Gone fishing: Evidence for Wide-ranging Marine Exploitation in the Initial Settlement of Island Southeast Asia

Summary

"Fishing is much more than fish... It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers" (Herbert Hoover, 1963. Fishing for Fun-and to Wash Your Soul. Random House) In the vast oceans separating continental Sunda and Sahul are more than 17,000 islands that make up the Wallacean Archipelago. Lying to the east of Huxley’s Line, these islands are characterised by unbalanced and depauperate terrestrial faunas but support some of the world’s most bio-diverse marine ecosystems. While permanently inhabited today the size of many of these islands would seem to preclude occupation in the absence of agriculture or translocation of animals. Here we discuss recent excavation results from Eastern Indonesia which demonstrate the technological innovations and specialised maritime adaptations which allowed wide-ranging exploitation of diverse marine resources, enabling persistent Pleistocene occupation on these small islands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Sailing at the Edge of Time: Global Perspectives on Island Colonization

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15755