This is a repository copy of Earliest coastal settlement, marine palaeoeconomies and human dispersal : the Africa-Arabia connection. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/79893/ Version: Published Version Book Section: Bailey, Geoff orcid.org/0000-0003-2656-830X (2010) Earliest coastal settlement, marine palaeoeconomies and human dispersal : the Africa-Arabia connection. In: Anderson, A., Barrett, J. and Boyles, K., (eds.) The global origins and development of seafaring. McDonald Institute Monographs . McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research , Cambridge , pp. 29-40. Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Earliest Coastal Settlement, Marine Palaeoeconomies and Human Dispersal Chapter 3 Earliest Coastal Settlement, Marine Palaeoeconomies and Human Dispersal: the Africa–Arabia Connection Geoff Bailey How far back in time can we trace a human ability to The presence of indicators of either type of activ- exploit marine food resources and a human capacity ity has often been taken as evidence of a significant to travel across water? Both questions are important to advance in technological skills, social organization a wider understanding of an evolving human interest or economic arrangements, on the assumption that in the sea and to the large question of the timing and the sea is an alien environment that played no role pattern of dispersal of the human species. But these in the earliest stages of human evolution, and that its are two separate questions, and we should not assume resources only began to be incorporated into human that evidence for one presupposes the existence of the existence with the development of new abilities other. Some of the most abundant marine resources and skills or with increased pressure of population can be obtained within the intertidal zone or in very numbers on existing food supplies on land. In fact, shallow water at the shore edge: marine molluscs, consumption of marine resources and short sea cross- other marine invertebrates, seaweed, fish trapped in ings require no more by way of biological adapta- pools by the receding tide or scooped out of shallow tions, technological skills or cognitive abilities than water, marine birds brought down by storms, and those associated with the development of the earliest sea turtles and sea mammals that have come ashore members of the genus Homo in the African Rift more for breeding or other purposes. Moreover, all of these than 2 million years ago. Some authors, notably Carl resources are obtainable by collection or scavenging Sauer (1962), have even seen in the resources of the with the simplest of technology or with no implements sea shore a primary stimulus to human evolution. at all, and some can be eaten raw without the need Nevertheless, the prevailing opinion in archaeological for further processing. Evidence that such resources circles until very recently has been a persistent bias were exploited tells us nothing with certainty about against the use of marine resources in the earliest the existence of seafaring skills or technology, since all periods of the archaeological record and an assump- could have been obtained at the shore edge without tion that they appeared relatively late in the global venturing into deep water. Even in the Holocene, history of human development, only reaching their when there is good independent evidence for the fullest expression in the latter part of the Postglacial existence of seaworthy boats, the presence of marine period after about 7000 years ago. The reasons for indicators in archaeological deposits should be used such a bias stem from a variety of sources and have with caution. The presence of bones of adult cod in been well rehearsed elsewhere (Bailey 2004; Bailey & European shell middens was once taken as evidence Milner 2002; Erlandson 2001; Erlandson & Fitzpatrick of deep-sea fishing from boats, but that evidence can 2006). The aim of this paper is to examine some of the equally plausibly be interpreted in terms of line fishing ambiguities in archaeological indicators of marine from land during periods of the year when adult fish activity and difficulties in their interpretation, to assess move close inshore (Pickard & Bonsall 2004). the problems of palaeogeographical change and dif- Conversely, evidence for the crossing of sea bar- ferential visibility of evidence posed by the Pleistocene riers does not necessarily indicate much if any interest history of sea-level change, and to summarize some in marine foods, let alone their systematic exploitation, of the findings of new research at the southern end of especially if the sea crossings in question are short the Red Sea, where we have examined more closely enough that they could have been accomplished by the nature of the sea channel under different sea-level swimming, simple rafts, or even by accident. conditions, and begun exploration of the onshore 29 Chapter 3 Marine resources Fully visible Partially visible Rarely visible Marine Isotope 1 2 3 4 5a–d 5e 6 7 Stage La Nerja Blombos Vanguard Klasies River Pinnacle Point Abdur 0 La Riera 50 100 Metres below present Red Sea 150 Pacific Corrected Pacific 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 Thousands of years before the present Figure 3.1. General curve of sea-level change over the past 200,000 years, showing likely impact on the visibility of marine resources. Site names refer to coastal sites in Africa and the Gibraltar Peninsula with early evidence of marine resources. (Sea-level data from Lambeck & Chappell 2001; Shackleton 1987; Siddall et al. 2003; Van Andel 1989a; Waelbroek et al. 2002. © G. Bailey.) coastal archaeology and the submerged landscape of consequences of sea-level change that have less often the Farasan Islands (Bailey et al. 2007a,b). been recognized or integrated into archaeological thinking, and which have far more power to disrupt Consequences of sea-level change current conventions of interpretation. The general pattern of eustatic sea-level change in Differential visibility of marine resources response to Pleistocene glaciations is well known The first consequence is the near-invisibility of evi- (Fig. 3.1). A similar cycle of sea-level change, with dence for exploitation of marine resources except persistently low sea levels, lasting for up to 100,000 during short-lived periods of high sea level. The years, interrupted by short-lived periods of high sea great explosion of shell mounds on the coastlines of level rarely lasting more than about 10,000 years, can the world after about 6–7000 years ago is a universal be traced back over at least the past 1 million years, phenomenon. It is naturally tempting to suppose that and most probably back to 2 million years ago and this indicates some major shift in human activities more, although the amplitude of variation appears and a world-wide intensification in human impact somewhat less in the 1–2 million year range (Lambeck on marine resources, supposedly associated with 2004). population growth or technological change. However, The most obvious consequence of lowered sea the fact that their appearance coincides quite closely level, and the one that has most often been articulated with the stabilization of modern sea level leads to the in archaeological interpretation, is the creation of land- strong suspicion that equivalent evidence could have bridges between continents and offshore islands, and been associated with earlier periods but has been hence the greater ease of movement and dispersal submerged or eroded away. between these land masses for terrestrial organisms, Earlier sites with marine shells are, of course, especially humans. There are, however, two other known, though the number of sites and the quantities 30 Earliest Coastal Settlement, Marine Palaeoeconomies and Human Dispersal of shells involved are far fewer. An Upper Palaeo- and often more extensive supplies of freshwater than lithic cave site with 400 limpets does not represent their adjacent hinterlands, and distinctive habitats an equivalent archaeological signature of marine such as salt marshes and wetlands resulting from the activity to a Mesolithic shell mound with 4 billion interface between land and sea that have very high shells. Sites with marine indicators appear to show a levels of fertility and a suite of distinctive plant and general increase during the final millennia of the late animal resources. The question of the width of this Pleistocene and in the early Holocene and that might attractive coastal zone and how far it extends inland reinforce a belief in the reality of a gradual trend of is clearly variable and depends on local and regional intensification, culminating in the widespread appear- topography. But it is unquestionable that when sea ance of mid-Holocene shell middens. However, such a level was lower than the present, and especially when trend could equally well be interpreted as the result of it was very low, the most favourable of these coastal increased visibility of shellgathering and other marine conditions would have been concentrated in those activity as sea levels rose and shorelines approximated areas of the continental shelf that are now submerged. their present position (Bailey & Craighead 2003).