First Traces

• Main Authors: Potter, Ben, Goebel, Ted
• Other Authors: Friesen, Max, Mason, Owen
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Subarctic; Beringia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199766956.013.17

This chapter encompasses the earliest human occupations of the Arctic and Subarctic, focusing on paleoclimate and human-environment interactions and the colonization of Beringia and northern North America. It discusses new discoveries in the high latitudes of Eurasia and North America. For each period, from 32,000 to 12,000 years ago, there are summaries of technology, typology, subsistence economy, and settlement systems. After a Late Glacial Maximum hiatus, humans recolonized northeastern Asia around 16,000 cal B.P. and Beringia by 14,000 cal B.P. Early Beringian diets were diverse, incorporating large and small mammals, waterfowl, and fish. These early populations likely had high residential mobility strategies.