell midden from the northern Oregon coast. We analyzed fish remains from the Par-Tee museum collection and curated unprocessed sediment samples to gain further insights into the ancient fisheries of the site. We compare our findings to three neighboring sites on the northern Oregon coast. We demonstrate that the Par-Tee museum collection is rich in large-bodied predatory fishes and that the sediment samples contain small-bodied fishes likely captured through mass harvesting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands are colonized by organized groups of people. This paper examines the ways in which the economy of colonizing groups is embedded in kinship institutions. This perspective emerged from substantivist and institutional economics, which both recognize economizing as embedded in kinship. Moreover, the formalist/substantivist debate highlighted the differences between empirical and theoretical perspectives, and the importance of societal norms in structuring rational decision-making (albeit the former emphasized profit maximization and the latter material want-satisfaction). None of these approaches fully integrated kinship analysis in their approach. This paper examines the Early Ceramic Age Caribbean (ECAC) from the perspective of kinship as an institution. The framework is drawn from ethnographic studies of matrilineal kinship because this is the descent system that most closely approximates evidence for the ECAC. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate certain insights gained from the investigation of kinship in the pre-Columbian Caribbean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on how island people in the past adjusted, adapted or responded to their living environment. It mentions about several research papers examining cases of both interaction and remoteness in the study of islands around the world, presented at the Society for American Archaeology Conference in Austin, Texas, in 2007. It also talks about the inter-island contact to better understand how connections and isolation shaped island cultures.

The use of islands as ‘model systems’ has become particularly relevant for examining a host of important issues in archaeology and other disciplines. As papers in this special issue of the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology demonstrate, islands can serve as critical and ideal analytical platforms for observing human populations in the past and their evolutionary histories within complex and insular human ecodynamics. In this paper we address the issue of how islands are also important models for future sustainability and as corollaries for the survival of humans generally. In a sense, island cultures and ecosystems can be seen as microcosms of the issues we have faced as humans, and provide important insights for understanding the fate of our species, particularly as it pertains to the exploration and colonization of new worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and anthropogenic activities are actively destroying the archaeological record. The dramatic disappearance of archaeological landscapes becomes particularly problematic when they are also unrecorded. Hidden from view and eroding, these disappearing landscapes likely hold answers to important anthropological questions. As such, disappearing landscapes present a major challenge for twenty-first century archaeology. Left unchecked, this phenomenon will increase the severity of bias in our knowledge of the past. In this paper we use a case study from Pinckney Island in the American Southeast to illustrate how the problem of hidden and disappearing landscapes can be addressed through multi-scalar surveys. Specifically, by combining aerial LiDAR, pedestrian survey, and micro-artifact approaches, the identification of hidden and disappearing cultural materials (including permanent settlements and ephemeral artifact scatters) can be alleviated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The colonization of the Caribbean initiated a process of entanglement of people, goods, and ideas between the "New" and "Old World," which is popularly referred to as the Columbian Exchange. This paper seeks to highlight the multiscalar and material underpinnings of this process of global importance by tracing it to its roots: the earliest encounters between the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and European colonists. We present a database, based on key Spanish historical sources, which catalogs all references to the transaction of objects between Amerindians and Europeans from AD 1492–1497. We furthermore argue for the need of a framework that is able to connect, explore, and track the structural materiality of things in encounter events. For this we suggest a combination of entanglement theory with network and substantive analyses. This multiscalar theoretical and methodological framework shows how a diverse and contextually specific network of humans and things arose in tandem with European and Amerindian attempts to establish, manipulate, and contest ties of significant personal and historical interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sublime expression of three ectocranial occipital superstructures (OSSs)—occipital torus tubercles (TOTs), retromastoid processes (PRs), and posterior supramastoid tubercles (TSPs)—is virtually restricted to Oceania, with epicenters in the Mariana Islands, Tonga, Mocha Island, and perhaps other Oceanic locales such as the West Sepik Coast of New Guinea. Enigmatic in etiology, OSSs are anatomically related to entheses for the trapezius, superior oblique (suboccipital), and sternocleidomastoid muscles, respectively. Our study focuses on Latte Period (950–250 BP) Chamorro ancestors of the Mariana Islands, contextualized with other skeletal samples from Remote Oceania, Near Oceania, and the Asian and American Pacific Rims. Frequent co-variation and pair-wise patterning of multiple markedly expressed OSSs distinguishes ancestral Chamorros from all other populations, but markedly expressed individual OSSs exhibit a broad network of pan-Pacific morphological affinities. The presence of markedly developed PRs and TSPs in archaic