The Attacking Ocean by Brian Fagan

specialist literature.
    The notes tend to emphasize sources with extensive bibliographies to allow you to enter the more specialized literature if desired.
    The B.C.E./C.E. convention is used throughout this book. The “present” by international agreement is 1950 C.E. Following routine practice, dates before twelve thousand years ago appear as years before present.
    After considerable debate, we (my editors and I) decided that we would use metric measurements in these pages, to simplify the narrative. This is because most science now employs metric conventions. For those who are bewildered, a mile is 1.6 kilometers, a foot is 0.3 meter, and an inch is 2.54 centimeters. An acre is 0.4 hectare. Doubtless I will hear in short order from those who refuse to think of their world in metric terms. It will only take you a few seconds with your calculator or computer to convert any measurement, however esoteric.
    A knot (a nautical mile), commonly used on charts and in sailing directions, is 1.85 kilometers. I use it here to refer to boat speeds and to the velocity of currents and tides, the usual nautical practice.
    All radiocarbon dates have been calibrated to dates in calendar years using the latest version of what is a constantly revised calibration curve. You can view the calibration curve at www.calpal.de .
    Following common maritime convention, wind directions are describedby the direction they are blowing from. For example, a westerly wind blows from the west, and northeast trade winds from the northeast. Ocean currents and tides, however, are described by the direction they are flowing toward . Thus, a northerly wind and a northerly tide flow in opposite directions.

Also by Brian Fagan
    Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the
Secrets of the Oceans
    Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind
Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans
“Where We Saw a Whale”: The Story of Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World
    From Stonehenge to Samarkand: An Anthology of Archaeological
Travel Writings (editor)
    Chaco Canyon: Archaeologists Explore the Lives of an Ancient Society
Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants
    The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization
The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300–1850
Egypt of the Pharaohs
Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Niño and the Fate of Civilizations
    Into the Unknown: Solving Ancient Mysteries
    From Black Land to Fifth Sun: The Science of Sacred Sites
Eyewitness to Discovery: First-Person Accounts of More Than Fifty
of the World’s Greatest Archaeological Discoveries (editor)
Oxford Companion to Archaeology (editor)
    Time Detectives: How Scientists Use Modern Technology to Unravel
the Secrets of the Past
Kingdoms of Jade, Kingdoms of Gold: The Americas Before Columbus
    The Journey from Eden: The Peopling of Our World
Ancient North America
The Great Journey: The Peopling of Ancient America
    The Adventure of Archaeology
The Aztecs
Clash of Cultures
Return to Babylon: Travelers, Archaeologists, and
Monuments in Mesopotamia
Quest for the Past: Great Discoveries in Archaeology
Elusive Treasure: The Story of Early Archaeologists in the Americas
The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt

Copyright © 2013 by Brian Fagan
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