ベリンジアからみた新大陸文化起源の諸問題

• Main Authors: 小谷 凱宣, Yoshinobu Kotani
• Format: Report
• Language: Japanese
• Published: 国立民族学博物館 1983
• Subjects: Bering Strait; Beringia
• Online Access: https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=4464; http://hdl.handle.net/10502/2840; https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=4464&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

This paper reviews recent developments of studies on prehistoriccultures and paleoecological conditions in Beringia,formerly exposed land mass in the Bering Strait region during theLate Wisconsin period. Noteworthy is the implication that thevast expanses of the Circumpolar region were mainly steppetundra,providing favorable conditions for large mammals and,eventually, for man, and only locally covered by glaciers on highmountains and by boreal forest along major river systems.The Paleoindian tradition, which is widely distributed fromthe Greater Southwest and Plains to the Eastern Woodlands,has been regarded as the oldest cultural manifestation in theNew World. The American Paleoarctic tradition, radiocarbondated from ca. 11,500 to 8000 B.P. and regarded as the earliestin Beringia, chronologically parallels the former and is representedby two internally heterogeneous groups of sites in Alaska.Cultural materials recently reported from the MeadowcroftRock-shelter and other sites in the Americas are radiocarbon datedfrom ca. 20,000 to 14,000 B.P. and characterized by blade andpoint manufacturing techniques as well as unifacial flaking.The presence of these techniques temporally prior to both thePaleoindian and American Paleoarctic traditions indicates somecultural relations with the Upper Paleolithic culture in EasternSiberia and is suggestive of the cultural basis from which thesetwo traditions developed locally in North America. In the lightof these new data, it is necessary to reconsider the traditionalview that the Paleoindian tradition is the oldest in the New World.