Jessica H. Stone – författare

This volume details how new theories and methods have recently advanced the archaeological study of initial human colonization of islands around the world, including in the southwest Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. This global perspective brings into comparison the wide variety of approaches used to study these early migrations and illuminates current debates in island archaeology.

Evidence of island colonization is often difficult to find, especially in areas impacted by sea-level rise, and these essays demonstrate how researchers have tackled this and other issues. Contributors show the potential of computer simulations of voyaging in determining the range of timing and origin points that were possible in the past. They discuss how Bayesian modeling helps address uncertainties and controversies surrounding radiocarbon dating. Additionally, advances in biomolecular techniques such as ancient DNA (aDNA), paleoproteomics, analysis of human microbiota, and improved resolution in isotopic analyses are providing more refined information on the homelands of initial settlers, on individual life courses, and on population-level migrations.

Islands offer rich opportunities to examine the exploratory nature of the human species, providing insights into the evolution of watercraft technologies and wayfinding, the impact of humans on their new environments, and the motivations for their journeys. The Archaeology of Island Colonization represents the innovative ways today’s archaeologists are reconstructing these unique paleolandscapes.

Contributors: Nasullah Aziz | David Ball | Todd J. Braje | Richard Callaghan | John F. Cherry | Ethan Cochrane | Robert J. DiNapoli | Andrew Dugmore | Jon M. Erlandson | Scott M. Fitzpatrick | Amy E. Gusick | Derek Hamilton | Terry L. Hunt | Thomas P. Leppard | Carl P. Lipo | Jillian Maloney | Matthew F. Napolitano | Anthony Newton | Maria A. Nieves-Colón | Rintaro Ono | Adhi Agus Oktaviana | Timothy Rieth | Curtis Runnels | Magdalena M.E. Schmid | Alexander J. Smith | Harry Octavianus Sofian | Sriwigati | Jessica H. Stone | Orri Vésteinsson

A volume in the series Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology, edited by Victor D. Thompson

Eighty-six-year-old Mattie Snorgenson has had enough!  She's spent most of her life caring for family and fitting into polite society.  Now, she is ready to follow her dream. Inspired by Mattie's courage, four other senior women join her in escaping the boredom of life in their retirement home. Together they travel the world, each seeking to fulfill the one, secret desire she has always held.

With help from a pierced, tattooed and dreadlocked granddaughter, the friends journey from Florida to the Emerald Isle, and from Tasmania to the markets of Egypt.  When their story goes viral, surfers, hitchhikers, priests and a Crocodile Dundee impersonator pitch in to help the “outrageous grannies.”  Even Doctor Phil gets into the act.

The ladies must outsmart relatives who seek to return them to “senior living,” and conmen who see them as easy targets. And, each must face her own frailties and mortality. Finally, forced to choose between the security of home and the danger of continuing their quest, ringleader Mattie is challenged with the most important decision of her life.

                          In its subtext and its spine, this novel is about the ultimate act of liberation.

                                                                    Jack Remick, author of The Trio of Lost Souls

                          A delightful, poignant, later-in-life coming of age story.

                                                           Elizabeth Engstrom, author of Benediction Denied