Archaeological evidence of resource utilisation of the great whales over the past two millennia: A systematic review protocol.

ABSTRACT: Archaeological faunal remains provide key insights into human societies in the past, alongside information on previous resource utilisation and exploitation of wildlife populations. The great whales (Mysticete and sperm whales) were hunted unsustainably throughout the 16th - 20th centuries (herein defined as the modern period) leading to large population declines and variable recovery patterns among species. Humans have utilised whales as a resource through carcass scavenging for millennia; however, increasing local and regional ethnographic and archaeological evidence suggests that, prior to the modern period, hunting of the great whales was more common than previously thought; impacts of earlier hunting pressures on the population ecology of many whale species remains relatively unknown.

SUBMITTER: Buss DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10721060 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature