Amerind Free Online Talk

Thursday, January 21, 2027

9:00 am (AZ time)

To register, visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline01212027Fauvelle

Join us on Thursday, January 21, 2027 at 9:00 am (AZ time) for an online talk Ancient Societies and the Sea: Breaking Down Terrestrial Bias in Archaeology, with Mikael Fauvelle, PhD.

Over 15% of the world’s population lives within 10 kilometers of the ocean and over 90% of international commerce takes place via maritime transport. Despite these facts, the sea is largely absent from the stories we tell about early economic history. Most narratives for the origins of early political and economic complexity focus on the need of ancient peoples to intensify agricultural production, store grains, and secure productive farmland and other terrestrial resources. While such processes were undoubtably important for many neolithic terrestrial societies, we now know that alternate pathways to economic complexity were available to people living in maritime environments. This presentation will provide an introduction into the many ways that the sea shaped ancient societies while also summarizing the results of our recent Amerind seminar on modelling maritime societies.

Mikael Fauvelle is an Associate Professor and researcher in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Lund University. His research is focused on understanding political and economic complexity in pre-state and non-state societies. His work as explored topics related to maritime heritage including indigenous seafaring and boatbuilding traditions in different world regions. He has directed field projects on topics related to island and coastal archaeology in North America, Central America, Scandinavia, and Atlantic Europe. Fauvelle is the author of the monograph, “Shell Money: A Comparative Study”, published in the Cambridge Elements series on Ancient and Premodern Economies. He is also the co-editor of several edited volumes, including “The Archaeology of Seafaring in Small-Scale Societies: Negotiating Watery Worlds” and “An Archaeology of Abundance: Rethinking the Marginality of California’s Islands”, both published with the University Press of Florida, as well as “Presenting Counterpoints to the Dominant Terrestrial Narrative of European Prehistory” and “Moving Metals by Sea: Great Orme and the Bronze Age World”, both published with Oxbow Books.

We hope you will join us!