Lost Foraging Opportunities for East Asian Hunter‐Gatherers Due to Rising Sea Level Since the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

This paper explores how changes in sea level and biome distribution may have affected the habitats occupied by hunter-gatherers in East Asia. Using a modelbased reconstruction of changing sea level from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to present day, our analysis reveals that the exposure of a large continental shelf during the LGM sea level lowstand created a wealth of wooded, estuarine, and coastal biomes that could have been exploited intensively by Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers. Models explaining hunter-gatherer subsistence changes and migrations in this period should take into account the large area that has been lost to rising sea level since the LGM. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Physical sedimentary controls on subtropical coastal and shelf sedimentary systems: Initial application in conceptual models and computer visualizations to support archaeology

“…Hence, more specific (local) data are needed regarding physical processes, sedimentary context (e.g., Ward, Merigot, & McInnes, ) and biogeography (Wilson, ) to help refine the visualizations for key periods in the past and to permit the best interpretation of the archaeological data. We contend that this conclusion also applies to other coastlines of the world, where archaeological evidence also implies major changes in coastal environments and resource use (e.g., d'Alpoim Guedes et al., ; Gilbertson et al., ; Williams et al., 2018). Ultimately, however, such visualizations are still subjective and should not be taken to be any more inherently accurate than any other archaeological ideas, no matter how much detail or quantification they might contain (Whitley, , p. 11).…”

“…), proxies for rainfall, temperatures, and so on, as well as archaeological and associated data. The same suite of needs is also required to improve confidence in ongoing retrodictive reconstructions of coastal change, biomes and associated interpretations of demography during the LGM and early Holocene (e.g., d'Alpoim Guedes et al., ; Williams, Ulm, Sapienza, Lewis, & Turney, 2018).…”

“…The capacity of computer‐based visualizations to illustrate past change is now almost limitless, with computers able to deal with vast and complex datasets related to climatic, ecological, environmental, and human systems. The current trend in archaeological simulation is towards greater environmental realism, through the explicit inclusion of environmental heterogeneity and human impact on the environment (d'Alpoim Guedes, Austermann, & Mitrovica, ; Lake, ). A problem is that such “realism” can be taken at face value or, as per McGlade (, p. 129), as abstract representations of some “real world” phenomena, rather than as a resource with which to test a range of interpretations—for example, in the positioning and nature of past coastlines.…”

“…For example, d'Alpoim Guedes et al. (), p. 258) in their modelling of the east Asian region state that “Our models do not account for topographic (sic) changes associated with sediment erosion and deposition, which might be important in this region.” There is a clear need to understand better the archaeological significance of such limitations.…”

“…The capacity of computer-based visualizations to illustrate past change is now almost limitless, with computers able to deal with vast and complex datasets related to climatic, ecological, environmental, and human systems. The current trend in archaeological simulation is towards greater environmental realism, through the explicit inclusion of environmental heterogeneity and human impact on the environment (d'Alpoim Guedes, Austermann, & Mitrovica, 2016;Lake, 2014).…”