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Steffen ML. New age constraints for human entry into the Americas on the north Pacific coast. Sci Rep 2024; 14:4291. [PMID: 38383701 PMCID: PMC10881565 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54592-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024] Open
Abstract
The timing of the initial peopling of the Americas is unresolved. Because the archaeological record necessitates discussion of human entry from Beringia into southern North America during the last glaciation, addressing this problem routinely involves evaluating environmental parameters then targeting areas suitable for human settlement. Vertebrate remains indicate landscape quality and are a key dataset for assessing coastal migration theories and the viability of coastal routes. Here, radiocarbon dates on vertebrate specimens and archaeological sites are calibrated to document species occurrences and the ages of human settlements across the western expansion and decay of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS) during the Late Wisconsin Fraser Glaciation in four subregions of the north Pacific coast of North America. The results show archaeological sites occur after glacial maxima and are generally consistent with the age of other securely dated earliest sites in southern North America. They also highlight gaps in the vertebrate chronologies around CIS maxima in each of the subregions that point to species redistributions and extirpations and signal times of low potential for human settlement and subsistence in a key portion of the proposed coastal migration route. This study, therefore, defines new age constraints for human coastal migration theories in the peopling of the Americas debate.
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2
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Ice and ocean constraints on early human migrations into North America along the Pacific coast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2208738120. [PMID: 36745804 PMCID: PMC9963817 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2208738120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Founding populations of the first Americans likely occupied parts of Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The timing, pathways, and modes of their southward transit remain unknown, but blockage of the interior route by North American ice sheets between ~26 and 14 cal kyr BP (ka) favors a coastal route during this period. Using models and paleoceanographic data from the North Pacific, we identify climatically favorable intervals when humans could have plausibly traversed the Cordilleran coastal corridor during the terminal Pleistocene. Model simulations suggest that northward coastal currents strengthened during the LGM and at times of enhanced freshwater input, making southward transit by boat more difficult. Repeated Cordilleran glacial-calving events would have further challenged coastal transit on land and at sea. Following these events, ice-free coastal areas opened and seasonal sea ice was present along the Alaskan margin until at least 15 ka. Given evidence for humans south of the ice sheets by 16 ka and possibly earlier, we posit that early people may have taken advantage of winter sea ice that connected islands and coastal refugia. Marine ice-edge habitats offer a rich food supply and traversing coastal sea ice could have mitigated the difficulty of traveling southward in watercraft or on land over glaciers. We identify 24.5 to 22 ka and 16.4 to 14.8 ka as environmentally favorable time periods for coastal migration, when climate conditions provided both winter sea ice and ice-free summer conditions that facilitated year-round marine resource diversity and multiple modes of mobility along the North Pacific coast.
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3
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Waters MR, Newell ZA, Fisher DC, McDonald HG, Han J, Moreno M, Robbins A. Late Pleistocene osseous projectile point from the Manis site, Washington-Mastodon hunting in the Pacific Northwest 13,900 years ago. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eade9068. [PMID: 36724281 PMCID: PMC9891687 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade9068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Bone fragments embedded in a rib of a mastodon (Mammut americanum) from the Manis site, Washington, were digitally excavated and refit to reconstruct an object that is thin and broad, has smooth, shaped faces that converge to sharp lateral edges, and has a plano-convex cross section. These characteristics are consistent with the object being a human-made projectile point. The 13,900-year-old Manis projectile point is morphologically different from later cylindrical osseous points of the 13,000-year-old Clovis complex. The Manis point, which is made of mastodon bone, shows that people predating Clovis made and used osseous weapons to hunt megafauna in the Pacific Northwest during the Bølling-Allerød.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael R. Waters
- Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Zachary A. Newell
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Daniel C. Fisher
- Museum of Paleontology and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, 1105 North University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1085, USA
| | - H. Gregory McDonald
- Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office, West 200 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA
| | - Jiwan Han
- J. Mike Walker ‘66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Michael Moreno
- J. Mike Walker ‘66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Andrew Robbins
- J. Mike Walker ‘66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
- Multidisciplinary Engineering Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
