Published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (Ahead of Print, 2022)

Abstract Despite decades of archaeological research on Jamaica, little is known about how settlers influenced landscape change on the island over time. Here, we examine the impact of human occupation through a multi-proxy approach using phytolith, charcoal, and stratigraphic analyses. White Marl was a continuously inhabited village settlement (ca. 1050–450 cal yrs BP) with large mounded midden areas

Abstract Recent advances in the study of the antiquity and development of ancient Pacific Island agriculture have been made at sites across much of the region by the application of a range of microfossil techniques, namely analysis of pollen, phytoliths, and starch. Unlike in Melanesia and Polynesia, the application of these techniques in Micronesia is limited. Here we report on microfossil analysis

Abstract The first Austronesian settlers at the site of San Roque in Saipan and the southern Mariana Islands began arriving sometime after 1500 BC in what is called the Early Pre-Latte Period. A comparison of San Roque to contemporaneous island sites reveals differences in cooking and habitation features, ceramic vessels and decorative styles, marine shell tools and ornaments, and settlement patterns

Abstract Although Maya scholars have referenced coastal settlements in the more general discourse on past landscapes, coastal landscapes have only rarely been the explicit focus of research programs. Coastal peoples, however, faced distinct challenges and opportunities not shared by their inland neighbors. These had material ramifications in terms of the specific decisions coastal inhabitants made

Abstract Discovery of a late Pleistocene (∼13,300 cal BP) reef-building coral species (Pocillopora damicornis) at the prehistoric Huaca Prieta settlement in Peru raises the question of its origin. Did it arrive in northern Peru from tropical Ecuador via larval dispersal in south-flowing El Niño currents or over land by human trading? The Holocene distribution of Pocillopora in the eastern Pacific extends

Abstract Although the trans-Atlantic cod trade linked North American and European socioeconomic spheres, few studies analyze both regions concurrently to understand the impact and extent of cod trade at a wider scale. We summarize new results of zooarchaeological analysis from Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada, a major North American cod-trading port, and consider its role in the wider trans-Atlantic

Published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (Vol. 17, No. 3, 2022)

Abstract Stratified societies in the form of chiefdoms emerged during the Gusuku Period (ca. late eleventh–fifteenth centuries) in the Central Ryukyus (Amami and Okinawa Archipelagos), Japan. They competed among themselves, and by the fifteenth century, the Ryukyu Kingdom had been established. In contrast, the social organization of the Shellmidden Period (ca. 7,000–1,000 BP), comprising hunter-gatherer-fishers

Abstract The hypothesis of a prehistoric occupation of the Malvinas/Falkland Islands is reviewed. The strength of the different lines of evidence presented by different authors is discussed, and the main difficulties are pointed out. Previous analyses sustained a pre-European human presence on the basis of the recovery of macrofossil charcoal in peat bogs up to 10,500 cal BP, anecdotal evidence for

Abstract In southern and south-eastern Arabia, the Neolithic developed between 6500 and 3100 BCE. In the Sultanate of Oman, occupation occurred along wadi banks, around paleolakes, and at large shell-middens accumulated on the shores of the Arabian Sea. Nevertheless, the origins and development of human occupation on the Arabian Sea islands are poorly known, if not totally undocumented. After exploring

Abstract Climate (in)stability can manifest in the size of mollusks attesting to variable impacts on growth, seasonal exploitation, and cultural persistence. We present population statistics of the height of a bivalve species (Donax obesulus) collected from sites dating to the Early Horizon (EH, 900–200 BCE) in the Nepeña Valley and the Middle Horizon (MH, 600–1000 CE) in the Jequetepeque Valley of

Abstract The Florida Keys comprise a unique ecological and archaeological setting in the southeastern United States yet have remained relatively understudied archaeologically for much of the twentieth century. Anecdotal accounts of “Spanish wells,” employed by sailors and settlers during the colonial and early modern eras, have long posed questions about the availability of freshwater resources to

Abstract Archaeological evidence indicates that initial coastal settlement of western South America took place near the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) when sea level was between 40 and 100 m lower than today. Beginning around 15,000 cal BP, and for roughly the next 8,000 years, sea levels rose, eventually covering these formerly exposed and potentially human-occupied landscapes. We use bathymetric