Javanese hominins indicates deep Southeast Asian origins for these morphs, but a Northeast Asian origin for tuberculated TOTs is suggested by their earliest presence in Late Pleistocene Okinawans and Neolithic Taiwanese. The central goal of this paper is to present and evaluate evidence that OSSs are informative of both Pacific population history and the life histories of "bone-forming" Pacific Islander and Pacific Rim individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guar Kepah is the only known prehistoric coastal habitation site along the Straits of Malacca, excluding those found in Sumatra. The site of Guar Kepah on the western coast of Malaysia is believed to have been situated on a stranded beach ridge and in close proximity to the Muda River during its period of human settlement. As such, this site is critical for examining long term coastal habitation during this time. In this paper, we examine prehistoric shoreline changes and Muda River shifts through time prior to assessing their degree of impacts on Guar Kepah using 2-Dimensional Resistivity Imaging (2-DRI). 2-DRI profiles show three soil layers composed of sandy-clay, shell, and sand over 4 m in depth. The layers deepen toward the west, in the direction of the shoreline. The physical characteristics of these layers indicate that people who settled Guar Kepah in the past lived in close proximity to the shoreline. Meanwhile, the trend of Muda River shifting also suggests that the river used to be further north than its current location. This indicates that human settlement at Guar Kepah was centered on the coast rather than the river. A strong correlation between shell middens at Guar Kepah and those around the world supports global coastal adaptation during the Holocene. As the only shell middens discovered in Malaysia, this study has potential for helping to track human migration, language, and population diversity in this part of Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical narratives on Oceania have over the last two centuries mainly focused on the second half of the eighteenth century as the significant period of first encounters between Pacific Islanders and Western explorers. However, the first crossing of the region by Fernando de Magallanes (Ferdinand Magellan) was in 1521. More importantly, it has been widely neglected that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese explorers navigated through parts of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, making regular landfalls and contact with many islands and archipelagos. The potentially devastating consequences of these early encounters (i.e., with interpersonal violence between natives and newcomers as well as the potential introduction of new deadly diseases) are well known for islands like Guam. They possibly also influenced the cultures and traditions of other archipelagos of Oceania before the better known voyages of Cook, La Perouse, and others more than 150 years later. Drawing on historical data and the scarcely available archaeological evidence, this paper aims to show that there is an urgent need to reconsider the early phase of Pacific-Western contacts as a key period in the shaping of the "traditional" indigenous cultural behaviors in parts of Oceania. This assessment has the potential to profoundly change our understanding of the ethnographical observations of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that have been produced and used in the last two centuries to define a baseline of the beginning of Western impacts on Indigenous societies in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new framework for calculating vulnerability indices within archaeological resource management on a landscape-scale. Current approaches consider archaeological sites in isolation from their context within the historic landscape. The new framework advocated in this article assesses the vulnerability of landscape character areas, as defined through historic landscape characterization. This framework uses a two-step vulnerability index: the first assesses the vulnerability of archaeological sites and landscape features; the second uses the results of the first vulnerability index, as well as spatial data on the landscape character areas and the threat in question to calculate the vulnerability of each landscape character area. The framework is applied to a brief case study in coastal North Wales, UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Coastal erosion and sea level rise has become a significant threat to coastal heritage due to climate change. Management bodies are monitoring the risks posed by undertaking studies, ranging from Rapid Coastal Zone Assessments to much larger government and research council funded studies. These studies have incorporated varying techniques and datasets such as environmental sampling, LiDAR, GPS, and UAV surveys. However, these approaches rarely combine study of historic shoreline change with physical susceptibility modeling. This paper presents a combined methodology, utilizing LiDAR and survey data collected by the Climate, Heritage, Environments of Reefs, Islands and Headlands (CHERISH) project, along with historic mapping and aerial photography to produce a risk assessment for the heritage assets located on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), North Wales. By constructing an Historic Erosion Model and an Erosion Susceptibility Model using ESRI’s ArcGIS 10.5.1. with the DSAS Plugin and combining them with the LiDAR-derived spatial extents of archaeological features on the island, this project has shown that using both methodologies alongside each other can create a more complete overview of coastal environment change for the creation of vulnerability indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Sea catfish (Genidens barbus) and whitemouth croaker (Micropogonias furnieri) were the most marine euryhaline species exploited by hunter-gatherers during the final Late Holocene along the coastal fringe of the eastern Pampa–Patagonia transition (Argentina). In the lower basin of the Colorado River, zooarchaeological evidence recovered from the San Antonio archaeological locality