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4
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Davis LG, Madsen DB, Sisson DA, Becerra-Valdivia L, Higham T, Stueber D, Bean DW, Nyers AJ, Carroll A, Ryder C, Sponheimer M, Izuho M, Iizuka F, Li G, Epps CW, Halford FK. Dating of a large tool assemblage at the Cooper's Ferry site (Idaho, USA) to ~15,785 cal yr B.P. extends the age of stemmed points in the Americas. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eade1248. [PMID: 36563150 PMCID: PMC9788777 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade1248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 11/10/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The timing and character of the Pleistocene peopling of the Americas are measured by the discovery of unequivocal artifacts from well-dated contexts. We report the discovery of a well-dated artifact assemblage containing 14 stemmed projectile points from the Cooper's Ferry site in western North America, dating to ~16,000 years ago. These stemmed points are several thousand years older than Clovis fluted points (~13,000 cal yr B.P.) and are ~2300 years older than stemmed points found previously at the site. These points date to the end of Marine Isotope Stage 2 when glaciers had closed off an interior land route into the Americas. This assemblage includes an array of stemmed projectile points that resemble pre-Jomon Late Upper Paleolithic tools from the northwestern Pacific Rim dating to ~20,000 to 19,000 years ago, leading us to hypothesize that some of the first technological traditions in the Americas may have originated in the region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loren G. Davis
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 203 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - David B. Madsen
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada-Reno, 512 Ansari, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - David A. Sisson
- Bureau of Land Management, Cottonwood Field Office, 2 Butte Drive, Cottonwood, ID 83522, USA
| | - Lorena Becerra-Valdivia
- Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, School of Archaeology, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK
| | - Thomas Higham
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, 1030 Wien, Austria
- Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS), University of Vienna, A-1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - Daniel Stueber
- Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, Canada
| | - Daniel W. Bean
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 203 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Alexander J. Nyers
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 203 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
- Northwest Archaeometrics, 5060 SW Philomath Blvd, #331, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA
| | - Amanda Carroll
- SWCA Environmental Consultants, 1800 NW Upshur St, Ste. 100, Portland, OR 97209, USA
| | - Christina Ryder
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Hale Science Building, 1350 Pleasant St., Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Matt Sponheimer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Hale Science Building, 1350 Pleasant St., Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Masami Izuho
- Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
| | - Fumie Iizuka
- Department of Anthropology and Research Reactor Center, University of Missouri, Swallow Hall, 112 S 9th Street, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
| | - Guoqiang Li
- Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, MOE Key Laboratory of West China’s Environmental System, Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshuinanlu, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
| | - Clinton W. Epps
- Oregon State University Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - F. Kirk Halford
- Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725, USA
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5
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Rowe TB, Stafford TW, Fisher DC, Enghild JJ, Quigg JM, Ketcham RA, Sagebiel JC, Hanna R, Colbert MW. Human Occupation of the North American Colorado Plateau ∼37,000 Years Ago. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.903795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Calibrating human population dispersals across Earth’s surface is fundamental to assessing rates and timing of anthropogenic impacts and distinguishing ecological phenomena influenced by humans from those that were not. Here, we describe the Hartley mammoth locality, which dates to 38,900–36,250 cal BP by AMS 14C analysis of hydroxyproline from bone collagen. We accept the standard view that elaborate stone technology of the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic was introduced into the Americas by arrival of the Native American clade ∼16,000 cal BP. It follows that if older cultural sites exist in the Americas, they might only be diagnosed using nuanced taphonomic approaches. We employed computed tomography (CT and μCT) and other state-of-the-art methods that had not previously been applied to investigating ancient American sites. This revealed multiple lines of taphonomic evidence suggesting that two mammoths were butchered using expedient lithic and bone technology, along with evidence diagnostic of controlled (domestic) fire. That this may be an ancient cultural site is corroborated by independent genetic evidence of two founding populations for humans in the Americas, which has already raised the possibility of a dispersal into the Americas by people of East Asian ancestry that preceded the Native American clade by millennia. The Hartley mammoth locality thus provides a new deep point of chronologic reference for occupation of the Americas and the attainment by humans of a near-global distribution.
