Paleo-Indians

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For criticism see Criticism of Paleo-Indians

Paleoindians or Paleoamericans[1] were the first peoples to enter and inhabit the Western Hemisphere during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene. The prefix "paleo" comes from the Greek adjective palaios (παλαιός) meaning "old." The term Paleoindian applies to a specific archaeological period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic.[2]

Contents

Migration into the New World

The specifics of Paleoindian migration to the Western Hemisphere, including the exact dates and routes of travel, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. The traditional theory has been that these early migrants crossed the Bering land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska ca. 11,500 years ago, when sea levels were significantly lowered due to the Quaternary glaciation.[3] These people were believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along an ice-free corridor that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets, connecting the Bering land bridge to ice-free lands to the south.

Example of a fluted Clovis Paleoindian spearpoint.
Until recently, it was generally believed that the first Paleoamerican people to arrive in North America belonged to the Clovis culture. This archaeological phase was named after the town of Clovis, New Mexico, where in 1932 unique fluted spearpoints were found at the site of Blackwater Draw, where they were directly associated with the bones of Pleistocene animals.[4]

More recent data from a series of archaeological sites throughout both North and South America suggest that the Clovis people of the American Southwest were not the first inhabitants of the New World. In particular, sites like Cactus Hill in Virginia[5], Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania[6], Monte Verde in Chile[7] and Topper in South Carolina[8] have generated earlier dates for Paleoamerican occupations. These sites significantly predate the ice-free corridor and Bering land bridge, and suggest that there were additional, possibly coastal routes of migration into the Western Hemisphere from both Asia and Western Europe.

Paleoindian lifeways

Paleoindian adaptation across North America was likely characterized by small, highly mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 or 50 members of an extended family. These groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. [9] Paleoindian groups were efficient hunters and carried a variety of tools. These included highly efficient PP/Ks of the types mentioned above, as well as less distinctive implements used for butchering and hide processing. During much of the Paleoindian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct megafauna such as mastodon and bison. [10] Paleoindian populations undoubtedly did not rely exclusively on megafauna for subsistence. Instead, they likely employed a mixed foraging strategy that included smaller terrestrial game, aquatic animals, and a variety of flora.[11] As larger game animals began to suffer extinction as a result of intense hunting and rapid environmental changes, Late Paleoindian groups would have come to rely more on these other facets of their subsistence pattern.

Genetic research

An article in the American Journal of Human Genetics states "Here we show, by using 86 complete mitochondrial genomes, that all Native American haplogroups, including haplogroup X, were part of a single founding population, thereby refuting multiple-migration models."[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Wikipedia and some other sources insert a hyphen and additional capitalization into these terms as follows: Paleo-Indian and Paleo-American. However, modern and accepted nomenclature within the scientific and archaeological community omits this punctuation, instead employing the terms as such: Paleoindian; Paleoamerican. See also the sources and external links for this article for correct usage.
  2. ^ Paleolithic specifically refers to the period between approximately 2.5 million years ago and the end of the Pleistocene in the Eastern Hemisphere, and is not used in New World archaeology.
  3. ^ "Smithsonian Encyclopedia: Paleoamerican". http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/origin.htm. Retrieved on 2009-01-15. 
  4. ^ "National Parks Service Southeastern Archaeological Center: The Paleoindian Period". http://www.nps.gov/history/seac/outline/02-paleoindian/index.htm. 
  5. ^ "Science News Online: Early New World Settlers Rise in East". http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000415/fob1.asp. Retrieved on 2009-01-15. 
  6. ^ "Meadowcroft Rockshelter". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1113831918&ResourceType=Site. Retrieved on 2008-07-02. 
  7. ^ "Monte Verde Archaeological Site - UNESCO World Heritage Centre". http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1873/. 
  8. ^ "CNN.com: Man in Americas Earlier Than Thought". http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/11/17/carolina.dig/index.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-15. 
  9. ^ Kelly, Robert L.; Lawrence C. Todd (1988). "Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility". American Antiquity 53: 231–244. 
  10. ^ Breitburg, Emanual; John B. Broster, Arthur L. Reesman, and Richard G. Strearns (1996). "Coats-Hines Site: Tennessee's First Paleoindian Mastodon Association". Current Research in the Pleistocene 13: 6-8. 
  11. ^ "Kincaid Shelter". http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/kincaid/revisited.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-15. }}
  12. ^ Fagundes, Nelson J.R.; Ricardo Kanitz, Roberta Eckert, Ana C.S. Valls, Mauricio R. Bogo, Francisco M. Salzano, David Glenn Smith, Wilson A. Silva, Marco A. Zago, Andrea K. Ribeiro-dos-Santos, Sidney E.B. Santos, Maria Luiza Petzl-Erler, and Sandro L.Bonatto (2008). "Mitochondrial Population Genomics Supports a Single Pre-Clovis Origin with a Coastal Route for the Peopling of the Americas". American Journal of Human Genetics 82 (3): 583-592. 

External links


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