Late Holocene Technology Words in Proto-Athabaskan: Implications for Dene-Yeniseian Culture History

• Published in: Humans
• Main Author: Joseph A. P. Wilson
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2023
• Subjects: Athabaskan; Dene-Yeniseian; historical linguistics; sinew-backed bows; low-fire ceramics; copper metallurgy; migration; diffusion; Holocene; Bering Strait; eyak; tlingit; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/humans3030015

This study will review previously published Proto-Athabaskan (P-A) linguistic reconstructions related to weapons and ceramics technologies present on both sides of the Bering Strait. Na-Dene (N-D) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, consisting mostly of the Athabaskan languages of the western interior, plus the Eyak and Tlingit languages of the southern Alaska coast. Athabaskan-Eyak (A-E) constitutes a distinct branch of Na-Dene. Dene-Yeniseian (D-Y) is a proposed transpacific family comprised of Na-Dene in addition to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia. Reconstructions pertaining to several specific technologies will be discussed in relation to likely cognates within broader A-E, N-D and D-Y historical contexts. Although D-Y is sometimes assumed to have originated near the conclusion of the Pleistocene Epoch (prior to ~11,500 years BP), this study will refocus fundamental questions on the current Holocene Epoch (after ~11,500 BP), and particularly the Late Holocene (after ~3000 BP).