| Abstract: | This paper explores how changes in sea level and biome distribution may have affected the habitats occupied by hunter‐gatherers in East Asia. Using a model‐based reconstruction of changing sea level from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to present day, our analysis reveals that the exposure of a large continental shelf during the LGM sea level lowstand created a wealth of wooded, estuarine, and coastal biomes that could have been exploited intensively by Late Pleistocene hunter‐gatherers. Models explaining hunter‐gatherer subsistence changes and migrations in this period should take into account the large area that has been lost to rising sea level since the LGM. |
