In the Wake of the Jomon : Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across the Pacific

by Turk, Jon

• ISBN13: 9780071449021
• ISBN10: 0071449027
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-05
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press

Summary

The thrilling account of an extraordinary journey in the tradition of Kon-Tiki In 1996 a 9,500-year-old skeleton was found beside the Columbia River, galvanizing anthropologists with the possibility that prehistoric humans reached North America from Asia by crossing the ocean in small open boats. In this compelling narrative, world-class kayaker and science writer Jon Turk relates his successful attempt to re-create this perilous migration. This story wraps an intriguing anthropological argument inside a gripping narrative about the sea, an ancient people, and the wilderness of northeast Siberia. Recounting his two-year, 3,000-mile kayak voyage from Japan's bamboo forests to the tundra of Siberia and Alaska, Turk introduces strong archeological and anthropological evidence that his expedition was not the first. He explains how the ancient Jomon people could have completed this journey 10,000 to 15,000 years ago and provides insight into the question of why they did it. Both fascinating adventure and riveting prehistory, In the Wake of the Jomon is destined to become a classic.

Author Biography

Jon Turk, author of Cold Oceans: Adventures in Kayak, Rowboat, and Dogsled, is a scientist and textbook author by vocation. He has paddled around Cape Horn, across the Northwest Passage, and in high-latitude oceans around the world.

Table of Contents

Author's Note	xv
Prologue	1	(4)
Kennewick Man	5	(24)
Passage to Petropavlovsk	29	(96)
Interlude	125	(10)
To Cape Rubicon	135	(104)
A Candle for Evdocia	239	(46)
Annotated Bibliography	285