Different but similar? Colonisation processes on islands and continents compared

Author(s): Matthew Spriggs

Year: 2017

Summary

As discussed elsewhere (Spriggs 2008) the ‘islands as laboratories’ trope can be overblown, and factors beyond size, circumscription and vulnerability have to be taken into consideration. Indeed none of these are concerns uniquely limited to islands. In this paper I stress too that colonisation on its own may be too limited a concern. We need to examine longer archaeological sequences for a truly comparative archaeology, where what happens after initial colonisation is also key to understanding. I compare aspects of the Lapita colonisation and its aftermath in the Southwest Pacific islands, the Linearbandkeramik and Cardial Ware cultures of Continental Europe and the Mediterranean coastline, and the Neolithic spread across Mainland Southeast Asia to show that islands are not always what they are cracked up to be.

Cite this Record

Different but similar? Colonisation processes on islands and continents compared. Matthew Spriggs. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia. 2017 ( tDAR id: 430797)

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14936