Late Glacial Hunter-Gatherers in the Central Alaska Range

Summary

The earliest evidence for human occupation of eastern Beringia comes from the Tanana and Nenana river basin lowlands 14,000-13,000 calendar years ago, linked to the spread of shrub-tundra vegetation and associated resources as climate ameliorated during the Bølling-Allerød Interstadial. The earliest evidence for human activity in the adjacent uplands of the central Alaska Range is during the Younger Dryas interval, more than a thousand years after the initial colonization of the region. Following this, there is little evidence for sustained use of upland resources until the early-mid Holocene, when upland landscapes took on a central role in seasonal subsistence-settlement rounds. This paper reviews archaeological, geomorphic, and paleoecological data to present the timing, environmental context, and nature of initial human use of upland landscapes in the central Alaska Range, and evaluates the role of the uplands in land-use strategies during the initial peopling of eastern Beringia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Role of High Altitude Landscapes in the Peopling of the New World

Keywords

Spatial Coverage