About this Research Topic

Background

The early settlement of coastlines and the use of marine food resources, often collectively referred to as coastal adaptations, have become an important topic in prehistoric archaeology. During the Pleistocene, coastal adaptations play an important role in discussions about the evolution and dispersal of Homo sapiens, but also for Neanderthals and other archaic hominins. At the end of the Pleistocene and during the Holocene, human use of coastal and marine ecosystems features prominently in debates on the early peopling of continents and islands and their enduring settlement, but also on socio-cultural and economic transitions stemming from these behaviors. At the same time, coastlines and oceans are ever-changing and complex ecological systems due to various geomorphological processes and fluctuations in climate, sea-levels, and attendant biota.

How did humans in the past live along coastlines and used marine resources? What role do these behaviors play for human history and evolution? In what way did marine geology, coastal ecology (both marine and terrestrial), and climate variability or extremes influence human societies living there, and what impact did people themselves have on coastal ecosystems?

This Research Topic aims to bring together a series of articles interested in a deep-time, diachronic and multidisciplinary perspective on the relationship between humans, coastlines, and oceans, including ecological, geographical, and geological aspects. The role of this dynamic interaction for shaping the bio-cultural evolution of humans and historical trajectories of prehistoric societies is one of the main interests of this Research Topic. The feedback between changing landscapes, climate, ecology and human behavior is another central topic. In particular, we encourage studies that focus on the active role of humans in living in, adapting to, but also modifying coastal ecosystems via niche construction behaviors in the short- and long-term and its implications for socio-cultural and economic systems.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions from across relevant disciplines, including but not limited to Archaeology, Marine Geology, Earth Sciences, Geography, Historical Ecology, Palaeoecology, Palaeoanthropology, and Paleoenvironmental Sciences. The geographical scope is on coastal and marine ecosystems worldwide with a time limit on prehistoric periods in the Pleistocene and Holocene. Article types can include general reviews, specific case/site studies but also more method-driven research and overviews of different regions/timeframes. - Case studies should assess critical gaps in key regions and periods from an archaeological, ecological and/or geological perspective, ideally in a multidisciplinary and diachronic perspective. - Reviews should summarize the current state of the art, empirical data as well as future prospects for research in a broader spatio-temporal framework. Multidisciplinary research is strongly favored. - Methodological articles should present cutting-edge approaches in the study of past human/environment/geology interactions relating to coastal and marine ecosystems.

Keywords: coastal landscape, human evolution, climate change, subsistence strategy, human-land relationship, prehistory, marine geology, marine ecosystem

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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