First Americans (Other Keyword)
1-9 (9 Records)
Methodological advances are reshaping our understanding of island colonization. Refinements in dating methods, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, and search techniques have resulted in discoveries that challenge outdated theories of islands as marginal to human migration, settlement, and subsistence. This is particularly true for research related to the initial peopling of the New World via a Pacific Coast route. Once considered irrelevant to the story of New World colonization, California’s...
Building a Meaningful First Americans Radiocarbon Chronology (2015)
Chronology is key to understanding the story of the first Americans. Accurate and precise ages from sites are necessary to develop chronological relationships and overlaps among different Paleoindian complexes. Proper dating of any Paleoindian horizon requires an understanding of the geological context, geochemical environment and potential contamination factors, material and chemical fraction dated, number of ages obtained, and many other variables. Without understanding these factors of...
The Emerging 13,000 to 15,000 cal yr B.P. Archaeological Record of North America South of the Continental Ice Sheets (2017)
Ruth Gruhn was an early advocate for a human presence in the Americas prior to Clovis. Gruhn and her late husband, Alan Bryan, excavated and reported on early sites in both North and South America and championed the Pacific coast as the route taken by the earliest people to reach the Americas. Their predictions have become a reality. Genetic and geological evidence is supporting a coastal migration route into the Americas. Recent discoveries at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, the Debra L....
The First Americans South of the Continental Ice Sheets–Correlating the Late Pleistocene Archaeological and Genetic Records (2016)
There is strong empirical evidence showing that North and South America were occupied before Clovis. This comes from sites such as Monte Verde, Chile, Paisley Caves, Oregon, Schaefer and Hebior, Wisconsin, Page-Ladson, Florida, Debra L. Friedkin, Texas, Wally’s Beach, Canada, and a few others. This evidence places the initial occupation of the Americas at about 15,000 cal yr B.P. Quality chronological data for Clovis still place this complex between 13,000 and 12,600 cal yr B.P. Genetic studies...
Investigations of late glacial occupations at the McDonald Creek site, central Alaska (2017)
In 2013 our team began testing the recently-discovered McDonald Creek archaeological site, located in the Tanana Flats, Central Alaska. To date we have excavated a total of 15 m2. The site contains evidence of a set of living floors dating to the Middle Holocene, Younger Dryas, and early Allerød. Our tests have revealed thousands of archaeological materials, including lithics and faunal and floral remains, associated with domestic features such as hearths and possible dwellings. We are analyzing...
The Life of the Adolescent Paleoindian Female from Hoyo Negro, Quintana Roo, Mexico (2017)
Cave divers discovered remains of an adolescent human female in an immense, submerged chamber of the Sac Actun cave system in 2007. Until recently, her remains had only been studied from photographs, photo-based 3-dimensional models, and minimal sampling. Now her skeleton has been removed from the cave, conserved, and subjected to bioarchaeological, chemical, and histomorphological analysis. Her unusually complete and well-preserved skeleton, a rarity for late Pleistocene females in the...
An Overview of the Hoyo Negro Project and Its Findings (2015)
Hoyo Negro is an immense, underwater collapse chamber deep within the Sac Aktun Cave system, Quintana Roo, Mexico. On its floor lie data-rich calcite raft deposits, bat guano piles, scatters of wood and charcoal, skeletons of large animals, and the remains of one teen-age human female. These sediments and fossils lie in total darkness, >40 meters below sea level, creating major technical challenges for their study and recovery. Investigations by a team of divers and scientists from Mexico, the...
Searching for the First Americans Along Oregon’s Ancient Coast: New Methods and Upcoming Research (2017)
To date, efforts to search for and investigate Pleistocene-aged sites along the Northwest Coast have been largely limited to subaerial landforms and deposits. Beginning in 2017, the search for early coastal sites will extend onto Oregon’s outer continental shelf. These search efforts will be supported by the use of a GIS-based model that makes predictions about the foraging potential of reconstructed late Pleistocene-aged coastal landscapes. We review the modeling methodology and how...
A Source and an End: Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Peopling of Beringia (2017)
After nearly a century since confirming Pleistocene humans in North America, having taken a few misguided turns along the way, our discussions about First American origins remain focused on late glacial northeast Asia. While questions persist about exact timing and means, geographically, Beringia is central in terms of routes. Recent genetic literature describes a standstill or isolation when a series of distinct Native American lineages formed prior to movement south of the continental ice....