Current perspectives on the Pleistocene archaeology of eastern Beringia

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Author: Morlan, Richard E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2003
• Subjects: Yukon; Alaska; Beringia
• 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

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.