Early Human Settlement of Northeastern North America

Lothrop, Jonathan C.; Lowery, Darrin; Spiess, Arthur; Ellis, Christopher J.

doi:10.1080/20555563.2016.1212178

Cited by 84 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 159 publications

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“…During the terminal Pleistocene circa 12,600 to 11,600 calbp a thin veneer (<150 cm) of loess enveloped the western side of the Delmarva Peninsula (see Lowery et al, 2010;Lothrop et al, 2016;Wah et al, in press). Loess distribution, deposit characteristics, and particle size distribution within the loess suggest multiple sources for the parent silts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Mammalian Assemblage from Paw Paw Cove, Tilghman Island, Maryland

Eshelman¹,

Lowery²,

Grady³

et al. 2018

Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Mammalian Assemblage from Paw Paw Cove, Tilghman Island, Maryland

Eshelman¹,

Lowery²,

Grady³

et al. 2018

Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology

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“…12,800-12,200 years ago, decidedly later than in the West [105,106], which is not unreasonable, given that fluting apparently began in the West and moved eastward (but see [107]), either through the movement of populations or through down-the-line transmission among established populations (see Section 5). Those eastern forms were followed by other fluted forms [69,75,[107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119] (Figure 3) that persisted up to 12,000-11,800 years ago, placing them in the same chronological range as Folsom [105,106]. The transition from Clovis to Folsom was a significant event in the prehistory of western North America, driven, at least in part, by population expansion, perhaps in response to climate-driven environmental change.…”

Section: The Clovis Techno-complexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting the Stage: The Late Pleistocene Colonization of North America

O’Brien

2018

Quaternary

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The timing of human entrance into North America has been a topic of debate that dates back to the late 19th century. Central to the modern discussion is not whether late Pleistocene-age populations were present on the continent, but the timing of their arrival. Key to the debate is the age of tools-bone rods, large prismatic stone blades, and bifacially chipped and fluted stone weapon tips-often found associated with the remains of late Pleistocene fauna.Quaternary 2019, 2, 1 2 of 22 complex, together with the various modes involved in its transmission. Along the way, I examine how various evolutionary processes and mechanisms helped shape what we see in the Clovis archaeological record. Excellent summaries of Clovis lifeways and numerous related topics not included here can be found in [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. The Clovis Techno-ComplexThe Clovis techno-complex is marked by a number of distinctive tool types, including bone and ivory rods [36], large prismatic stone blades [26], and bifacially chipped and fluted stone weapon tips, referred to as "Clovis points" [26,[37][38][39][40]. Because of significant regional variation in the toolkit, Eren and Buchanan [41], (p. 1) make the excellent point that what archaeologists refer to as "Clovis technology" is better thought of as a shorthand reference to "a fuzzy set of human-tool interactions found across North and Central America during the terminal Pleistocene".Prehistoric projectile-weapon systems were made from a variety of raw materials, including wood, resins, bone, and fibers, but these materials do not preserve well, and as a result, archaeologists focus on the component that does survive, the flaked-stone projectile point [42]. Clovis points were made from several cryptocrystalline stone types, such as chert, quartzite, and obsidian. They were bifacially flaked (flaked on both sides) and are lanceolate in form. They have parallel to slightly convex sides and concave bases and exhibit a series of flake-removal scars-"flutes"-on one or both faces that extend from the base to about a third of the way to the tip (Figure 1). After fluted points were first recognized archaeologically, it was proposed that fluting enhanced bloodletting of a wounded animal [43], although the flute would have been largely covered by the hafting (e.g., sinew) [44]. Similarly, it was proposed that fluting enhanced hafting a point into a split shaft [45]. Experimentation suggests, however, that the thinner base that results from fluting acts as a "shock absorber" that increases point robustness and the ability to withstand physical stress through stress redistribution and damage relocation [46,47].Quaternary 2018, 2, x 2 of 22

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“…Cultural transmission has long been a topic of debate in archeology generally, [52][53][54] but within the last several decades it has become a specific focus as researchers have begun to incorporate both theoretical models of how humans learn and innovative analytical methods into their tool kits. 23,37 Analytical interest in stone tools has shifted away from description and simple measurement and toward understanding how evolutionary processes such as selection and drift, expressed through different kinds of learning, contributed to the production of variation, 43,47,48,55,56 which is a key element in any system of descent with modification. 23,37 Analytical interest in stone tools has shifted away from description and simple measurement and toward understanding how evolutionary processes such as selection and drift, expressed through different kinds of learning, contributed to the production of variation, 43,47,48,55,56 which is a key element in any system of descent with modification.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nowhere is this more evident than in the archeology related to Clovis and its immediate successor techno-complexes, such as Folsom in the west 26 and a host of fluted-point complexes in the east. 23,37 Analytical interest in stone tools has shifted away from description and simple measurement and toward understanding how evolutionary processes such as selection and drift, expressed through different kinds of learning, contributed to the production of variation, 43,47,48,55,56 which is a key element in any system of descent with modification. 57,58 2 | S O U R CE S OF CL OV IS -P OI N T V A RI A TI ON Three interrelated issues immediately come to mind when the topic of variation comes up: how and why variants come to be produced in the first place, how quickly they spread, and how successfully they compete with one another.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cultural learning and the Clovis colonization of North America

O’Brien¹,

Buchanan

2017

Evolutionary Anthropology

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The timing of the earliest colonization of North America is debatable, but what is not at issue is the point of origin of the early colonists: Humans entered the continent from Beringia and then made their way south along or near the Pacific Coast and/or through a corridor that ran between the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets in western North America. At some point, they abandoned their Arctic-based tool complex for one more adapted to an entirely different environment. That new techno-complex is termed "Clovis"; its dispersal allows us to examine, at a fine scale, how colonization processes played out across a vast continent that at the time had, at best, a very small resident population. Clovis has figured prominently in American archeology since the first Clovis points were identified in eastern New Mexico in the 1930s. However, the successful marriage of learning models grounded in evolutionary theory and modern analytical methods that began roughly a decade ago has begun to pay significant dividends in terms of what we know about the rapid spread of human groups across the last sizable landmass to witness human occupation.

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Early Human Settlement of Northeastern North America

Cited by 84 publications

References 159 publications

Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Mammalian Assemblage from Paw Paw Cove, Tilghman Island, Maryland

Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Mammalian Assemblage from Paw Paw Cove, Tilghman Island, Maryland

Setting the Stage: The Late Pleistocene Colonization of North America

Cultural learning and the Clovis colonization of North America

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