Exploring Movement on Water: A Global Comparison of Naval Technology and Navigation Techniques
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)
Exploring the links between the expertise that has allowed people to move across water bodies—the sea, rivers, and lakes—and the lives of seafarers has taken a digital turn over the past several years. Increasingly, archaeologists are looking for ways to digitally recreate vessels using 3D visualizations and discuss navigation by reconstructing past environments or through least-cost pathway analyses and agent-based modeling. In many ways, these analyses bridge the gap between island and mainland communities but also among technologies, individuals, and the broader world. This session crosses the geographic divide between sailing and canoeing communities by inviting researchers who study water travel from various regions to share their interpretations of these different toolkits. Focusing on the specifics of studying aquatic mobility facilitates a clear discussion on what techniques were central to these modes of movement in the past and how these techniques influenced colonization efforts but also the construction and maintenance of social networks. Computer-based models can explore answers to these questions that are otherwise unapproachable due to poor preservation and the fluid nature of these environments. Papers in this session will consider navigation, investigate seafaring technology, or use computer methods to understand water-based travel.
Other Keywords
Taiwan •
Navigation •
Watercraft •
Intraregional Interaction •
Nicaragua •
seafaring •
Computer Archaeology •
Early human migrations •
environmental constraints to migration •
Voyage Simulation
Geographic Keywords
Republic of El Salvador (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
Republic of Honduras (Country) •
Jamaica (Country) •
Republic of Nicaragua (Country) •
Republic of Panama (Country) •
Republic of Costa Rica (Country) •
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Isl (Country) •
Territory of Guam (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-4 of 4)
- Documents (4)
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Continuity and Evolution in the Taiwanese Sailing Raft (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Taiwanese or Formosan sailing raft likely has considerable antiquity as well as geographic distribution on the coasts of China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly as far south as the Coromandel Coast of India. The Taiwanese version is the most studied and may have the longest continuous evolution into the 20th century. These seagoing craft were initially constructed from bamboo, equipped with lug sails, and steered using center boards in a very sophisticated manner. Analysis of their performance...
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Environmental Influences on the Prehistoric Movement of Modern Humans through Wallacea (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Archaeological evidence for early population dispersals from Sunda to Sahul extends back to at least 50 kya in Australia and between 42–40 kya in Timor-Leste and Sulawesi. An increasing number of sites dating to between ca. 41–14 kya on these and other islands such as Halmahera suggest that modern humans were becoming more proficient and spatially expansive than once believed. What were the prime variables environmentally, socially, or climatically that may have influenced these movements during...
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Faring the Sweet Sea: Simulating Pre-Hispanic Raft and Canoe Navigation in Lake Cocibolca, Nicaragua (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Before 1492, the human communities that inhabited the shores of Lake Cocibolca in Central America engaged in dynamic interactions and exchange networks, traveling across the land and canoeing or rafting on the lake and rivers to trade goods and communicate with their neighbors. Evidencing this travel network, archaeological studies have documented an abundance of ceramics and carved stone that the past inhabitants of the Lake Cocibolca region produced and traded widely during the later...
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Modeling Water Routes Through a Divide: Retracing Movement from the Greater Antilles to the Lesser Antilles in the Late Ceramic Age. (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This paper focuses on modeling hypothetical sea routes between islands within the Caribbean Sea to try and redraw the map of social mobility and material exchange that existed during the Late Ceramic Age (A.D. 1250–1400). With the emphasis for modeling canoe pathways more focused on uncovering possible colonization routes, this map has yet to be thoroughly explored. However, analyzing the back and forth of travel between two sites known to be occupied during the same period can open up ideas on...