Under the Canopy
Under the Canopy
The Archaelogy of Tropical Rain Forests
Did our ancestors live in tropical forests? Although we see the rainforest as a bountiful environment teeming with life forms, most anthropologists and archaeologists have long viewed these areas as too harsh for human occupation during the pre-agricultural stages of hominid development.
Under the Canopy turns conventional wisdom on its head by providing a well-documented, geographically diverse overview of Stone Age sites in the wet tropics. New research indicates that, as humanity and its precursors increased their geographical and ecological ranges, rainforests were settled at a much earlier period than had previously been thought.
Featuring the work of leading scholars from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Malaysia, Panama, Spain, and the United States, Under the Canopy creates a new niche in paleolithic studies: the archaeology of tropical rainforests. This book provides the first synthesis of archaeological research in early foraging sites across the rainforest zone, and indicates that tropical forests could harbor important clues to human evolution, origins of modern behavior, cultural diversity, and human impact on tropical ecosystems.
Introduction: The Paleolithic Settlement of Rain Forests / Julio Mercader
PART I African Pioneers
The Archaeology of West Africa from the Pleistocene to the Mid-Holocene / Joanna Casey
The Middle Stone Age Occupation of Atlantic Central Africa: New Evidence from Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon / Julio Mercader / Raquel Marti
Foragers of the Congo: The Early Settlement of the Ituri Forest / Julio Mercader
PART II Australasian Settlers
Hunter-Gatherer Occupation of the Malay Peninsula from the Ice Age to the Iron Age / F. David Bulbeck
More Than a Million Years of Human Occupation in Insular Southeast Asia: The Early Archaeology of Eastern and Central Java / Francois Semah / Anne-Marie Semah / Truman Simanjuntak
An Archaeological Assessment of Rain Forest Occupation in Northeast Queensland, Australia / Brit Asmussen
PART III The Last Frontier: Newcomers in a New World
Late Glacial and Early Holocene Occupation of Central American Tropical Forests / Anthony J. Ranere / Richard G. Cooke
Holocene Climate and Human Occupation in the Orinoco / William P. Barse
Archaeological Hunter-Gatherers in Tropical Forests: A View from Colombia / Santiago Mora / Cristobal Gnecco
Hunter-Gatherers in Amazonia during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition / Betty J. Meggers / Eurico Th. Miller Contributors
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