Beringia and the Settlement of the Western Hemisphere

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9359869
AutoresJ F Hoffecker (0000-0001-6132-3012, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, autor de correspondencia), V Pitulko (0000-0001-5672-2756, Peter the Great's Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography), John Hoffecker, Е А Павлова (0009-0006-7746-2950, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute), Elena Pavlova (0000-0001-5817-3463)
Año2022
Volumen67
Número3
Páginas882-909
Fecha de publicación2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaVestnik of Saint Petersburg University History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1812-9323 • E-ISSN: 2541-9390
EditorialSaint Petersburg State University (PUBLISHER • RU)
DOI10.21638/spbu02.2022.313
OpenAlexW4315562769
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas41

Previously, we addressed the problem of what variable(s) limited widespread human settlement of the Americas before ~15 ka. We concluded that while non-modern human taxa (e. g., Neanderthals) probably did not inhabit high-latitude environments (due to cold climate and/ or low plant and animal productivity) and thus could not disperse in the Western Hemispherevia Beringia, modern humans likely were denied access to mid-latitude North America >15 ka by coastal and interior ice sheets. Here we reexamine the problem with respect to modern humans in light of a revised chronology for glaciers and sea level, new research in paleo-genomics, and some new archaeological discoveries. During 35–30 ka, a lineage with west Eurasian roots occupied the Great Arctic Plain and may have expanded into eastern arctic Beringia and mid-latitude North America via an ice-free corridor. An East Asian lineage associated with microblade technology occupied the Lena Basin during the LGM and expanded onto the Great Arctic Plain >15 ka, possibly as early as the GI 2 interstadial (24–23 ka). Their immediate descendants probably occupied the southern Bering Land Bridge and Northwest Pacific coast >15 ka and dispersed widely in the Western Hemisphere during GI 1 (14.5–12.9 ka), primarily if not exclusively via a coastal route. The coalesced Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets blocked interior access to mid-latitude America until 13.8 ± 0.5 ka (and possibly later due to the length and narrow width of the ice-free corridor >13 ka)

Archaeology · Arctic · Beringia · Climatology · Geography · Glacier · Holocene · Ice sheet · Latitude · Physical geography · Southern Hemisphere · Stadial · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology · Oceanography · Paleontology