Maritime Prehistory of Northeast Asia [electronic resource] : With a Foreword by Dr. William W. Fitzhugh / edited by Jim Cassidy, Irina Ponkratova, Ben Fitzhugh.

1. The Origins of Watercraft in the North Pacific and its role in Northeast Asian Prehistory -- 2. Synthetic perspective on prehistoric hunter-gatherer adaptation and landscape change in northern Japan -- 3. Over the Water into and out of the Japanese Archipelago during the Pleistocene: Humans, Obsidian, and Lithic Techniques -- 4. Human Behavior in the Insular World of the Okhotsk and Japan Seas during the Late Pleistocene/Holocene Transition and Between the late Palaeolithic/Neolithic Boundaries -- 5. Maritime prehistory of Korea: an archaeological review -- 6. The Origins of Aquatic Subsistence Practices among Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers during the Late Pleistocene/Holocene Transition in the Russian Far East -- 7. A Hypothesis Pertaining to the Initial Dispersal of Pottery Production in East Asia; A View from the Far East -- 8. From Continent to Continent: proposed pathways of human travel from Kamchatka to America in ancient times -- 9. Digital Characterization of the Stemmed Projectile Point Technology from the Ushki Lake Site, Layer VII, Kamchatka, Russia -- 10. The Onset of Maritime Adaptation in Eastern Chukotka and the Emergence of Marine Economies and Seafaring Activities between 8000 - 3500 years Before Present -- 11. Evidence of Maritime Adaptations During the Neolithic Period in the Primorye Region of the Russian Far East -- 12. Watercraft in the Context of Marine Adaptations in Peter the Great Bay -- 13. Seafaring in the Bohai State.

This book addresses a void in the synthetic archaeological knowledge of the North Pacific by enabling a more informed evaluation of North Pacific Rim seafaring hypotheses. It answers questions about intra- and inter-regional relationships in the evolution of maritime adaptations throughout the region. The authors collectively address evidence of aquatic activities during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene in the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk and adjacent coastal areas of Korea, Japan, Sakhalin Island, the Kurile Islands and the Russian Far East with syntheses placing the region into a larger North Pacific context. This examination provides essential data on human modes of terrestrial adaptation and the transition to maritime lifeways over the last 40,000 years. It also provides a much-needed foundation to better understand the peopling of the New World 17,000 years ago, either by a pedestrian transit or through the use of watercraft, or more likely a combination of the two. As one of the first publications on the prehistory of the maritime region of Northeast Asia provided in English, with contributions by leading Korean, Japanese, Russian, Canadian, European and US-based researchers of the region, this volume presents a means for archaeologists to assess proposed hypotheses pertaining to late Pleistocene and Holocene seafaring around the North Pacific Rim. With a Foreword by Dr William W. Fitzhugh, this book is an essential read for specialists in history, archaeology, behavioural ecology and maritime evolution.