A Moving Feast

Abstract

Abstract Engagement with coastal and marine landscapes was crucial in the sociocultural transformation of people as they moved into Australia during the Pleistocene. While the earliest evidence for Aboriginal interaction with coastlines and islands was drowned by postglacial sea-level rise, ongoing research programs are documenting a rich narrative of coastal occupational resilience, in concert with fluctuating sea levels. Direct evidence for Aboriginal use of coastal environments now extend to 50,000 years ago. By the middle Holocene, archaeological evidence for coastal and island occupation appears to proliferate around the continent, which is likely associated with the emergence of maritime specialist economies. As the largest island continent settled by modern people with maritime capabilities and coastal adaptations, we anticipate that future work will continue to contribute to dialogues about the emergence of island societies globally.