The Implementation and Distribution of Thermoregulatory Technology in the Paleoindian Period

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Thermoregulation was integral to the survival of the first and subsequent people who inhabited North America following the Last Glacial Maximum. Successive climate fluctuations necessitated the implementation of technologies that increased the probability of human survival. Previous research has examined the timing of thermoregulatory technologies in the archaeological record and the potential relationship between these technologies and erratic climate fluctuations during the Younger Dryas cooling event. Bone needles in the North American archaeological record primarily coincides with the Folsom cultural complex between 12,610 and 12,170 BP. The known distribution of this technology across Western North America over a moderately brief period of time suggests a necessity for implementing and sharing thermoregulation technologies across different regions and elevations. Twenty-four bone needle fragments recovered from Locality I of the Hell Gap site in Goshen County of Wyoming are all associated with the Folsom cultural component at the site. The density of bone needle fragments from this component at Hell Gap, and at other Paleoindian sites in North America, shows how the necessity for thermoregulatory technology was implemented to combat climate change during the Younger Dryas to facilitate human survival.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40070.0