I'm not sure that this is always true.  I vacationed in Newfoundland this
summer.
On the west coast, at Port aux Choix is a site that has been inhabited for
about 8000
years by at least four different indigenous groups.  As the ice age ended,
the glaciers receded
and the land, which had been compressed by the ice, rose.  As a result, the
coastal villages are high
and dry and available for archeological investigation.

I have read two other books by Diamond - The Third Chimpanzee and Why Sex is
Fun.  Both terrific.

Ken

> > what is the name of Diamond's other book? Also
> > related to this is the huge rise in sea level at the end of the last Ice
Age
> > which has effectively wiped out all coastal human archeological sites,
> > leaving us with a few crumbs to play with.
> > Ben

>
> I guess you are right about us not being able to find the
> best archeological sites. Humans tend to concentrate on the
> coasts, and all that is a hundred yards under water now. The
> stuff we see is probably what the rustic country folk of
> paleo times produced. The big population centers are all
> under water. I am really looking forward to seeing what
> underwater archeology turns up. The best cave art is long
> gone though. Sad.