Terminal Pleistocene human occupation of the upper Copper River basin, southern Alaska: Results of test excavations at Nataeł Na’

• Published in: Quaternary International
• Main Authors: White, John, Henry, Auréade, Kuehn, Stephen, Loso, Michael, Rasic, Jeffrey
• Other Authors: Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University College Station (TAMU), Culture et Environnements, Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age (CEPAM), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Côte d'Azur (UniCA), Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Concord University, Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; Alaska; Beringia
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03780826; https://hal.science/hal-03780826/document; https://hal.science/hal-03780826/file/1-s2.0-S1040618222002749-main.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2022.08.012

International audience After decades of debate, the homeland of the First Americans is now generally understood to be northeast Asia; however, the process of Late Pleistocene peopling remains unresolved. As more archaeological sites south of the continental ice sheets are discovered that predate the opening of the interior “ice-free” corridor, interest in a coastal Pacific dispersal route has grown, and previously overlooked regions proximal to the Pacific coast have become a central focus of exploration efforts. The Copper River basin of southern Alaska is one such region. Here we present the results of 2019 archaeological excavations at Nataeł Na’, a buried and stratified archaeological site situated along the upper Copper River. The site contains a robust occupation dating to the late Younger Dryas climate reversal as well as an earlier occupation dating to the late Allerød interstadial. This discovery demonstrates that Pleistocene hunter-gatherers inhabited the Pacific basin of southern Alaska during the same time Clovis peoples inhabited temperate North America. The occupations at Nataeł Na’ join a growing body of evidence suggesting that the early inhabitants of eastern Beringia were geographically more widely dispersed than previously documented.