Where did the first Americans come from and when did they get here? That basic question of American archaeology, long thought to have been solved, is re-emerging as a critical issue as the number of well-excavated sites dating to pre-Clovis times increases. It now seems possible that small populations of human foragers entered the Americas prior to the creation of the continental glacial barrier. While the archaeological and paleoecological aspects of a post-glacial entry have been well studied, there is little work available on the possibility of a pre-glacial entry.
Entering America seeks to fill that void by providing the most up-to-date information on the nature of environmental and cultural conditions in northeast Asia and Beringia (the Bering land bridge) immediately prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. Because the peopling of the New World is a question of international archaeological interest, this volume will be important to specialists and nonspecialists alike.
"This book is worth reading if you are looking for paleoenvironmental or archaeological information not generally available elsewhere, or if you are an interested outsider seeking the bigger picture of the peopling of the Americas."—Antiquity
1 Colonization of the Americas before the Last Glacial Maximum: Issues and Problems David B. Madsen 1
I Environmental Conditions in Northeast Asia and Northwestern North America
2 Paleoenvironmental Conditions in Western Beringia before and during the Last Glacial Maximum Julie Brigham-Grette Anatoly V. Lozhkin Patricia M. Anderson Olga Y. Glushkova 29
3 Environments of Northwestern North America before the Last Glacial Maximum John J. Clague Rolf W. Mathewes Thomas A. Ager 63
II The Implications of American Archaeology for A Pre- or Post-Late Glacial Maximum Occupation of The New World
4 Late Wisconsin Environments and Archaeological Visibility on the Northern Northwest Coast Daryl W. Fedje Quentin Mackie E.James Dixon Timothy H. Heaton 97
5 Pre-Clovis Sites and Their Implications for Human Occupation before the Last Glacial Maximum J. M. Adovasio David R. Pedler 139
6 The Nature of Clovis Blades and Blade Cores Michael B. Collins Jon C. Lohse 159
III Human Genetics and Forager Mobility
7 Molecular Genetic Diversity in Siberians and Native Americans Suggests an Early Colonization of the New World Theodore G. Schurr 187
8 Hunter-Gatherer Population Expansion in North Asia and the New World Robert L. Bettinger David A. Young 239
IV The Archaeology of Northeast Asia
9 Time-Space Dynamics in the Early Upper Paleolithic of Northeast Asia P. Jeffrey Brantingham Kristopher W. Kerry Andrei I. Krivoshapkin Yaroslav V. Kuzmin 255
10 Humans along the Pacific Margin of Northeast Asia before the Last Glacial Maximum: Evidence for Their Presence and Adaptations Fumiko Ikawa-Smith 285
11 The Search for a Clovis Progenitor in Subarctic Siberia Ted Goebel 311
V Commentary
12 On Possibilities, Prospecting, and Patterns: Thinking about a Pre-LGM Human Presence in the Americas David J. Meltzer 359
13 Monte Verde, Field Archaeology, and the Human Colonization of the Americas Donald K. Grayson 379
14 Recapitulation: The Relative Probabilities of Late Pre-LGM or Early Post-LGM Ages for the Initial Occupation of the Americas David B. Madsen 389
References 397
Contributors 471
Index 473
Overview
Where did the first Americans come from and when did they get here? That basic question of American archaeology, long thought to have been solved, is re-emerging as a critical issue as the number of well-excavated sites dating to pre-Clovis times increases. It now seems possible that small populations of human foragers entered the Americas prior to the creation of the continental glacial barrier. While the archaeological and paleoecological aspects of a post-glacial entry have been well studied, there is little ...