Current perspectives on the Pleistocene archaeology of eastern Beringia
Abstract Most recent summaries of eastern Beringian (Alaska and Yukon) archaeology present the Nenana complex, beginning 11,500–12,000 14 C yr B.P., as the beginning of the regional archaeological record. Either explicitly or tacitly, these summaries dismiss or ignore a body of older putative eviden...
| Published in: | Quaternary Research |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2003
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0033-5894(03)00070-x http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S003358940300070X?httpAccept=text/xml http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S003358940300070X?httpAccept=text/plain https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400012333 |
| Summary: | Abstract Most recent summaries of eastern Beringian (Alaska and Yukon) archaeology present the Nenana complex, beginning 11,500–12,000 14 C yr B.P., as the beginning of the regional archaeological record. Either explicitly or tacitly, these summaries dismiss or ignore a body of older putative evidence of human occupation that may span the late Wisconsin stade and even extend into part of the mid-Wisconsin interstade. This paper summarizes the interpretive problems surrounding the older findings, bringing together data that have accumulated over a period of two decades, in the hope that a coherent presentation will encourage more careful appraisals of the materials. The paper concludes with a family of testable hypotheses concerning the beginnings of human occupation in eastern Beringia. The hypothesis that people were present during the mid-Wisconsin interstade has not yet been falsified. |
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