World prehistory from the margins: the role of coastlines

in human evolution

G. Bailey

World prehistory from the margins: the role of coastlines in human evolution

Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Conventional accounts of world prehistory are dominated by land-based narratives progressing from scavenging and hunting of land mammals and gathering of plants to animal domestication and crop agriculture, and ultimately to urban civilisations supported by agricultural surpluses and trade. The use of coastlines and marine resources has been viewed as marginal, late in the sequence, or anomalous. This bias is primarily the result of three factors: the removal of most relevant evidence by sealevel change; the bad press given to coastal hunters and gatherers by 19th century ethnographers; and a belief in technological 'primitivism'. In this paper I will examine the case for treating coastal habitats as amongst the most attractive for human settlement, and coastlines and seaways not as barriers but as gateways to human movement and contact, from early hominid dispersals to the rise of the great coastal and riverine civilisations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	39-50
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in History and Archaeology
Volume	1
Issue number	1
Publication status	Published - Jun 2004

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abstract = "Conventional accounts of world prehistory are dominated by land-based narratives progressing from scavenging and hunting of land mammals and gathering of plants to animal domestication and crop agriculture, and ultimately to urban civilisations supported by agricultural surpluses and trade. The use of coastlines and marine resources has been viewed as marginal, late in the sequence, or anomalous. This bias is primarily the result of three factors: the removal of most relevant evidence by sealevel change; the bad press given to coastal hunters and gatherers by 19th century ethnographers; and a belief in technological 'primitivism'. In this paper I will examine the case for treating coastal habitats as amongst the most attractive for human settlement, and coastlines and seaways not as barriers but as gateways to human movement and contact, from early hominid dispersals to the rise of the great coastal and riverine civilisations.",

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