Sailing at the Edge of Time: Global Perspectives on Island Colonization

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

The timing and drivers of colonization into previously uninhabited areas is a central theme in archaeological research. Questions of when, who, and from where remain important research topics in many regions as these form a baseline from which we construct explanations of the past. Islands provide a particularly rich setting to study colonization as reaching them often involved unique adaptations, including specialized watercraft, translocated domesticates, and long-distance interaction networks. However, the intricacies of colonization are often contentiously debated, as archaeological, linguistic, paleoenvironmental, and biological perspectives can present substantially different, and sometimes conflicting information, particularly regarding the timing of initial island settlements. This symposium brings together archaeologists from island regions across the globe to discuss current theoretical, substantive, and methodological issues in island colonization research.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-15 of 15)

  • Documents (15)

Documents
  1. Above and Below the Waves: Advances in the Search for a Late Pleistocene Colonization of California’s Islands (2017)
  2. Causes and Consequences of Colonization in the Caribbean: What Is Known and What Is Unknowable (2017)
  3. Colonization of the Land of Stone Money: Resolving the Unclear Origins of Early Settlements of Yap, Western Caroline Islands (2017)
  4. The Colonization of the Southern Ryukyu islands, Japan (2017)
  5. Development of Maritime Networks and Human Migration in Wallacea and Oceania during Neolithic to Early Metal ages (2017)
  6. Examining the Causes of Migration into East Polynesia: A Bayesian Chronology Perspective on the Ideal-Free Distribution Model (2017)
  7. Gone fishing: Evidence for Wide-ranging Marine Exploitation in the Initial Settlement of Island Southeast Asia (2017)
  8. Is Mediterranean Island Colonisation Still Interesting? (2017)
  9. The Palaeoenvironmental Impacts of Neolithic Colonization: Assessing Recent Palynological Data from the Mediterranean Islands (2017)
  10. Pleistocene Occupation of the Greek Islands: The Perspective from Crete (2017)
  11. Quantifying the Number of 14C Determinations Required to Improve Dating Accuracy for Lapita Deposits (2017)
  12. Reevaluating the Pre-Columbian Colonization of the Caribbean using Chronometric Hygiene and Bayesian Modeling (2017)
  13. Selection-Driven Range Expansion Explains Lapita Colonisation of Remote Oceania (2017)
  14. Small Island Adaptations in the Initial Colonization of Fiji and Tonga (2017)
  15. The Strategic Location of the Maldives in Indian Ocean Maritime Trade and Colonization (2017)