Week 2: The Peopling of the Americas

Question 1

Big Questions

Answer 1

-Timing and route of colonization
-Pre Clovis?
-Generalized (hunter-gather) or specialized (big game) subsistence economy?
-What was the human role in the extinction of Late Pleistocene megafauna?
-Social organization and culture change?

Question 2

Late Pleistocene Environment…

Answer 2

-Cooler and wetter
-Mixed oak-hickory hardwood forest replacing spruce and pine in the Eastern woodlands
-Late Pleistocene megafauna

Question 3

Peopling of the New World…

Answer 3

-Molecular genetics
-Archaeological data
-Human skeletal data

Question 4

Genetic evidence…

Answer 4

-All evidence points to Asian origin for all native Americans (Siberia, not Iberia)

Question 5

Dog domestication…

Answer 5

-Dogs are the first domesticated animal and the only animal domesticated during the Pleistocene
-Humans domesticated wild wolves and selected for physical and behavioral traits
-Debates about timing, but definitely prior to 15,000

Question 6

Current synthesis…

Answer 6

The third model—the one that best fits the totality of both the archaeological and genetic data—posits an entry into the Americas sometime after the first traces of people in Siberia at sites such as Yana around 30,000 years ago…the majority of scholars agree people were in the Americas by at least 14,000 years ago. Some favor 18,500 to 15,000 years ago to account for the majority of pre-Clovis sites and genetic evidence, still others argue for a pre-LCM (Last Glacial Maximum) peopling…First peoples most likely traveled by boat along the west coast of North America, reaching South America very rapidly

Question 7

Archaeological evidence…

Answer 7

Humans subsisting in Siberian subarctic

Question 8

32 Ka: Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (RHS)

Answer 8

-Lower Yana river in NW Beringia
-Frozen, well preserved cultural layer
-Stone artifacts and remains of extinct fauna

Question 9

14 Ka: Diuktai Cave

Answer 9

Micro-blades, bifaces; mammoth and muskox hunters

Question 10

14 Ka: Swan Point, Alaska

Answer 10

Micro-blades and burins

Question 11

Additional sites…

Answer 11

-Nenana Complex, central Alaska (13.813.0 Ka)
-Ushki Complex, Kamchatka (13 Ka)

Question 12

By land or by sea?

Answer 12

-Coastal corridor open by at least 15 Ka
-Human remains, Santa Rosa Island, 13.1-13.0 Ka suggest people had watercraft
-Interior Corridor perhaps open by 14.0 to 13.5 Ka

Question 13

Pre-Clovis Sites (earlier than 14ka)

Answer 13

-Topper site, SC
-Cactus hill, VA
-Meadow croft rock shelter, PA
-unfluted points and blades
-Monte Verde, Chile
-hearths, wooden huts, stone/bone artifacts (great wet preservation)
-Cooper’s Ferry, ID
-stemmed projectile points, 16,000 BP

Question 14

Combining the archaeological and genetic evidence

Answer 14

-Earliest inhabitants came from south Siberia
-Maximum limiting age of 40 Ka (when we first have modern Homo sapiens in northeast Asia)
-Recent genetics and archaeology suggest dispersal south of Beringia after 16.6 Ka; probably less than 5,000 people
-Probably a coastal route before an interior route

Question 15

Clovis…

Answer 15

-Newer, more precise dates place it from 13.2—13.1 Ka to 12.9—12.8 Ka
-Flourished during Late Allerod and ends with start of the younger dryas
-Widespread and short-lived
-Flutted point; lanceolate shape, concave base
-High quality material
-First evidence of widespread settlement of North America