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6
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Surovell TA, Allaun SA, Crass BA, Gingerich JAM, Graf KE, Holmes CE, Kelly RL, Kornfeld M, Krasinski KE, Larson ML, Pelton SR, Wygal BT. Late date of human arrival to North America: Continental scale differences in stratigraphic integrity of pre-13,000 BP archaeological sites. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0264092. [PMID: 35442993 PMCID: PMC9020715 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
By 13,000 BP human populations were present across North America, but the exact date of arrival to the continent, especially areas south of the continental ice sheets, remains unclear. Here we examine patterns in the stratigraphic integrity of early North American sites to gain insight into the timing of first colonization. We begin by modeling stratigraphic mixing of multicomponent archaeological sites to identify signatures of stratigraphic integrity in vertical artifact distributions. From those simulations, we develop a statistic we call the Apparent Stratigraphic Integrity Index (ASI), which we apply to pre- and post-13,000 BP archaeological sites north and south of the continental ice sheets. We find that multiple early Beringian sites dating between 13,000 and 14,200 BP show excellent stratigraphic integrity. Clear signs of discrete and minimally disturbed archaeological components do not appear south of the ice sheets until the Clovis period. These results provide support for a relatively late date of human arrival to the Americas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Todd A. Surovell
- Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Sarah A. Allaun
- Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America
| | - Barbara A. Crass
- Museum of the North, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States of America
| | - Joseph A. M. Gingerich
- Department of Anthropology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States of America
- Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States of America
| | - Kelly E. Graf
- Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America
| | - Charles E. Holmes
- Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States of America
| | - Robert L. Kelly
- Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America
| | - Marcel Kornfeld
- Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America
| | - Kathryn E. Krasinski
- Department of Anthropology, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, United States of America
| | - Mary Lou Larson
- Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America
| | - Spencer R. Pelton
- Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America
| | - Brian T. Wygal
- Department of Anthropology, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, United States of America
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7
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The age of the opening of the Ice-Free Corridor and implications for the peopling of the Americas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2118558119. [PMID: 35312340 PMCID: PMC9168949 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2118558119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The Ice-Free Corridor (IFC) has long played a key role in hypotheses about the peopling of the Americas. Earlier assessments of its age suggested that the IFC was available for a Clovis-first migration, but subsequent developments now suggest a pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas that occurred before the opening of the IFC, thus supporting a Pacific coastal migration route instead. However, large uncertainties in existing ages from the IFC cannot preclude its availability as a route for the first migrations. Resolving this debate over migration route is important for addressing the questions of when and how the first Americans arrived. We report cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages that show that the final opening of the IFC occurred well after pre-Clovis occupation. The Clovis-first model for the peopling of the Americas by ∼13.4 ka has long invoked the Ice-Free Corridor (IFC) between the retreating margins of the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets as the migration route from Alaska and the Yukon down to the Great Plains. Evidence from archaeology and ancient genomics, however, now suggests that pre-Clovis migrations occurred by at least ∼15.5 to 16.0 ka or earlier than most recent assessments of the age of IFC opening at ∼14 to 15 ka, lending support to the use of a Pacific coast migration route instead. Uncertainties in ages from the IFC used in these assessments, however, allow for an earlier IFC opening which would be consistent with the availability of the IFC as a migration route by ∼15.5 to 16.0 ka. Here, we use 64 cosmogenic (10Be) exposure ages to closely date the age of the full opening of the IFC at 13.8 ± 0.5 ka. Our results thus clearly establish that the IFC was not available for the first peopling of the Americas after the Last Glacial Maximum, whereas extensive geochronological data from the Pacific coast support its earlier availability as a coastal migration route.
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8
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Madsen DB, Davis LG, Rhode D, Oviatt CG. Comment on "Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum". Science 2022; 375:eabm4678. [PMID: 35025634 DOI: 10.1126/science.abm4678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Bennett et al. (Reports, 24 September 2021, p. 1528) report human footprints from Lake Otero, New Mexico, USA ~22,000 years ago. Critical assessment suggests that their radiocarbon chronology may be inaccurate. Reservoir effects may have caused radiocarbon ages to appear thousands of years too old. Independent verification of the ages of the footprint horizons is imperative and is possible through other means.
