What is it about?
About 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, we see the sudden appearance of a network of movement and communication between island communities in eastern Indonesia (Wallacea). This network consists of the exchange of obsidian (volcanic glass), shared technologies including shell fish hooks and shell axes, and stylistic trends such as standarisation of shell bead design. This increase in inter-island connectivity coincides with westward migration of Papuan peoples from New Guinea. We think the invention of shell axes, known for the construction of dugout canoes, may have facilitated this increased maritime mobility.
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This page is a summary of: Terminal Pleistocene emergence of maritime interaction networks across Wallacea, World Archaeology, February 2023, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2023.2172072.
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