Abstract Unguja Ukuu, located on the Zanzibar Archipelago, eastern Africa, was an active Indian Ocean trading settlement from the mid-first millennium until the early second millennium AD. As part of recent archaeological excavations aimed at understanding the site’s transregional trade networks, geoarchaeological analyses were undertaken to document the geomorphic context of the ancient settlement

Published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (Vol. 17, No. 3, 2022)

Abstract Archaeological research on traditional Hawaiian agriculture has generally focused on two primary strategies: irrigated pondfield and intensive dryland cultivation. However, other cultivation strategies, such as colluvial slope agriculture, were practiced but have been less intensively studied and remain poorly understood. To begin to remedy this paucity of information, a joint education and

(2022). Cille Pheadair: A Norse Farmstead and Pictish Burial Cairn in South Uist. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology: Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 321-322.

Abstract Recent discovery of painted rock art on Wetang Island in the Babar Island group, Maluku Province, Indonesia, reflects the central place of boats in the daily lives of island peoples, as well as their paramount ritual and symbolic role in Maluku, and more broadly across Island Southeast Asia. In addition to boats, the Wetang sites contain images of domestic animals, as well as a unique image

Abstract The contribution of shellfish to ancient subsistence has been overlooked in many archaeological studies in Central-East Polynesia. Archaeomalacology, however, can shed light on a wider range of exploited mollusks. In this paper we investigate the exploitation of the chiton Acanthopleura gemmata from the Hane Dune site, Ua Huka, Marquesas Islands. Although several previous studies have highlighted

Abstract This paper presents the results of the analysis of plant macroremains (except wood), primarily seeds and fruits, from Cabo San Pablo 2017 (CSP2017), an archaeological site close to the Atlantic coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. CSP2017 has a great diversity of archaeological materials, including faunal, lithic, carpological, and anthracological remains. The data are especially relevant

Abstract One relevant dimension through which human populations articulate their occupation of the landscape involves the accumulation and interpersonal transmission of information pertaining to the spatio-temporal distribution, accessibility, and desirability of resources. The high productivity and resource diversity of coastal circumpolar landscapes enables them to sustain larger hunter-gatherer

Abstract The Pineland Site Complex, 8LL1902, is a large archaeological complex of middens, mounds, and other topographic features located in coastal, southwestern Florida. It was occupied from approximately AD 50 and was a major Calusa town at European contact. We combine extant research from this well-preserved site complex with new chronological and zooarchaeological analyses to provide new insight

Abstract This paper offers a mesoscale approach to the study of the urban landscape surrounding the fourteenth–sixteenth century Swahili site of Songo Mnara just off the southern Tanzanian coast. The study is based on a systematic, intensive survey of the town’s immediate island hinterland. Such an approach, we argue, exposes a set of activities that extend out from the urban core and situates the

Published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (Vol. 17, No. 3, 2022)

Published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (Vol. 17, No. 3, 2022)

Abstract Ra’s al-Hamra 6 (RH-6) and Ra’s al-Hamra 5 (RH-5) are two of the most important Neolithic coastal sites in the Sultanate of Oman. Located in the capital Muscat, they have supplied an important corpus of fish bones and revealed a high taxonomic richness in the different assemblages. The results provided information on fishing practices that held an important role in the subsistence strategies

Abstract The archaeological record of the Province of Santa Cruz’s north Atlantic coast in Argentine Patagonia is represented mainly by middens. These shell middens are made up of the calcareous exoskeletons of mollusks, as well as skeletal remains of vertebrate fauna, lithic artifacts, and carbonized plant remains, intermixed with a varying quantity of sedimentary soil. Recently, along the Lower Basin

Abstract This report presents findings from recent systematic surveys and excavations at the site of Finley’s Pond (9CH204) to evaluate craft production (e.g., shell beads) and settlement expansion on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, within the context of larger social, political, and economic changes that occurred along the Georgia coast over the last millennia. Shovel tests and excavation units were conducted

Abstract Research into what is known as the Atlantic Europe of Southwest Spain has highlighted an important network of fluvial coastal anchorages that, in a diachronic way, mark the coastline from the mouth of the Baetis River to the Anas. Most are associated with fishing factories, coastal population settlements, or the port of Onoba itself, and all have meaningful commercial traffic in products that

Abstract The majority of archaeological sites in the Caribbean are under threat from various natural and cultural processes. This is particularly true for the smaller and more vulnerable islands in the Lesser Antilles. Here we report on the 2001 rescue recovery of human skeletal remains that were observed to be actively eroding into the sea at Boiling Rock, an Archaic Age site along the southeast coast

