Investigating the Population History of Western North America: Implications for the Peopling of the New World

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Western North America has emerged as a key region of focus in studies addressing the migration routes and demographic processes involved in the peopling of the Americas. Archaeological investigations in this region have resulted in the discovery of several of the earliest human skeletons and archaeological sites on the North American continent. Given that this region is critical to understanding early population dynamics, this study investigates 10,000 years of prehistory in western North America where genomic and skeletal research of human remains have been underutilized or attempts to extract ancient DNA were unsuccessful. Using 3D geometric morphometric analyses of ancient human crania from Alaska, British Columbia, California, Nevada and Washington, results demonstrate biological affinities among several ancient populations of western North America. These data support recent genomic research addressing ancient population history in the region, placing it within the broader context of research focused on prehistoric population dynamics in the Americas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25089