indicates prevalent fish consumption. However, no specific technology related to fishing has been recovered as part of the archaeological assemblages, hence strategies and techniques of fish capture remain unknown. The aim of this paper is to estimate the size of both species through archaeological otolith measurements to evaluate possible fish capture techniques. The analyzed sample is made up of 117 otoliths of whitemouth croaker and 863 of sea catfish. The estimated size of G. barbus individuals is between ca. 240 and 730 mm, which indicates the presence of juveniles and adults. In the case of M. furnieri, the estimated size range of individuals is ca. 350–750 mm, which indicates the representation of adult specimens. Based on the diversity of sizes represented in both species, their ethology, and the geomorphological characteristics of the study area, it is proposed that the fish could have been caught with either nets or bare hands through nonselective mass trapping strategies during the spring–summer season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Coastal hazards threaten properties, infrastructure, and cultural sites around Aotearoa New Zealand’s (hereafter Aotearoa) coastline and sea-level rise (SLR) will escalate this problem. At present it is unclear how archaeological sites will be affected by future coastal erosion and inundation. In this paper we combine national-scale archaeological and environmental datasets to provide a first-pass overview of archaeological heritage at risk in Aotearoa. Two key national-scale datasets are utilized: (1) coastal sensitivity index (CSI) developed by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research; and (2) ArchSite, Aotearoa’s archaeological site database. The integrated datasets produce insights into the sensitivity of coastal archaeology to SLR and associated hazards, which are vital to planning for the loss of coastal archaeological sites. More than half (∼55%) of recorded coastal archaeological sites around Aotearoa are midden (n = 4938) and about 25% (n = 2271) are earthworks. In total, ca. 12% (9054) of all known archaeological sites are within 1000 m of soft shore shorelines. Of this total, only about 3% (302) of sites are burials, but the loss of these 302 burial sites would have very high cultural impact. Coastal erosion is a particularly important threat to archaeology as it would permanently remove sites, whereas the risk of site removal by coastal flooding inundation is lower. Our results show that about 22% (1954) of coastal archaeological sites are located on landforms that are sensitive to SLR-driven erosion: 29% (2660) of archaeological sites are located on foredune barrier beaches, 23% (2059) on foredune barrier plains, 14% (1283) on beaches, and 9% (808) on beach ridge barriers. This work draws attention to the scale of coastal archaeology in Aotearoa that needs adequate documentation, preservation, and potentially protection in the face of SLR. Robust coastal erosion and inundation datasets are needed to more deeply understand potential SLR-driven impacts on coastal archaeology and provide a scientific foundation for considering future adaptation options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we present a historical review of important published studies of submerged prehistoric sites in North America prior to 1990. Prior to that point, a review of mid-twentieth century literature on the subdiscipline demonstrates that "prehistoric" was not a significant element in practice. In the U.S.A. and Canada, very few professional papers or articles were published on the topic of submerged prehistoric archaeological sites until mid-century or later. Most early studies were written by avocational archaeologists or specialists from other disciplines interested in archaeology. This changed in the 1970s, when formal surveys, reports, and publications written by academically trained archaeologists increasingly appeared in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. By the 1980s the establishment of underwater prehistoric archaeology as new sub-discipline was well underway. This review is designed to give the reader a brief overview of the discipline as it matured, though we lack the space to provide a full critical analysis here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, research in the Aucilla River of northwestern Florida, USA, has focused upon understanding the geoarchaeological context of numerous formerly-terrestrial, now-inundated sinkhole spring sites and the landscapes surrounding them. Dozens of terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene-aged diagnostic artifacts have been recovered from this river, some in association with drowned terrestrial soils and intact dateable stratigraphy. Currently-terrestrial sites have thus far proven nearly undateable and are often conflated and deflated, but they provide evidence of extensive and resilient lifeways along the Aucilla River basin over thousands of years. The wealth of paleoenvironmental proxy data recovered from the drowned landscapes can help to explicate where, why, and how some sites have preserved while others have not. These data further suggest how people were adjusting to their changing environments over the more than 14,000 years they have been occupying the Aucilla River basin. This paper details the methods utilized to work on both sides of the waterline to reach a more holistic understanding of geoarchaeological context and human societies in the Aucilla River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While underwater archaeology has been practiced for decades, there is a resurgence in the field moving beyond shipwrecks to investigate sites of great antiquity. Over 50 years ago, archaeologists demonstrated that underwater research could be conducted to the same standards as on land and it produced unique data. Beyond data, however, submerged prehistory has contributed little to the theoretical side of archaeology or anthropology despite that fact that submerged landscapes relate to some of the most significant questions in human history. The field of underwater prehistory and its relation to anthropology parallels obstacles faced by terrestrial prehistoric archaeologists in the 1950s–1970s, when archaeology fought to contribute to anthropological theory. Now, submerged prehistory is in a similar boat, it can contribute unique and novel data to address some of not just archaeology's, but anthropology's biggest questions, but its potential has yet to be realized. This paper explores the trajectory of submerged prehistoric research at the start of its integration into anthropology and explores the areas where it is likely to contribute to anthropological theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the most pivotal questions in human prehistory hinge on archaeological sites that are now under water. While the discovery of submerged sites presents numerous technological challenges, they offer unique potentials for investigating time periods, cultures, and adaptations that are only poorly known on land. Yet despite this potential, the results from underwater research have, to date, had relatively limited impact. One reason is that underwater research rarely produces the systematic coverage of space and material culture that is needed to conduct anthropologically relevant research. The investigation of micro-regions as a means to elucidate economic and social relations in the past has been widely adopted in terrestrial archaeology, and yet is arguably even better suited to submerged settings. By defining specific and comparable localities as the target for intensive search, a micro-regional approach can provide the framework for generating a rigorous systematic coverage of space and material, while still operating within the physical and financial constraints of underwater research. This paper illustrates how a micro-regional approach to submerged landscapes can be operationalized as represented by survey efforts on the Late Paleoindian occupation of the Alpena-Amberley Ridge beneath modern Lake Huron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Madagascar poses a significant challenge for understanding how people colonized islands. While its inhabitants also share an African ancestry, language, genetics, and culture all point to the arrival on the island of Austronesian-speaking settlers from the far side of the Indian Ocean. Recent decades have seen increasing acceptance of a late first-millennium BC date for Madagascar's initial settlement, based principally on arguments relating to the purported antiquity and presence of cut-marked animal bones and the pollen of humanly introduced Cannabis plants. More recently, these claims have been pushed much further back in time by the discovery of stone tools at Lakaton'i Anja and cut-marked bones at Christmas River and Lamboharana. Such arguments must be based on firm foundations if they are to be accepted. This paper evaluates them against criteria developed for assessing the timing and credibility of claims of pre-Clovis settlement in the Americas and early Polynesian presence in Remote Oceania. It concludes that they do not meet them and that for now there is thus no convincing evidence that Madagascar was settled before the mid-first millennium AD. Colonization around that time fits much better with broader patterns of contact, trade, and settlement in the wider Indian Ocean world, including other islands off Africa's eastern coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound implications for human behavior across much of the world. In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much of Wallacea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The biodiversity of animal species in the Última Esperanza inland sea (Magallanes region, Chile) provides an exceptional opportunity to study the economic and organizational strategies of maritime hunter-gatherer groups in the Fuego-Patagonian archipelago. The consumption of huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) in Southern South America is well documented since the Middle Holocene, although its role in the subsistence strategies of maritime hunter-gatherers varies depending on the geographical and environmental area. The aim of this paper is to assess the implications of huemul exploitation on organizational strategies by Late Holocene maritime hunter-gatherer groups from the Última Esperanza inland sea (Magallanes region, Chile). In this work we present the results of a zooarchaeological analysis of the huemul assemblage from the sites of Bahía Easter 1 and Bahía Easter 2 (Diego Portales Island, Última Esperanza, Chile). The results show the high importance of huemul in the maritime hunter-gatherer diet, and provide new insights into the hunting and transport strategies of this prey. Furthermore, the integration of the data within the local and regional archaeological record allowed us to identify similarities at the scale of the inland sea, where huemul was frequently exploited both in island and coastal environments in contrast to what is documented in the neighboring Skyring Sea and Otway Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material culture associated with the Lapita Cultural Complex has been commented on for more than 100 years. Discussion and focus, however, have overwhelmingly concentrated on the distinctive dentate-stamped pottery. In this paper we highlight a very particular shell artifact form, examples of which were found in burial contexts at the Teouma Lapita site, Efate, Vanuatu. Here termed Conus Multi-Segment Broad Rings, each ring consists of three to four broad sections or segments that were joined via drilled perforations and threads. As only isolated segments of this ornament type are usually recovered from the archaeological record, an understanding of their finished form and use life has previously been lacking. Found across the Lapita distribution and associated only with this period, Conus Multi-Segment Broad Rings appear to be a stylistic marker additional to the dentate-stamped pottery. Here we reconstruct the manufacture and use of this distinctive shell ornament type through examination of the micro-trace evidence observed on the Teouma artifacts, as well as experimental working of modern Conus shell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]