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The rapid dispersal of modern humans across Wallacea to modern day Australia not only required boat technology for long-distance sea travel, but also knowledge about deep-sea fishing. In this episode, we talk to Sue O’Connor about the different routes that people may have taken across Wallacea in the Pleistocene and how the different kinds of islands on those routes may have influenced maritime resource use and the earliest evidence of pelagic fishing.

Key People

Susan O'Connor - Australian National University

Key Sites / Concepts

Asitau Kuru / Jerimalai

O'Connor, Sue, Ono, Rintaro, and Clarkson, Chris. Pelagic Fishing at 42,000 Years Before the Present and the Maritime Skills of Modern Humans.Science334,1117-1121(2011).DOI:10.1126/science.1207703

Kisar

O’Connor, S., Mahirta, Kealy, S., Boulanger, C., Maloney, T., Hawkins, S., … Louys, J. (2018). Kisar and the Archaeology of Small Islands in the Wallacean Archipelago. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 14(2), 198–225. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2018.1443171

Laili

O’Connor, Sue, Ceri Shipton, and Shimona Kealy. "The southern route to Sahul: modern human dispersal and adaptation in the pleistocene." The Prehistory of Human Migration-Human Expansion, Resource Use, and Mortuary Practice in Maritime Asia. IntechOpen, 2023.

Shipton, C., Morley, M.W., Kealy, S. et al. Abrupt onset of intensive human occupation 44,000 years ago on the threshold of Sahul. Nat Commun 15, 4193 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48395-x

Maritime Networks

O’Connor, S., Kealy, S., Reepmeyer, C., Samper Carro, S. C., & Shipton, C. (2022). Terminal Pleistocene emergence of maritime interaction networks across Wallacea. World Archaeology, 54(2), 244–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2023.2172072

Pleistocene female burial with fish hooks

O’Connor S, Mahirta, Samper Carro SC, et al. Fishing in life and death: Pleistocene fish-hooks from a burial context on Alor Island, Indonesia. Antiquity. 2017;91(360):1451-1468. doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.186