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  • Forty-thousand years of maritime subsistence near a changing shoreline on Alor Island (Indonesia)

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    Author(s)
    Kealy, S
    O'Connor, S
    Mahirta
    Sari, DM
    Shipton, C
    Langley, MC
    Boulanger, C
    Kaharudin, HAF
    Patridina, EPBGG
    Algifary, MA
    Irfan, A
    Beaumont, P
    Jankowski, N
    Hawkins, S
    Louys, J
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Langley, Michelle C.
    Louys, Julien
    Year published
    2020
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    Abstract
    We report archaeological findings from a significant new cave site on Alor Island, Indonesia, with an in situ basal date of 40,208–38,454 cal BP. Twenty thousand years older than the earliest Pleistocene site previously known from this island, Makpan retains dense midden deposits of marine shell, fish bone, urchin and crab remains, but few terrestrial species; demonstrating that protein requirements over this time were met almost exclusively from the sea. The dates for initial occupation at Makpan indicate that once Homo sapiens moved into southern Wallacea, settlement of the larger islands in the archipelago occurred rapidly. ...
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    We report archaeological findings from a significant new cave site on Alor Island, Indonesia, with an in situ basal date of 40,208–38,454 cal BP. Twenty thousand years older than the earliest Pleistocene site previously known from this island, Makpan retains dense midden deposits of marine shell, fish bone, urchin and crab remains, but few terrestrial species; demonstrating that protein requirements over this time were met almost exclusively from the sea. The dates for initial occupation at Makpan indicate that once Homo sapiens moved into southern Wallacea, settlement of the larger islands in the archipelago occurred rapidly. However, the Makpan sequence also suggests that the use of the cave following initial human arrival was sporadic prior to the terminal Pleistocene about 14,000 years ago, when occupation became intensive, culminating in the formation of a midden. Like the coastal sites on the larger neighbouring island of Timor, the Makpan assemblage shows that maritime technology in the Pleistocene was highly developed in this region. The Makpan assemblage also contains a range of distinctive personal ornaments made on Nautilus shell, which are shared with sites located on Timor and Kisar supporting connectivity between islands from at least the terminal Pleistocene. Makpan’s early inhabitants responded to sea-level change by altering the way they used both the site and local resources. Marine food exploitation shows an initial emphasis on sea-urchins, followed by a subsistence switch to molluscs, barnacles, and fish in the dense middle part of the sequence, with crabs well represented in the later occupation. This new record provides further insights into early modern human movements and patterns of occupation between the islands of eastern Nusa Tenggara from ca. 40 ka.
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    Journal Title
    Quaternary Science Reviews
    Volume
    249
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106599
    Copyright Statement
    © 2020 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
    Subject
    Earth sciences
    Archaeology
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/398436
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    • Journal articles

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