There and Back: An Evaluation of Modeling Pre-sail Seafaring Exchange Routes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the field of modeling water-based movement, many researchers have focused on modeling colonization or larger migration patterns. However, longer and more exploratory voyages encompasses only part of humanity’s use of sea travel. Evaluating closely connected sea-oriented communities can provide key insights into the everyday nature of sea movement, which is reflected in coastal archaeological findings around the globe. There is also ample evidence for peoples using the sea as a highway for both the movement of materials and for maintaining distant social relationships beyond exploration purposes. Additionally, more attention needs to be paid to non-sail powered vessels, which in some cases had less reach than those with sails. This mode of transport likely influenced the location of travel corridors. Here, I seek to build off this evidence by exploring movement between known archaeological sites and evaluating possible corridors of reciprocal exchange between them. By evaluating shorter voyages connected to communities known to be in contact or to have collected resources on neighboring islands, it may be possible to evaluate relationships between mariner and travel corridor. I will discuss my own research into this paradigm, as well as explore broader implications for modeling between known points of connection.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23836