Archaeological Roots of Human Diversity in the New World: A Compilation of Accurate and Precise Radiocarbon Ages from Earliest Sites

Abstract

A compilation of 63 stratigraphic situations with evidence for human presence and two or more radiocarbon ages older than 10,500 B.P. has been processed to increase the accuracy and precision of the estimated ages and to compare their distributions at hemispheric scale. The compilation was developed to perceive patterns of population expansion and to plot early sites in their temporal and geographic order. The use of radiocarbon dates as data, criteria for inclusion in the compilation, the statistical processing methods used, and effects of controlling for precision and accuracy are described. The results indicate three earliest mean ages with great distance from each other in North and South America by 12,000 B.P., slightly later mean ages in Alaska, and the abrupt occurrence of Fluted and Fishtail Point sites at the beginning of the Younger Dryas climatic reversal (YD). One interpretation of these data is that there were different colonizing groups settling into different parts of the hemisphere in near-contemporaneity. Another is that Fluted and Fishtail Point sites may represent population relocations due to YD related ecological disturbances at the shorelines of those times. Corollary to the conclusions of early population diversity is the possibility of landfalls of people from areas other than Beringia in the late Pleistocene.

Submerged Paleolandscapes: Site GNL Quintero 1 (GNLQ1) and the First Evidences from the Pacific Coast of South America

“…), Prehistoric Archaeology on the Continental Shelf, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9635-9_8, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 to understanding early coastal occupations and migration routes ) is closely related to the "coastal migration theory" initially proposed by K. Fladmark (1979). This alternative hypothesis suggests that prior to 13,000 cal BP, large coastal plains with terrestrial resources and productive marine environments were available for maritime adapted people due to Pleistocene lower sea levels enabling human and animal migrations (Dixon 2001;Erlandson 2008;Faught 2008;Mandryk et al 2001;Waters and Stafford 2007).…”

“…In general, innovative theoretical views based in new multidisciplinary evidence suggest that pre-Clovis populations existed and that the colonization of the Americas was the consequence of diverse cultural processes with high diversity of habitats occupied by early hunter-gatherer groups with different subsistence strategies and technologies (Borrero 1999;Dillehay 2000Dillehay , 2009Faught 2008;Goebel et al 2008;Waters and Stafford 2007). In northwestern North America, in particular, the growing interest in submerged prehistoric archaeology as a nascent subdiscipline critical A.…”

Contemplating the history and future of radiocarbon dating in the American Southeast

“…The process of creating these databases relies on cleaning up and evaluating each date, often referred to as radiometric or chronometric hygiene (Bayliss 1999;Faught 2008;Fitzpatrick 2006;Nolan 2011Nolan , 2012Pettitt et al 2003;Spriggs 1989;Spriggs and Anderson 1993;Taché and Hart 2013). Truly useful radiocarbon databases need to include numerous pieces of information, such as a description of the archaeological context of the dated sample (with reference to published sources for this archaeological information), the radiocarbon measurement data (lab code, uncalibrated 1σ date, corresponding isotopic information (when available), reference to original publication or laboratory report), and specialist identifications of the dated sample (archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, osteological, etc.).…”

Six Decades of Radiocarbon Dating in New World Archaeology

“…No matter what terminology is employed, there is no question that the advent of 14 C dating completely transformed discussions concerning dating frameworks for sites and contexts associated with the earliest human groups that occupied the Western Hemisphere (Wilmsen 1965;Taylor 1991;Faught 2008). The history of the application of 14 C in New World Paleoamerican research provides some classic illustrations of problems created when there is insufficient attention to critically analyzing the relationship of archaeological features with environmental-most importantly geological-contexts from which samples on which 14 C data were obtained and which were intended to date specific archaeological features.…”