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Inland fishing by Homo sapiens during early settlement of Wallacea

Boulanger, Clara; Hawkins, Stuart; Shipton, Ceri; Ingicco, Thomas; Sémah, Anne-Marie; Samper Carro, Sofia; O'Connor, Sue; (2023) Inland fishing by Homo sapiens during early settlement of Wallacea. Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology , 2 , Article 1201351. 10.3389/fearc.2023.1201351. Green open access

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Abstract

Homo sapienswere adept at fishing in a range of aquatic habitats by the time they left Africa and reached Southeast Asiaca. 73 kya. In the insular region of Wallacea, humans adapted to a significant maritime environment with sophisticated marine fishing methods and technology by at least 42 kya. However, despite a growing array of evidence suggesting an early inland terrestrial adaptation on large islands in this tropical region, there was previously no evidence of fishing in inland wetlands habitats on the depauperate islands of Wallacea. Here we present new evidence of both marine and freshwater fishing recovered from different occupation phases from the cave sites Laili (ca. 44.6–11.7 kya) and Matja Kuru 2 (ca. 40 kya to Late Holocene) on the island of Timor (Timor-Leste), located near significant riverine and lake environments respectively. This indicates that humans adapted to a wider range of aquatic habitats over time and space in Wallacea than previously thought and moved freely between inland and coastal habitats. Diversification of fishing strategies likely improved chances of survival in an island landscape with an impoverished suite of terrestrial vertebrates under changing climatic conditions.

Type: Article
Title: Inland fishing by Homo sapiens during early settlement of Wallacea
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3389/fearc.2023.1201351
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2023.1201351
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2023 Boulanger, Hawkins, Shipton, Ingicco, Sémah, Samper Carro and O'Connor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Keywords: ichthyoarchaeology, palaeoecology, Paleolithic, Timor-Leste, island environments, fish bone
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10196878
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