Posted on 11/03/2008 5:26:29 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Small islands dwarf large ones in archaeological importance, says a University of Florida researcher, who found that people who settled the Caribbean before Christopher Columbus preferred more minute pieces of land because they relied heavily on the sea...
Early Ceramic Age settlements have been found in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Montserrat, for example, but are absent from all of the larger islands in the Lesser Antilles, Keegan said. And all of the small islands along the windward east coast of St. Lucia have substantial ceramic artifacts -- evidence of settlement -- despite being less than one kilometer, or .62 mile, long, said Keegan, who is curator of Caribbean archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus.
It was thought that people preferred larger islands because the land mass of bigger islands could support a more diverse range of habitats and greater numbers of animal species for humans to subsist on, Keegan said. In addition, the focus of long-term evolutionary patterns has favored large islands, he said.
But small islands had coastlines rich with fish, and the absence of dense woodlands made them more suited to farming and hunting small prey such as iguanas, tortoises and hutias, a cat-sized rodent, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Small islands dwarf large ones in archaeological importance, says a University of Florida researcher, who found that people who settled the Caribbean before Christopher Columbus preferred more minute pieces of land because they relied heavily on the sea. (Credit: iStockphoto/Alexander Hafemann)[singing] ...with Gilligan! the Skipper too!...
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“yet” ;’)
Small islands could be even more informative if more archeologists would recognize the fact that the ocean was up to 400 feet less high not all that many thousands of years ago. Underwater archeology should be practiced around any island that is of a permanent nature, not to mention the mainland, especially near river mouths.
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