Evidence of Ice Age humans in eastern Beringia suggests early migration to North America

Vachula, Richard S.; Huang, Yongsong; Longo, W. M.; Dee, Sylvia; Daniels, W.; Russell, James M.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.003

Cited by 75 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…The two cores were correlated on the basis of stratigraphic variation in layers interpreted as flood deposits (Munoz et al 2015) and loss-on-ignition (LOI) data (White et al 2019), and they share the age-depth model established by Munoz and others (2014) for HORM12 constrained by nine radiocarbon dates on terrestrial plant macrofossils and the rise of Ambrosia (ragweed) pollen, marking the onset of widespread Anglo-American agricultural clearance at approximately AD 1850. Coprostanol is a fecal stanol molecule primarily produced by the bacterial degradation of cholesterol in the guts of humans that can persist in sediments for hundreds to thousands of years (Bull et al 1999; Simpson et al 1999; Sistiaga et al 2014; Vachula et al 2019). Although other mammals—including donkeys, seals, horses, goats, and cattle—produce coprostanol, only sheep and pigs are known to generate sufficient quantities that could mask changes in human stanol concentration (Bull et al 2002; Leeming et al 1996; Martins et al 2005; Prost et al 2017), and neither domesticate was present in the Cahokia area prior to sustained European settlement (Mann 2012).…”

Section: Horseshoe Lake Fecal Stanol Population Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

After Cahokia: Indigenous Repopulation and Depopulation of the Horseshoe Lake Watershed AD 1400–1900

et al. 2020

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The occupation history of the Cahokia archaeological complex (ca. AD 1050–1400) has received significant academic attention for decades, but the subsequent repopulation of the region by indigenous peoples is poorly understood. This study presents demographic trends from a fecal stanol population reconstruction of Horseshoe Lake, Illinois, along with information from archaeological, historical, and environmental sources to provide an interpretation of post-Mississippian population change in the Cahokia region. Fecal stanol data indicate that the Cahokia region reached a population minimum by approximately AD 1400, regional population had rebounded by AD 1500, a population maximum was reached by AD 1650, and population declined again by AD 1700. The indigenous repopulation of the area coincides with environmental changes conducive to maize-based agriculture and bison-hunting subsistence practices of the Illinois Confederation. The subsequent regional depopulation corresponds to a complicated period of warfare, epidemic disease, Christianization, population movement, and environmental change in the eighteenth century. The recognition of a post-Mississippian indigenous population helps shape a narrative of Native American persistence over Native American disappearance.

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Section: Horseshoe Lake Fecal Stanol Population Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

After Cahokia: Indigenous Repopulation and Depopulation of the Horseshoe Lake Watershed AD 1400–1900

et al. 2020

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“…Research in Beringia has long focused on characterizing paleoenvironments and their evolution at a regional level, relying on proxies that provide information on past environments at a low spatial resolution, such as pollen (Edwards et al, 2000) and megafauna fossils (Guthrie, 1990(Guthrie, , 1968a. A different set of proxies that provide paleoenvironmental information at a higher spatial resolution, such as macrobotanical remains (Zazula, Froese, Elias, Kuzmina, & Mathewes, 2007), insects (Elias, 2001), and sedimentological, pedological, biogeochemical, and genetic analyses of lacustrine and terrestrial sediments (Graham et al, 2016;Kaufman et al, 2016;Kokorowski, Anderson, Sletten, Lozhkin, & Brown, 2008;Reuther, 2013;Vachula et al, 2019;Willerslev et al, 2014) has shown the high degree of environmental heterogeneity in Beringia during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small mammals and paleovironmental context of the terminal pleistocene and early holocene human occupation of central Alaska

et al. 2019

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This paper explores paleoenvironmental and paleoecological information that may be obtained from small‐mammal assemblages recovered at central Alaska archaeological sites dated to the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene (14,500–8,000 cal B.P.). Small‐mammal remains in these open‐air sites are primarily related to deposition by natural death causes and as such provide information on site paleoenvironments and landscape heterogeneity. Their presence within archaeological occupations likely relates to anthropogenic disturbance and features that would have favored burrow construction. The co‐occurrence of small‐mammal remains and archaeological occupations provides a chronological framework of presence in the locality for most recorded small‐mammal species. Small‐mammal remains document faunal turnover between Pleistocene and Holocene communities. The near‐contemporaneity of species that strongly differ in their ecological requirements suggest that the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene in central Alaska was a period of dynamic change that may have been characterized by patchy vegetation distribution, rather than the climax communities seen today. In addition to the biogeographical value of small‐mammal remains the paleoenvironmental information that they provide help to characterize the ecology of early human settlers in the region and the processes behind human dispersal in Beringia and the Americas at the end of the Ice Age.

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“…Recent palaeolimnological analyses from Lake E5, located in northern Alaska, provide additional biogeochemical evidence supporting the presence of humans in Beringia during the Last Glacial (Vachula et al . ). Measurements of charcoal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the E5 sediment record indicate increased fire activity from 32 to 19 cal.…”

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confidence: 97%

“…ka BP, despite natural lightning ignitions being suppressed by a cold glacial climate (Vachula et al . ). In many ignition‐limited regions, evidence of increased burning has been observed to coincide with human arrival (Mann et al .…”

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confidence: 97%

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Sedimentary biomarkers reaffirm human impacts on northern Beringian ecosystems during the Last Glacial period

Vachula

Huang

Russell

et al. 2020

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Our understanding of the timing of human arrival to the Americas remains fragmented, despite decades of active research and debate. Genetic research has recently led to the ‘Beringian standstill hypothesis’ (BSH), which suggests an isolated group of humans lived somewhere in Beringia for millennia during the Last Glacial, before a subgroup migrated southward into the American continents about 14 ka. Recently published organic geochemical data suggest human presence around Lake E5 on the Alaskan North Slope during the Last Glacial; however, these biomarker proxies, namely faecal sterols and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are relatively novel and require replication to bolster their support of the BSH. We present new analyses of these biomarkers in the sediment archive of Burial Lake (latitude 68°26′N, longitude 159°10′W m a.s.l.) in northwestern Alaska. Our analyses corroborate that humans were present in Beringia during the Last Glacial and that they likely promoted fire activity. Our data also suggest that humans coexisted with Ice Age megafauna for millennia prior to their eventual extinction at the end of the Last Glacial. Lastly, we identify fire as an overlooked ecological component of the mammoth steppe ecosystem.

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Evidence of Ice Age humans in eastern Beringia suggests early migration to North America

Cited by 75 publications

References 70 publications

After Cahokia: Indigenous Repopulation and Depopulation of the Horseshoe Lake Watershed AD 1400–1900

After Cahokia: Indigenous Repopulation and Depopulation of the Horseshoe Lake Watershed AD 1400–1900

Small mammals and paleovironmental context of the terminal pleistocene and early holocene human occupation of central Alaska

Sedimentary biomarkers reaffirm human impacts on northern Beringian ecosystems during the Last Glacial period

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