April saw an attack paper in Science arguing that Chile’s 14,000 yr old Monte Verde site is less than 8000 yrs old. Surovell’s small team spent 4 days in the area, compared to Dillehay’s decade or more. Be skeptical: multiple rebuttal e-letters are going to Science, which no longer prints comments.
Nice review of our “Sustainability” volume by Justin Cramb of University of Alaska Fairbanks.
That is what Jon and I were talking about last night. Like…It has to be, right? But so far no DNA has been recovered from H. erectus, while Denisovans (until now) were only known through DNA. I guess we’ll see 😆 It’s so cool what we’re learning with these new technologies!
@viking1000.bsky.social
I’ve been quiet on BlueSky for a couple months while Scott Fitzpatrick and I finished editing “The Oxford Handbook of Island & Coastal Archaeology.” 48 chapters in all—by a global group of top scholars—many of them already available online. Hope to see the complete volume by the end of 2025!
Meta, AI, and stolen knowledge. Out fricken RAGEous!
In Science (p. 462) this week, my colleagues--Scott Fitzpatrick, Kristina Gill, Patrick Kirch, John Ruiz, Victor Thompson, Jason Younker--and I warn of the dire threat rising seas (0.81 cm in 2024!) and marine erosion pose for coastal archaeological sites worldwide.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Will do.
A 1987 quote stating that “ It is a historical fact that maritime resources were not exploited until relatively late in prehistory “, superimposed on photos of coral reef fishes hundreds of seals on a beach.
The last gasp of the “turn to the sea recently” hypothesis came in 1987 when one of top coastal archaeologists of the time declared it a “historical fact” that humans only systematically harvested marine resources during the past 15,000 years or less. Not a theory or hypothesis, a FACT. Wrong!
The cover of Volume 19 (2024) of JICA.
The 2024 Volume 19 of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology arrived in December, 878 pages of great articles from around the world! Unfortunately I spilled an elaborately crafted smoothie on it! Still readable, but pretty sticky . . . so it goes.
Photo of elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) hauled out on a pocket beach on California's Tuqan (San Miguel) Island (by J. Erlandson).
Humans only turned to the sea, they said—harvesting “marginal” aquatic foods—fish, shellfish, sea mammals, seaweeds, etc—after large land mammals were decimated. A deer equaled 177,000 oysters, they said, why bother? Forget what the Tlingit in Alaska say: When the tide is out, the table is set!
Cool, good to “see” you. We moved to Cambria last winter and visited SAM a few months ago. Life is good.
Larry McKee: SAM 1976?
Done Claire.
I created an island and coastal archaeology starter pack! Let me know if you’d like to join.
go.bsky.app/CRAuPY6
The author (age 10) in Hawai'i, surfing Kailua shore break in 1965 on a 9'4" Yater Spoon (photo by Niki Erlandson).
I grew up swimming & surfing in the Pacific. In grad school, I found it odd that top anthropologists said our ancestors ignored marine ecosystems for >99% of our (Homo sp.) deep history. 🌍 Yet coastlines-where land & sea meet-are hotspots of biodiversity, rich in resources. Something didn't add up.
I completely agree. A lot of the skeptics about the antiquity of fishing and coastal/aquatic adaptations spent most of their careers and lives far removed from the sea. So it goes….
I was born in a port city and have always thought the discipline underestimated the relationship of the people with the past and the sea. People have their biases. They don't know the sea so it is a threat. They don't know the forest so it is impenetrable. They don't know the desert so...
Color plate of coastal caves from Singer & Wymer’s classic 1982 book, “The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River Mouth in South Africa.”
An oddity of 20th century archaeology was the widely held theory that “coastal adaptations” only appeared worldwide in the last 10,000-15,000 years. South Africa’s Middle Stone Age shell middens, dated between 164,000 & 55,000 years ago, effectively demolished this theory for this part of the world.
Original cover of JICA, showing an island arc from space, embedded in a deep blue sea.
In 2005, Scott Fitzpatrick and I started as founding coeditors of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology. In 2025, under Scott’s continued leadership, JICA will publish its 20th volume! Still going strong, with more than 8,000 pages on our deep entanglement with island & coastal ecosystems.
Hi, is there space in one of these starter packs for me? Archaeologist and historical ecologist in island and coastal California. Kelp highway, Channel Islands, Oregon, Alaska etc. Retired museum professional.
