Above and Below the Waves: Advances in the Search for a Late Pleistocene Colonization of California’s Islands

Summary

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dating methods, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, and search techniques have resulted in discoveries that challenge outdated theories of islands as marginal to human migration, settlement, and subsistence.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 Northern Channel Islands have become a focal point in the search for evidence of Late Pleistocene migrations to North America. Integral to this search is identification of Pleistocene landforms that may harbor cultural material. Our search efforts have focused on the terrestrial and submerged portions of the island landscape that were intact and subaerial during the Late Pleistocene. By integrating paleoenvironmental reconstructions, archaeology, historical ecology, and terrestrial and marine geology, researchers are advancing methods that aid in understanding early island colonization and the search for the first Americans.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Sailing at the Edge of Time: Global Perspectives on Island Colonization

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14484