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viking1000.bsky.social
Archaeologist & retired professor/museum director; worked at the University of Oregon for >30 years. Fieldwork along the Pacific Coast of North America (CA/OR/AK), +7 seasons digging Viking Age Iceland. Islands, Coasts, & Deep History.
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In Science (p. 462) this week, my colleagues--Scott Fitzpatrick, Kristina Gill, Patrick Kirch, John Ruiz, Victor Thompson, Jason Younker--and I warn of the dire threat rising seas (0.81 cm in 2024!) and marine erosion pose for coastal archaeological sites worldwide. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

The last gasp of the “turn to the sea recently” hypothesis came in 1987 when one of top coastal archaeologists of the time declared it a “historical fact” that humans only systematically harvested marine resources during the past 15,000 years or less. Not a theory or hypothesis, a FACT. Wrong!

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

The 2024 Volume 19 of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology arrived in December, 878 pages of great articles from around the world! Unfortunately I spilled an elaborately crafted smoothie on it! Still readable, but pretty sticky . . . so it goes.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Humans only turned to the sea, they said—harvesting “marginal” aquatic foods—fish, shellfish, sea mammals, seaweeds, etc—after large land mammals were decimated. A deer equaled 177,000 oysters, they said, why bother? Forget what the Tlingit in Alaska say: When the tide is out, the table is set!

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

I created an island and coastal archaeology starter pack! Let me know if you’d like to join. go.bsky.app/CRAuPY6

submitted 67 days ago • 6 comments

I grew up swimming & surfing in the Pacific. In grad school, I found it odd that top anthropologists said our ancestors ignored marine ecosystems for >99% of our (Homo sp.) deep history. 🌍 Yet coastlines-where land & sea meet-are hotspots of biodiversity, rich in resources. Something didn't add up.

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

An oddity of 20th century archaeology was the widely held theory that “coastal adaptations” only appeared worldwide in the last 10,000-15,000 years. South Africa’s Middle Stone Age shell middens, dated between 164,000 & 55,000 years ago, effectively demolished this theory for this part of the world.

submitted 72 days ago • 3 comments

In 2005, Scott Fitzpatrick and I started as founding coeditors of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology. In 2025, under Scott’s continued leadership, JICA will publish its 20th volume! Still going strong, with more than 8,000 pages on our deep entanglement with island & coastal ecosystems.

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments