Nunn, Patrick D., Ward, Ingrid, Stéphan, Pierre et al. (12 more authors) (2022) Human observations of late Quaternary coastal change:Examples from Australia, Europe and the Pacific Islands. Quaternary International. pp. 212-224. ISSN 1040-6182
Abstract
In the aftermath of the last ice age, when sea level rose along most of the world's coastline, the activities of coastal peoples were impacted by coastal submergence, land loss and sometimes isolation as offshore islands formed. In some parts of the world, there is clear evidence that people encoded their observations of postglacial sea-level rise into oral traditions that were communicated across hundreds of generations to reach us today in an intelligible form. In other contexts, people's observations of rising sea level are likely to have formed the foundations of ‘legends’ about undersea places and the peoples inhabiting them. For a selection of coastal sites in Australia and northwest Europe, this study discusses a range of contrasting situations in which culturally-grounded stories about coastal submergence, land loss and isolation plausibly recollect the nature and effects of postglacial sea-level rise. Using science-based histories of postglacial sea-level change, minimum ages are determined for each group of site-specific stories; in the case of Australia, these range from 7000–11,500 BP, for northwest Europe from 5500 to 9500 BP. For selected sites in the Pacific Islands, where human settlement about 3000 years BP post-dated the end of postglacial sea-level rise, localized submergence is recalled in traditional stories of local people. It is argued that studies of late Quaternary coastal evolution can often be filled out by adding details from stories preserved in local cultures, something which leads to a clearer picture of the human-societal impacts of coastal submergence and land loss than can be obtained from palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and geological evidence alone.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Funding Information: We acknowledge the Malgana people of Shark Bay and the Esperance Tjaltjraak people, whose traditional lands include the islands of the Recherche Archipelago, for stories from these areas. We acknowledge the Darumbal and Woppaburra peoples for information about the Keppels, and the Butchulla and Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) peoples for information about K'gari. |
Keywords: | Ancient stories,Land loss,Oral tradition,Palaeoenvironments,Sea level,Submergence |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Environment and Geography (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 25 Nov 2022 10:50 |
Last Modified: | 02 Jan 2025 00:13 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2022.06.016 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.quaint.2022.06.016 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:193773 |
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Filename: NW_Europe_paper_for_Geoarchaeology_revised_25.11.21_.pdf
Description: NW Europe paper for Geoarchaeology revised (25.11.21)
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 2.5