--- In AAT@yahoogroups.com, "m3dodds" <dons3148@...> wrote:

"In recent millennia, coastal environments have
often supported large and populous settlements,
and this applies at all levels of human society
from hunters and gatherers to urban societies.
Greater diversity and richness of food resources,
including fish, molluscs and sea mammals, abundant
water supplies and higher levels of fertility for
plants and animals on land, more equable climatic
conditions, and improved opportunities for
population dispersal, transportation and seaborne
trade and migration, all contribute to the attractions
of coastal areas. Persuasive arguments have been advanced
to suggest that coastlines haveplayed a significant role
throughout human history from our earliest origins and
dispersal as a species over 2 million years ago through
to the growth of permanent settlements, the
dispersal of agriculture and the development
of complex societies."


COASTAL PREHISTORY: YORK
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/Research/Coastal/


---m3d

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