Abstract Cultural interaction and exchange across the Bering Strait of northern Alaska played a central role in the emergence of Arctic maritime adaptations. Yet poor chronological control limits our ability to explore processes of cultural change over the last 5000 years. We address this problem by synthesizing the available radiocarbon record for the region, carrying out Bayesian analysis of a regional

Abstract In 2019, Professional archaeologists and volunteers of the Cape Porpoise Archaeological Alliance (CPAA) excavated and recovered the remains of a dugout canoe that was located during a surface survey of the Cape Porpoise tidal flats in Kennebunkport, Maine. A sample of the canoe dated to between AD 1275 and 1380 making it the oldest known from the region. Three days later, a CPAA citizen scientist

Abstract Climate change threatens coastal archaeology through storm flooding (extreme sea-level: ESL), long-term sea-level rise (SLR) and coastal erosion. Many regions, like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), lack key baseline evidence. We present initial results from a climate change threat assessment of MENA's coastal heritage using the Maritime Endangered Archaeology inventory: a geospatial

Abstract The island of Formentera, with its small extension and flat orography, was settled relatively late in Mediterranean prehistory between the third and second millennium BC. The sites presented in this paper, Cova des Fum and Cova des Riuets, offer evidence of the island’s first occupation. Cova des Fum comprises a necropolis of the Bronze Age and two sanctuary spaces (used, at least, from 2035 cal

Abstract Shortly after arriving in the Shetland archipelago early in the 4th millennium BC, communities began to quarry and make stone tools from riebeckite felsite, quarried from the Northmavine region of North Mainland. The effort expended traveling to the quarry sites, extracting, making and crafting tools was considerable indicating the importance of felsite to Neolithic communities. Results from

Abstract Rongorongo is a non-deciphered writing system from Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Because the island was isolated from the outside world until relatively recently, rongorongo has the potential of being one of only a few instances in human history of an independent invention of writing. However, no scientific consensus exists regarding the time span for when rongorongo was used. Its cessation in

Abstract The island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands was first settled by people from northern Africa in the first millennium BC and then colonized by Spain in the late fifteenth century. This colonial legacy reflects an intensive land use driven by a European commodities market that experienced a series of boom-and-bust cycles. Although arid and seemingly resource limited, colonial farmers in the

(2022). Review of Pleistocene Archaeology – Migration, Technology, and Adaptation. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology: Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 316-317.

Abstract This paper stresses the importance of shark fisheries at the site of Gramalote, an early Initial Period (1500–1200/1100 cal BC) fishing settlement, which has yielded the largest amount of shark remains ever reported along the coast of Peru. The article discusses fishing techniques utilized to capture such dangerous fish with limited technology. Moreover, it highlights the economic importance

Abstract Tokelau is a remote archipelago of atolls in western Polynesia, located approximately 500 km north of Samoa. It is thought to have been settled as part of the Austronesian expansion(s). However, its exact role in this population dispersal is not completely understood. Here we describe the results of complete mitochondrial genome sequencing for both the current inhabitants and ancient individuals

Abstract The ship setting site on the island of Hjarnø, known as the Kalvestene (“the calf stones”), is a grave field made up of ten small ship settings dating to the Viking Age. Although it is a comparatively small site, textual evidence suggests that, surprisingly, the Kalvestene were well-known, at least in some parts of medieval Scandinavia. The site is unusual among Danish grave fields in that

Abstract Obsidian provenance studies in the southern Kuriles (Kunashir and Iturup islands), part of the insular Russian Far East, are reviewed and summarized for the first time. The sites analyzed belong to the Jomon (ca. 7300–2500 BP), Epi-Jomon (ca. 2500–1400 BP), and Okhotsk (ca. 1400–800 BP) cultural complexes, with particular attention given to the well-studied Yankito 2 site. The main sources

Abstract In the La Plata Basin, indigenous populations used canoes for colonizing islands, moving people, fishing, transporting loads, and warfare. According to sixteenth century chronicles, dugout canoes were large, up to 24 m in length, and had a capacity for 40 people. In this paper, four dugout canoes recovered in La Plata River, and in the Paraná Delta, are studied. Their context of discovery

(2021). The premise and potential of model-based approaches to island archaeology: A response to Terrell. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. Ahead of Print.