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Affiliation(s)
- David B Madsen
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Loren G Davis
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - David Rhode
- Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV 89512, USA
| | - Charles G Oviatt
- Department of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
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9
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Dog domestication and the dual dispersal of people and dogs into the Americas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2010083118. [PMID: 33495362 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2010083118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Advances in the isolation and sequencing of ancient DNA have begun to reveal the population histories of both people and dogs. Over the last 10,000 y, the genetic signatures of ancient dog remains have been linked with known human dispersals in regions such as the Arctic and the remote Pacific. It is suspected, however, that this relationship has a much deeper antiquity, and that the tandem movement of people and dogs may have begun soon after the domestication of the dog from a gray wolf ancestor in the late Pleistocene. Here, by comparing population genetic results of humans and dogs from Siberia, Beringia, and North America, we show that there is a close correlation in the movement and divergences of their respective lineages. This evidence places constraints on when and where dog domestication took place. Most significantly, it suggests that dogs were domesticated in Siberia by ∼23,000 y ago, possibly while both people and wolves were isolated during the harsh climate of the Last Glacial Maximum. Dogs then accompanied the first people into the Americas and traveled with them as humans rapidly dispersed into the continent beginning ∼15,000 y ago.
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10
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Willerslev E, Meltzer DJ. Peopling of the Americas as inferred from ancient genomics. Nature 2021; 594:356-364. [PMID: 34135521 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03499-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
In less than a decade, analyses of ancient genomes have transformed our understanding of the Indigenous peopling and population history of the Americas. These studies have shown that this history, which began in the late Pleistocene epoch and continued episodically into the Holocene epoch, was far more complex than previously thought. It is now evident that the initial dispersal involved the movement from northeast Asia of distinct and previously unknown populations, including some for whom there are no currently known descendants. The first peoples, once south of the continental ice sheets, spread widely, expanded rapidly and branched into multiple populations. Their descendants-over the next fifteen millennia-experienced varying degrees of isolation, admixture, continuity and replacement, and their genomes help to illuminate the relationships among major subgroups of Native American populations. Notably, all ancient individuals in the Americas, save for later-arriving Arctic peoples, are more closely related to contemporary Indigenous American individuals than to any other population elsewhere, which challenges the claim-which is based on anatomical evidence-that there was an early, non-Native American population in the Americas. Here we review the patterns revealed by ancient genomics that help to shed light on the past peoples who created the archaeological landscape, and together lead to deeper insights into the population and cultural history of the Americas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eske Willerslev
- GeoGenetics Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. .,Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. .,Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK.
| | - David J Meltzer
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. .,Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA.
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11
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Waters MR, Stafford TW, Carlson DL. The age of Clovis-13,050 to 12,750 cal yr B.P. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:6/43/eaaz0455. [PMID: 33087355 PMCID: PMC7577710 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz0455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2019] [Accepted: 07/10/2020] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Thirty-two radiocarbon ages on bone, charcoal, and carbonized plant remains from 10 Clovis sites range from 11,110 ± 40 to 10,820 ± 10 14C years before the present (yr B.P.). These radiocarbon ages provide a maximum calibrated (cal) age range for Clovis of ~13,050 to ~12,750 cal yr B.P. This radiocarbon record suggests that Clovis first appeared at the end of the Allerød and is one of at least three contemporary archaeological complexes in the Western Hemisphere during the terminal Pleistocene. Stemmed projectile points in western North America are coeval and even older than Clovis, and the Fishtail point complex is well established in the southern cone of South America by ~12,900 cal yr B.P. Clovis disappeared ~12,750 cal yr B.P. at the beginning of the Younger Dryas, coincident with the extinction of the remaining North American megafauna (Proboscideans) and the appearance of multiple North American regional archaeological complexes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael R Waters
- Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352, USA.
- Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352, USA
| | - Thomas W Stafford
- Stafford Research Laboratories, 200 Acadia Avenue, Lafayette, CO 80026-1845, USA.
