> One lingering question I have for all migrations in antiquity is why (given very low pop density)?
It's likely was that people clustered in dense settlements around natural assets like good hunting and fishing areas, or sheltered areas. Control of those would have almost certainly generated competition and conflict.
Our romanticization
of the idea of living in very low density situations is a modern thing facilitated by industrial technology, just like camping became a socially acceptable pastime once people didn't have to do it to survive.
> Did people just overhunt and overfish so they had to move on before agriculture took hold?
Perhaps. The Polynesians of Rapa Nui seem to have done themselves in that way. But more likely they were forced into migration by their own relatives when they started running out of room.
It's likely was that people clustered in dense settlements around natural assets like good hunting and fishing areas, or sheltered areas. Control of those would have almost certainly generated competition and conflict.
Our romanticization of the idea of living in very low density situations is a modern thing facilitated by industrial technology, just like camping became a socially acceptable pastime once people didn't have to do it to survive.
> Did people just overhunt and overfish so they had to move on before agriculture took hold?
Perhaps. The Polynesians of Rapa Nui seem to have done themselves in that way. But more likely they were forced into migration by their own relatives when they started running out of room.