Arlington Springs Chronostratigraphy and Implications for Early Human Settlement along North America's Pacific Coast

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

What may be the earliest dated human skeletal remains so far discovered in North America come from the Arlington Springs Site on Santa Rosa Island, California. To corroborate the 13,077-12,656 2-sigma cal BP age of this ancient Native American, stratigraphic investigations were undertaken to place this discovery in its chronological and paleoenvironmental context. Radiocarbon dating documents a sedimentary record spanning 16,000 years. The remains of Arlington Springs Man underlie a prominent black soil associated with the Younger Dryas Period. A time series analysis of elemental platinum and palladium shows a pronounced peak at the base of the Younger Dryas black soil layer. Bayesian statistical analysis of over 80 radiocarbon dates refines our understanding of geochronological context of the earliest human presence in coastal California and correlates sedimentation rates with sea level rise at the end of the Pleistocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35879.0