| | - David L Carlson
- Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352, USA
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12
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Ardelean CF, Becerra-Valdivia L, Pedersen MW, Schwenninger JL, Oviatt CG, Macías-Quintero JI, Arroyo-Cabrales J, Sikora M, Ocampo-Díaz YZE, Rubio-Cisneros II, Watling JG, de Medeiros VB, De Oliveira PE, Barba-Pingarón L, Ortiz-Butrón A, Blancas-Vázquez J, Rivera-González I, Solís-Rosales C, Rodríguez-Ceja M, Gandy DA, Navarro-Gutierrez Z, De La Rosa-Díaz JJ, Huerta-Arellano V, Marroquín-Fernández MB, Martínez-Riojas LM, López-Jiménez A, Higham T, Willerslev E. Evidence of human occupation in Mexico around the Last Glacial Maximum. Nature 2020; 584:87-92. [PMID: 32699412 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2509-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2018] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The initial colonization of the Americas remains a highly debated topic1, and the exact timing of the first arrivals is unknown. The earliest archaeological record of Mexico-which holds a key geographical position in the Americas-is poorly known and understudied. Historically, the region has remained on the periphery of research focused on the first American populations2. However, recent investigations provide reliable evidence of a human presence in the northwest region of Mexico3,4, the Chiapas Highlands5, Central Mexico6 and the Caribbean coast7-9 during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs. Here we present results of recent excavations at Chiquihuite Cave-a high-altitude site in central-northern Mexico-that corroborate previous findings in the Americas10-17of cultural evidence that dates to the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500-19,000 years ago)18, and which push back dates for human dispersal to the region possibly as early as 33,000-31,000 years ago. The site yielded about 1,900 stone artefacts within a 3-m-deep stratified sequence, revealing a previously unknown lithic industry that underwent only minor changes over millennia. More than 50 radiocarbon and luminescence dates provide chronological control, and genetic, palaeoenvironmental and chemical data document the changing environments in which the occupants lived. Our results provide new evidence for the antiquity of humans in the Americas, illustrate the cultural diversity of the earliest dispersal groups (which predate those of the Clovis culture) and open new directions of research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ciprian F Ardelean
- Unidad Académica de Antropología, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico. .,Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
| | - Lorena Becerra-Valdivia
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Chronos 14C-Cycle Facility, SSEAU, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Jean-Luc Schwenninger
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Charles G Oviatt
- Department of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
| | - Juan I Macías-Quintero
- Escuela de Arqueología, Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico
| | - Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales
- Laboratorio de Arqueozoología, Subdirección de Laboratorios y Apoyo Académico, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Martin Sikora
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Yam Zul E Ocampo-Díaz
- Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de San Luís Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.,Grupo de Geología Exógena y del Sedimentario, San Luis Potosí, Mexico
| | | | - Jennifer G Watling
- Laboratório de Arqueologia dos Trópicos, Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Vanda B de Medeiros
- Laboratório de Micropaleontologia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Paulo E De Oliveira
- Laboratório de Micropaleontologia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.,Botany Department, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Luis Barba-Pingarón
- Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas (IIA), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Agustín Ortiz-Butrón
- Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas (IIA), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Jorge Blancas-Vázquez
- Laboratorio de Prospección Arqueológica, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas (IIA), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Irán Rivera-González
- Laboratorio de Palinología, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Corina Solís-Rosales
- Laboratorio de Espectrometría de Masas con Aceleradores, Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - María Rodríguez-Ceja
- Laboratorio de Espectrometría de Masas con Aceleradores, Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Devlin A Gandy
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Alejandro López-Jiménez
- Laboratorio de Arqueozoología, Subdirección de Laboratorios y Apoyo Académico, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Thomas Higham
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Eske Willerslev
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. .,Welcome Trust, Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK. .,The Danish Institute for Advanced Study, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. .,Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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13
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The timing and effect of the earliest human arrivals in North America. Nature 2020; 584:93-97. [PMID: 32699413 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2491-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The peopling of the Americas marks a major expansion of humans across the planet. However, questions regarding the timing and mechanisms of this dispersal remain, and the previously accepted model (termed 'Clovis-first')-suggesting that the first inhabitants of the Americas were linked with the Clovis tradition, a complex marked by distinctive fluted lithic points1-has been effectively refuted. Here we analyse chronometric data from 42 North American and Beringian archaeological sites using a Bayesian age modelling approach, and use the resulting chronological framework to elucidate spatiotemporal patterns of human dispersal. We then integrate these patterns with the available genetic and climatic evidence. The data obtained show that humans were probably present before, during and immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum (about 26.5-19 thousand years ago)2,3 but that more widespread occupation began during a period of abrupt warming, Greenland Interstadial 1 (about 14.7-12.9 thousand years before AD 2000)4. We also identify the near-synchronous commencement of Beringian, Clovis and Western Stemmed cultural traditions, and an overlap of each with the last dates for the appearance of 18 now-extinct faunal genera. Our analysis suggests that the widespread expansion of humans through North America was a key factor in the extinction of large terrestrial mammals.
