Late Pleistocene upland stratigraphy of the western Delmarva Peninsula, USA

Lowery, Darrin; O’Neal, Michael; Wah, John S.; Wagner, Daniel; Stanford, Dennis J.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.007

Cited by 42 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…One 15-cm-thick stratigraphic sample was extracted, centered at a depth of approximately one meter below the surface. The inferred YDB layer containing nearby Clovis artifacts was located immediately beneath a ubiquitous, orange-colored loess layer that lies atop a noticeably greyish colored stratum (23,24).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Independent evaluation of conflicting microspherule results from different investigations of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

LeCompte

Goodyear

Demitroff

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Firestone et al. sampled sedimentary sequences at many sites across North America, Europe, and Asia [Firestone RB, et al. (2007) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:16016–16021]. In sediments dated to the Younger Dryas onset or Boundary (YDB) approximately 12,900 calendar years ago, Firestone et al. reported discovery of markers, including nanodiamonds, aciniform soot, high-temperature melt-glass, and magnetic microspherules attributed to cosmic impacts/airbursts. The microspherules were explained as either cosmic material ablation or terrestrial ejecta from a hypothesized North American impact that initiated the abrupt Younger Dryas cooling, contributed to megafaunal extinctions, and triggered human cultural shifts and population declines. A number of independent groups have confirmed the presence of YDB spherules, but two have not. One of them [Surovell TA, et al. (2009) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:18155–18158] collected and analyzed samples from seven YDB sites, purportedly using the same protocol as Firestone et al., but did not find a single spherule in YDB sediments at two previously reported sites. To examine this discrepancy, we conducted an independent blind investigation of two sites common to both studies, and a third site investigated only by Surovell et al. We found abundant YDB microspherules at all three widely separated sites consistent with the results of Firestone et al. and conclude that the analytical protocol employed by Surovell et al. deviated significantly from that of Firestone et al. Morphological and geochemical analyses of YDB spherules suggest they are not cosmic, volcanic, authigenic, or anthropogenic in origin. Instead, they appear to have formed from abrupt melting and quenching of terrestrial materials.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Independent evaluation of conflicting microspherule results from different investigations of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

LeCompte

Goodyear

Demitroff

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The most carefully studied regional loess deposit on the Delmarva Peninsula can be confined to a very narrow time frame (Wah et al 2014). Clovis-age (circa 13,000 cal yr BP) artifacts are found as a lag deposit beneath loess (Lowery et al 2010). Early Holocene (circa 11,000 cal yr BP) diagnostic notched projectile points have been found within the top of this loess deposit.…”

Section: Windblown Surficial Deposits Of the Northeastmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The deposition and differential erosion of these deposits have variably buried or exposed late Pleistocene archaeological materials (Lowery et al 2010). Variation in the aeolian sequence chronology for the Delmarva Peninsula usually reflects factors of localized geology and wind velocity.…”

Section: Windblown Surficial Deposits Of the Northeastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perhaps most notably, archaeological visibility and preservation of early Native American sites in the Northeast is subject to a wide range of factors. For example, across the Delmarva Peninsula, pre-Clovis and early Paleoindian sites are differentially subject to burial by late Pleistocene loess deposits (Lowery 2002;Lowery et al 2010). Along the Atlantic coast, rising sea levels have submerged both late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites in former coastal settings (Lowery and Martin 2009), while fluctuating water levels in the Great Lakes basins have both submerged (Sonnenburg et al 2015), and in some cases drowned and then reexposed terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene sites (e.g., Ellis and Deller 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Human Settlement of Northeastern North America

Lothrop

Lowery²,

Spiess

et al. 2016

PaleoAmerica

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This paper summarizes current evidence for earliest human occupation of northeastern North America during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. We review evolution of the region's landscapes and evidence of archaeological chronologies as context for understanding human settlement of the region. Current data support limited evidence for pre-Clovis occupation south of the Laurentide glacial margin, followed by a significant temporal gap prior to early Paleoindian settlement of the region. Despite differences in subregional data sets, mapping of site distributions and assemblage data do support the notion of variation in lifeways between Paleoindian populations occupying formerly glaciated parts of the Northeast in the late Pleistocene, versus contemporary groups in lands south of the Laurentide glacial margin. Through time, the greatest differences in Paleoindian land use and technology occur between the Younger Dryas and early Holocene.

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“…1). Despite a certain progress in the earliest American studies indicating human presence in distant regions on the Great American Plains between 15 300-13 000 yr BP, i.e., prior to the Clovis complex (McAvoy & McAvoy, 1997;Adovasio et al, 1990Adovasio et al, , 1998Webb, 2005;Holen, 2006;Joyce 2006;Collins & Bradley, 2008;Gilbert et al, 2008;Lowery et al, 2010), no consensus has been reached about the timing of the initial human migrations entering the Americas, the level of technology and the associated typological variety of stone tools the early inhabitants of the new continent brought with them. The North American archaeologists still tend to look for assemblages with bifacial or micro-blade flaking patterns in geologically recent deposits, assuming a possible continuity with the Siberian Upper Palaeolithic projectile point and palaeo-Arctic technologies, respectively, or follow possible evolutionary links with the Clovis complex in immediately timely preceding archaeological inventories (Waters et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geoarchaeology of Palaeo-American Sites in Pleistocene Glacigenic Deposits

Chlachula¹

2012

Archaeology, New Approaches in Theory and Techniques

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Late Pleistocene upland stratigraphy of the western Delmarva Peninsula, USA

Cited by 42 publications

References 16 publications

Independent evaluation of conflicting microspherule results from different investigations of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

Independent evaluation of conflicting microspherule results from different investigations of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

Early Human Settlement of Northeastern North America

Geoarchaeology of Palaeo-American Sites in Pleistocene Glacigenic Deposits

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