Exploiting Ancient Seas

摘要

Early colonizers of the New World exploited its wide variety of meat resources-many archeological sites show evidence of hunting of megafauna and smaller animals. Early evidence for widespread marine sustenance has been observed primarily in South America. Erlandson et al. (p. 1181) now describe sites in the California Northern Channel Islands that show exploitation of marine food for an extended period of time about 12,000 years ago. At that time, these islands were still several kilometers offshore, requiring boat travel to reach them. A variety of tools show evidence of hunting of marine birds, mammals, shellfish, and fish.