How humanity survived for 8000 years on the most extreme islands on Earth

suppose a life of almost staring closing off , spent on a bare island constantly strike by a mix of volcanoes , tsunamis , and long , beastly winters . For grand of years , that ’s what people have endured on the Kuril Islands , an archipelago stretch from Russia to Japan that just might be the most utmost place human have ever live .

Three different times – the early in 6000 BCE and the most recent in 1200 CE – colonist get in on the islands and tried to forge an existence on some of the most inhospitable space imaginable . University of Washington anthropologist Ben Fitzhugh is leading a diverse squad of anthropologists , archaeologist , geologist , and Earth and atmospheric scientist to prove to cypher out just how these settlers made life on the Kuril Islands oeuvre . He explains :

“ We want to identify the limits of adaptability , or how much resilience hoi polloi have . We ’re expect at the island as a yardstick of humans ’ capacity to colonize and sustain themselves . ”

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Although the Kuril Islanders spent their lives more or less cut off from the Asiatic mainland and the far more hospitable Japanese archipelago that lie to the south , the key to survival was the ability to quickly move . Fitzhugh say there ’s evidence that the island-dweller would pull up stakes their settlements when vent or tsunami collide with , moving temporarily to other settlements in the island string that had not been so badly hit . In parliamentary procedure to pull that off as far back as 8,000 years ago , the inhabitants had to build and maintain societal networks across the islands and to have a good working knowledge of their circumvent environment .

And it was n’t as though moving between islands was easy . The Kurils are often shrouded in a dull , thick fog that leaves the chain in a State Department of perpetual darkness , mean the islanders needed to learn how to navigate by method other than great deal . They relied on subtle clue in bird deportment , sea stream , and water temperature to work out how to get from one island to the other .

These days , the indigenous population of the Kurils is in decline , although that has far more to do with ongoing political tensions between Russia and Japan over the political position of the island as it does the trouble of be there . Fitzhugh says the Kurils can offer a vital understanding of how to deal with particularly extreme natural disasters – a potentially invaluable accomplishment in a world where climate change could supercharge hurricanes and tsunami , several volcanoes are delinquent for major eruption , andeven the Sun might be out to get us .

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