Abstract The mid-Holocene (ca. 8200–4200 cal BP) brought about important climatic changes and environmental shifts to land and coastal systems, globally. Many of the human groups existing at that time were affected in various degrees by such important modifications to their foraging areas, including shorelines. Higher sea-levels (+1–3 m) were a prominent factor reshaping coastal landscapes and thus

Abstract While fishhook technology is currently known to date back to ca. 22,000 cal. BP, almost all Pleistocene-aged assemblages consist of less than 10 artifacts, restricting the ability of archaeologists to reconstruct the technology. Excavations at Makpan Cave on Alor Island (Indonesia), however, has recovered an extensive assemblage of marine shell material culture, including an unprecedented

(2022). The Special Character of Northwest Coast Wet Sites: Review of “Waterlogged”. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology: Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 318-320.

(2021). Submerged prehistory in the Americas: Methods, approaches and results. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology: Vol. 16, Submerged Prehistory in the Americas, pp. 1-4.

Abstract There are significant challenges to answering questions of Native American precontact history with data from sites in marine submerged continental shelf settings. We find seven published examples of projects in the Americas that encountered archaeological sites through systematic and phased geoarchaeological research. These seven projects share similar characteristics: recognition of archaeological

Abstract The Gironde estuary in SW France is the largest in Western Europe and has attracted human populations since prehistoric times. From the 1970s to the 1990s, intense archaeological research was undertaken on the long and highly dynamic coastline just south of the estuary mouth. In recent years, the combined action of increased coastal erosion and human pressure has proved a serious threat to

Abstract Geological analysis was conducted on a stone adze, which was accidentally dug up from an intertidal dredging site on a reef flat in Pohnpei Island, Micronesia in the 1980s. Detailed geological observations identified the material as metamorphic rock (schist), not basalt as originally reported. This result places its source in the continental rocks of Island Melanesia, most probably New Guinea

Abstract The earliest colonization of oceanic islands by Homo sapiens occurred about 50,000–30,000 years ago in the tropical and temperate waters of the western Pacific, yet how this was achieved remains unclear. Under the experimental archaeology program called ‘Holistic Reenactment Project of Voyages 30,000 Years Ago’, we designed, built, and tested reed-bundle rafts as one of the candidate seagoing

Abstract Bioarchaeological studies of human remains from the Marshall Islands have reported dental, aDNA, and some biological profile data, but no behavioral reconstructions have been conducted. In this case study, histology was examined in a fragmented set of long bone and rib samples to test whether strenuous arm use, linked to traditional Marshallese gardening, food collection, and fishing activities

Abstract We investigate animal food preferences of the Ostiones people, the occupants of the coastal site of Puerto Marqués, one of the few Late Archaic Period sites located along the Pacific coast of Mexico (4600 and 2000 cal BCE). Our data are based upon recovered faunal remains at the site, which consist of vertebrate bones and molluskan shells identified to the lowest possible taxon. Habitat information

Abstract Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists, archaeologists, and others have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various ethnographic descriptions relating to cultural material objects stenciled on various rock art sites in Auwim, Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, East Sepik

Abstract The coastline of Morocco extends across the northwest Maghreb region of Africa, from the western Mediterranean to the eastern Atlantic. Cultural heritage resources include archaeological remains that reveal a myriad of past human activities in the country’s coastal zone, from Middle Paleolithic habitation sites to historical large-scale port infrastructure. As also experienced globally, natural

Abstract Documentary accounts by Spanish visitors to the Mariana Islands during the seventeenth century describe the native Chamorro as a stratified society that was organized into ranked matrilineal clans. Such writers note that while men served as the titular heads of households, women exercised significant power in domestic contexts. The recent excavation of an ancient cemetery (ca. 730 BC to AD

Abstract Anthropologists after World War II were vocal in saying the apparent remoteness and marginality of islands in the Pacific made them laboratories of a sort. In 1997, however, Terry Hunt, Chris Gosden, and I reported that by then another research agenda had replaced this old one in the Pacific. Rather than seeing these islands as distant and undeveloped human colonies scattered across a vast

Abstract The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP) is a diachronic archaeological survey of numerous small, uninhabited islands in the Cycladic archipelago. There is a rich history of archaeological survey and comparative island archaeology in the Aegean. SCIP narrows the size of an individual island survey, and at the same time expands the conceptual and comparative scope by surveying multiple islands