Join us on Thursday, October 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Erica Schilling Forum (Building 450) at Cabrillo College for “Beyond the Blue Horizon: Canoes, Knaars, and Planked Boats Change History,” with Dr. Brian Fagan.

Please note that this General Meeting will take place at Erica Schilling Forum (Building 450) not the usual Sesnon House venue. Paid campus parking ($4.00) is available in nearby Parking Lot E. Those with handicapped placards may park anywhere on Cabrillo College campus free of charge. Beginning at 7:00 pm, SCAS will be running a free shuttle for attendees in need of assistance from the Sesnon House’s free parking lot to Parking Lot E. Click here for a map of the Cabrillo College campus.

Brian Fagan takes us on a fascinating journey into the world of early seafaring. Why did people take to the water? Why did they decide to go over the horizon into the vastness of the ocean? This is a story of rafts and dugout canoes, of planked canoes, dhows, and Norse merchant vessels, as well as Scandinavian fisherfolk. Fagan draws on archaeology and anthropology, history and maritime heritage to paint a intriguing portrait of human exploration of the oceans long before Columbus sailed the Atlantic. The result: a compelling example of multidisciplinary history that illuminates entire chapters of the human past.

Brian Fagan is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is regarded as one of the world’s leading archaeological writers. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, started his early career in Central Africa where he excavated Iron Age villages, and came to the United States in 1966. Since then, he has specialized in communicating archaeology to the general public. His many books include The Rape of the Nile, a classic account of early Egyptology, Before California, a popular account of California before Cabrillo, and a series of books on ancient climate including The Little Ice Age, The Long Summer, and The Great Warming. His latest book, The Attacking Ocean, is about sea level changes. He is currently working on a book about Lord Carnarvon and Tutankhamun.

Brian Fagan’s Books are for sale in the History and Science sections at:

The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels, Hardback, August 2014

Beyond the Blue Horizon, Paperback, July 2013

The First North Americans: An Archaeology Journey, Paperback, February 2012

Elixir History of Water and Humankind, Paperback, June 2012

Cro Magnon and How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans, Paperback, May 2011