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14
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Waters MR. Late Pleistocene exploration and settlement of the Americas by modern humans. SCIENCE (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2020; 365:365/6449/eaat5447. [PMID: 31296740 DOI: 10.1126/science.aat5447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
North and South America were the last continents to be explored and settled by modern humans at the end of the Pleistocene. Genetic data, derived from contemporary populations and ancient individuals, show that the first Americans originated from Asia and after several population splits moved south of the continental ice sheets that covered Canada sometime between ~17.5 and ~14.6 thousand years (ka) ago. Archaeological evidence shows that geographically dispersed populations lived successfully, using biface, blade, and osseous technologies, in multiple places in North and South America between ~15.5 and ~14 ka ago. Regional archaeological complexes emerged by at least ~13 ka ago in North America and ~12.9 ka ago in South America. Current genetic and archaeological data do not support an earlier (pre-17.5 ka ago) occupation of the Americas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael R Waters
- Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
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15
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Davis LG, Madsen DB, Becerra-Valdivia L, Higham T, Sisson DA, Skinner SM, Stueber D, Nyers AJ, Keen-Zebert A, Neudorf C, Cheyney M, Izuho M, Iizuka F, Burns SR, Epps CW, Willis SC, Buvit I. Late Upper Paleolithic occupation at Cooper's Ferry, Idaho, USA, ~16,000 years ago. Science 2020; 365:891-897. [PMID: 31467216 DOI: 10.1126/science.aax9830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2019] [Accepted: 08/01/2019] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Radiocarbon dating of the earliest occupational phases at the Cooper's Ferry site in western Idaho indicates that people repeatedly occupied the Columbia River basin, starting between 16,560 and 15,280 calibrated years before the present (cal yr B.P.). Artifacts from these early occupations indicate the use of unfluted stemmed projectile point technologies before the appearance of the Clovis Paleoindian tradition and support early cultural connections with northeastern Asian Upper Paleolithic archaeological traditions. The Cooper's Ferry site was initially occupied during a time that predates the opening of an ice-free corridor (≤14,800 cal yr B.P.), which supports the hypothesis that initial human migration into the Americas occurred via a Pacific coastal route.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loren G Davis
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 238 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
| | - David B Madsen
- Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78758, USA
| | - Lorena Becerra-Valdivia
- Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, School of Archaeology, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK
| | - Thomas Higham
- Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, School of Archaeology, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK
| | - David A Sisson
- Bureau of Land Management, Cottonwood Field Office, 2 Butte Drive, Cottonwood, ID 83522, USA
| | - Sarah M Skinner
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 238 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Daniel Stueber
- University of Victoria, Department of Anthropology, P.O. Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, Canada
| | | | - Amanda Keen-Zebert
- Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, USA
| | - Christina Neudorf
- Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, USA
| | - Melissa Cheyney
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 238 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Masami Izuho
- Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, Japan 192-0397
| | - Fumie Iizuka
- Tokyo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, Japan 192-0397.,School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Samuel R Burns
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 238 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Clinton W Epps
- Oregon State University, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Samuel C Willis
- Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Stewardship Section, 725 Summer Street, NE, Suite C, Salem, OR 97301, USA
| | - Ian Buvit
- Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, 238 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
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16
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van Dorp L, Gelabert P, Rieux A, de Manuel M, de-Dios T, Gopalakrishnan S, Carøe C, Sandoval-Velasco M, Fregel R, Olalde I, Escosa R, Aranda C, Huijben S, Mueller I, Marquès-Bonet T, Balloux F, Gilbert MTP, Lalueza-Fox C. Plasmodium vivax Malaria Viewed through the Lens of an Eradicated European Strain. Mol Biol Evol 2020; 37:773-785. [PMID: 31697387 PMCID: PMC7038659 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msz264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The protozoan Plasmodium vivax is responsible for 42% of all cases of malaria outside Africa. The parasite is currently largely restricted to tropical and subtropical latitudes in Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Though, it was historically present in most of Europe before being finally eradicated during the second half of the 20th century. The lack of genomic information on the extinct European lineage has prevented a clear understanding of historical population structuring and past migrations of P. vivax. We used medical microscope slides prepared in 1944 from malaria-affected patients from the Ebro Delta in Spain, one of the last footholds of malaria in Europe, to generate a genome of a European P. vivax strain. Population genetics and phylogenetic analyses placed this strain basal to a cluster including samples from the Americas. This genome allowed us to calibrate a genomic mutation rate for P. vivax, and to estimate the mean age of the last common ancestor between European and American strains to the 15th century. This date points to an introduction of the parasite during the European colonization of the Americas. In addition, we found that some known variants for resistance to antimalarial drugs, including Chloroquine and Sulfadoxine, were already present in this European strain, predating their use. Our results shed light on the evolution of an important human pathogen and illustrate the value of antique medical collections as a resource for retrieving genomic information on pathogens from the past.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucy van Dorp
