A Source and an End: Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Peopling of Beringia

Summary

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. While Beringia is a highly possible location for this event, we argue it was more likely the Paleo-Sakhalin-Hokkaido-Kuril (PSHK) Peninsula where geochronological evidence points to Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) refugia and where inhabitants produced a highly diverse suite of lithic tool kits. This was followed, however, by a period that coincides with the so-called standstill when nearly all PSHK sites produced only microblades. Moreover, the appearance of microblades in Eastern Beringia 14±1 ka (and the end of the standstill) was coeval with their demise on the peninsula. We contend technological variability in the earliest American assemblages and the genetic standstill hypothesis is best explained with roots on PSHK.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16211