The comparative archaeology of the Channel Islands

Summary

Brian Fagan’s long fascination with the sea and sailing gives special resonance to his studies of coastal communities and human adaptation. In Before California he studied the Chumash peoples and the prehistoric settlement of the Channel Islands of the Santa Barbara Channel. In recognition of Brian’s evocation of broad-scale cross-cultural comparisons, the postglacial communities of the Californian Channel Islands are here contrasted with patterns of settlement and social change in the Channel Islands of the English Channel. Despite many differences in technology and social organisation, both sets of communities were dependent on maritime connectivity and both subject to the vulnerability imposed by their coastal environments. This study will demonstrate the value of cross-cultural comparison in throwing new light on even such disparate prehistoric settings as the islands of western North America and those of northwest Europe.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Engaging with the Public and the Past: The Archaeological Legacy of Brian Fagan

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