Recent discoveries suggest a crucial cluster of biological & cultural innovations, probably in the millennia around 20,000 BP, and roughly in the southeast Asian region between the Yangtze and Mekong rivers. Among these were domestic dogs, vermin rats, and pottery.
-
-
Coastal villages, which were likely numerous & permanent, & lived off of abundant fish & dense populations of littoral animals, have been largely lost to archaeology due to global warming & sea level rise at the end of the last glaciation.
Show this thread -
The abundance of littoral food sources probably gave coastal peoples more motivation than inlanders to stay longer & store more food, so they may have been the original sources of this adaptation cluster (dogs, vermin, pottery). Archaeologists only have access to inland sites.
Show this thread -
Long-term coastal settlements may have resembled those much later documented by travelers & ethnologists, for example the Nivkh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nivkh_people … the Kwakwakaʼwakw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwakwaka%CA%BCwakw … and the Yurok https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/02/conflict-and-collectibles-among-yurok_87.html …
Show this thread -
One must be cautious about the documented observations, however, since, especially in the case of the Kwakwakaʼwakw, they were often made after their cultures had been severely disrupted by European contact.
Show this thread -
ht to the polymath Tim May for pointing out to me the likely importance of coastal villages as technological leaders during the millennia leading up to the dawn of agriculture.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.