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We show that known archaeological sites in the Wemindji area of central eastern James Bay in Canada are more likely to show higher shoreline stability within a 2 km radius than randomly selected locations. We show that archaeological sites are surrounded by areas of greater diversity in shoreline stability within a 20 km radius than random locations. We propose that a cultural algorithm guides the selection of occupation sites in the region, including by today's Cree occupants, which identifies islands of stability in a sea of change in order to minimize the need for residential mobility while maximizing the diversity of resources available through logistical trips. This algorithm favours residential stability and logistical mobility, and evolved in the context of rapid shoreline displacement caused by post-glacial isostatic land-uplift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins and significance of an aquatic diet in hominin evolution is a scientific research topic of high significance. Some have argued that marine shellfish collection was a key ingredient in the emergence of modern human behavioral and cultural complexity. The collection of marine resources, which can be productive and predictable, may have evolved into a coastal adaptation that led to reduction in residential mobility and other important changes in behavior and culture. Therefore, studying the emergence and intensity of coastal occupations is important to understand the rise of this particular aspect of modern humans' behavioral and cultural evolution. In this article, we use an agent-based model to explore the interaction between foraging behavior and the environment, and the impact of such interaction on sites' length of occupation, which in turn affects the accumulation of artifacts and ecofacts. The results of the model suggest that the intensive occupation of coastal sites is likely to be influenced by their position within a restricted band of productive coastal habitat. Even when foragers spend most of their time in other habitats, the cyclical reoccupation of coastal sites – due to the coast's cyclical productivity as well as the low number of locations that can be occupied there – could naturally result in higher artifact density in coastal than inland sites. Here, we argue that, given those results, coastal locations should accumulate large and dense deposits of occupation debris. These will be obvious features on the landscape and should be easier to find than inland occupations because of the coastal habitats' confined space. Finally, given the higher find densities of those sites, this may lead archaeologists to overestimate the contribution of marine resources in prehistoric diets. Therefore, what archaeologists have interpreted as intensive coastal adaptation in the past may be more the result of geographical constraints rather than important evolutionary changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain formed an important habitat exploited by Pleistocene hunter-gatherer populations during periods of lower sea level. This productive, grassy habitat would have supported numerous large-bodied ungulates accessible to a population of skilled hunters with the right hunting technology. It also provided a potentially rich location for plant food collection, and along its shores a coastline that moved with the rise and fall of sea levels. The rich archaeological and paleontological records of Pleistocene sites along the modern Cape south coast of South Africa, which would have overlooked the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain during Pleistocene times of lower sea level, provides a paleoarchive of this extinct ecosystem. In this paper, we present a first order illustration of the " palaeoscape modeling " approach advocated by Marean et al. (2015). We use a resourcescape model created from modern studies of habitat productivity without the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain. This is equivalent to predominant Holocene conditions before recent landscape modifications for farming. We then run an agent-based model of the human foraging system to investigate several research questions. Our agent-based approach uses the theoretical framework of optimal foraging theory to model human foraging decisions designed to optimize the net caloric gains within a complex landscape of spatially and temporally variable resources. We find that during the high sea-levels of MIS 5e (+5–6 m asl) and the Holocene, the absence of the Plain left a relatively poor food base supporting a much smaller population relying heavily on edible plant resources from the current Cape flora. Despite high species diversity of plants with edible storage organs, and marine invertebrates, encounter rates with highly profitable resources were low. We demonstrate that without the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, human populations must have been small and low-density, and exploited plant, mammal, and marine resources with relatively low caloric returns. The exposure and contraction of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain was likely the single biggest driver of behavioural change during periods of climate change through the Pleistocene and into the transition to the Holocene. • Agent-based model of Later Stone Age human foraging in coastal South Africa. • Reconstructed food resource landscape including mammals, shellfish, and plants. • Sustainable population is under 20 individuals/100 km^2. • Long foraging days (10 + hours per day) and small groups needed to survive. • Edible plants, including USOs, make up 80% or more of the diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]