Changing coastlines and persisting links: human / littoral interactions during the Late Glacial around the Mediterranean basin
Author(s): Leïla Hoareau
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "<html>Twenty Thousand Leagues (and Years!) under the Sea:<i> </i>Exploring the Place of Seashores in Prehistoric Socio-economic Systems</html>" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Around the Mediterranean basin, marine resources play an important role in both subsistence and the symbolic universe. Here, we focus on the Epigravettian, a Late Glacial culture that spans the northern Mediterranean basin from Provence to the Greek coast. Epigravettian groups have a strong symbolic link with the coastal environment, reflected in their bodily ornaments composed almost exclusively of marine shells. Based on bibliographical data and unpublished data on the composition of Epigravettian ornamental assemblages, we will discuss the networks linking coastal occupations to inland sites, giving all Epigravettian groups access to marine shells. Coastal sites sometimes hold a special place in exchanges and in the chaîne opératoire for making ornaments. We will also look at how groups have adapted and modified their symbolic systems as coastlines have changed, leading to variations in species availability. In this paper, we will explore how hunter-gatherer groups maintain and sustain their ties to the coastline in the midst of Late Glacial environmental change.
Cite this Record
Changing coastlines and persisting links: human / littoral interactions during the Late Glacial around the Mediterranean basin. Leïla Hoareau. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 509211)
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Abstract Id(s): 51327