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Pere Gelabert
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Adrien Rieux
- CIRAD, UMR PVBMT, St. Pierre de la Réunion, France
| | - Marc de Manuel
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Toni de-Dios
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Shyam Gopalakrishnan
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Christian Carøe
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Marcela Sandoval-Velasco
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Rosa Fregel
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, Cell Biology and Genetics, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain
| | - Iñigo Olalde
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Raül Escosa
- Consorci de Polítiques Ambientals de les Terres de l'Ebre (COPATE), Deltebre, Spain
| | - Carles Aranda
- Servei de Control de Mosquits, Consell Comarcal del Baix Llobregat, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain
| | - Silvie Huijben
- School of Life Sciences, Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
- ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ivo Mueller
- ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Population Health and Immunity Division, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Tomàs Marquès-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
- CNAG-CRG, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Spain
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - François Balloux
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - M Thomas P Gilbert
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
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17
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Paleoamerican Occupation, Stone Tools from the Cueva del Medio, and Considerations for the Late Pleistocene Archaeology in Southern South America. QUATERNARY 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/quat2030028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Archaeological excavations at the Cueva del Medio performed during the 1980s and 1990s yielded an important record of both faunal and stone tool remains, as well as data, to discuss issues that occurred during the Terminal Pleistocene. Due to that, the shaped Paleoamerican artifacts collected in the author’s excavations were partially informed. The present article provides unpublished data on the field-work, the results of a techno-morphological analysis of the stone tools, and considerations about early hunter-gatherer societies along with their regional paleo-environmental interactions, as well other topics regarding the regional archaeological process during the last millennium of the Pleistocene. Findings from there have been extremely useful for discussing diverse paleo-ecological and archaeological topics and have extended the knowledge and discussions about different Pleistocene scientific issues, mainly related with flora, fauna, and the colonization of southern Patagonia.
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18
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Prufer KM, Alsgaard AV, Robinson M, Meredith CR, Culleton BJ, Dennehy T, Magee S, Huckell BB, Stemp WJ, Awe JJ, Capriles JM, Kennett DJ. Linking late Paleoindian stone tool technologies and populations in North, Central and South America. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0219812. [PMID: 31318917 PMCID: PMC6638942 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2019] [Accepted: 06/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
From the perspective of Central and South America, the peopling of the New World was a complex process lasting thousands of years and involving multiple waves of Pleistocene and early Holocene period immigrants entering into the neotropics. These Paleoindian colonists initially brought with them technologies developed for adaptation to environments and resources found in North America. As the ice age ended across the New World people adapted more generalized stone tools to exploit changing environments and resources. In the neotropics these changes would have been pronounced as patchy forests and grasslands gave way to broadleaf tropical forests. We document a late Pleistocene/early Holocene stone tool tradition from Belize, located in southern Mesoamerica. This represents the first endogenous Paleoindian stone tool technocomplex recovered from well dated stratigraphic contexts for Mesoamerica. Previously designated Lowe, these artifacts share multiple features with contemporary North and South American Paleoindian tool types. Once hafted, these bifaces appear to have served multiple functions for cutting, hooking, thrusting, or throwing. The tools were developed at a time of technological regionalization reflecting the diverse demands of a period of pronounced environmental change and population movement. Combined stratigraphic, technological, and population paleogenetic data suggests that there were strong ties between lowland neotropic regions at the onset of the Holocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith M. Prufer
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico United States of America
- Center for Stable Isotopes, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America
| | - Asia V. Alsgaard
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico United States of America
| | - Mark Robinson
- Department of Archaeology, Exeter University, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Clayton R. Meredith
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico United States of America
| | - Brendan J. Culleton
- Institute of Energy and the Environment, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Timothy Dennehy
- School of Human Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Shelby Magee
- SWCA Environmental Consultants, Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States of America
| | - Bruce B. Huckell
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico United States of America
| | - W. James Stemp
- Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology, Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Jaime J. Awe
- Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Jose M. Capriles
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Douglas J. Kennett
- Department of Anthropology, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
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