David G. Anderson

Paleoindian colonization of the Americas : Implications from an examination of physiography, demography, and artifact distribution

Abstract GIS-based, least-cost analyses employing continental scale elevation data, coupled with information on the late glacial location of ice sheets and pluvial lakes, suggest possible movement corridors used by initial human populations in colonizing the New World. These routes, demographic evidence, and the location of Paleoindian archaeological assemblages, support the possibility of a rapid spread and diversification of founding populations. Initial dispersal, these analyses suggest, would have been most likely in coastal and riverine settings, and on plains. The analyses suggest areas where evidence for early human settlement may be found in North and South America. In some cases, these areas have received little prior archaeological survey. The method can be used to explore patterns of human migration and interaction at a variety of geographic scales.

Palaeoindian artefact distributions: evidence and implications

The distribution of projectile points over broad geographic areas yields important insights about Palaeoindian settlement pattern and history. While traditionally viewed as a Great Plains adaptation, the data show that fluted points are far more common in Eastern North America. These artefacts are not evenly spread across the landscape, furthermore, but occur in distinct concentrations. Within some of these areas distinct cultural traditions quickly emerged, something that appears tied to the sudden onset of the Younger Dryas.

Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeastern United States: a Case Study from the Savannah River Basin

Surveys and excavations conducted within the Savannah River watershed in recent years have yielded a wealth of information about organization and adaptive strategies of Early Archaic populations, both within the drainage and across the region. Specifically, excavations at Ruckers atBottom (9EB91) and the G. S. Lewis site (38AK228) have yielded large, complementary assemblages indicating watershed-extensive adaptation employing a mixed collector-forager strategy. Comparative analyses with assemblages from the surrounding region document an extensive use of expedient technologies, instead of the more formalized technologies thought to characterize the period. Analyses of local and regional resource structure, theoretical arguments about biocultural needs of huntergatherer populations, and evidence from the archaeological record, suggest that large drainage systems served subsistence/resource needs, while biocultural interaction (i.e., information and mating networks) operated both along and across watershed boundaries. A model ofEarly Archaic settlement is proposed, based on band/macroband mobility and interaction, that is thought to partially account for the variation from this periodfound on the South Atlantic Slope.

Chapter 1 – Climate and culture change: exploring Holocene transitions

Publisher Summary This chapter attempts to explore the climatic and cultural changes and transitions that have occurred in past 10,000 years. Responding successfully to climate change and its likely impacts on human culture is one of the great scientific challenges of the 21st century and a major test for global civilization. Various studies have been conducted in this regard, and various papers have been presented. This study explores how past human cultures have responded to changes in climate and consequent changes in vegetation and precipitation patterns. It documents research that offers many lessons of value to scholars, politicians/planners, and the general public. Scientific literature, archaeological research, and paleobiological evidence can be critical for identifying human presence and impact on the landscape; so, too, can geoarchaeological/geophysical analyses. Under this light, this chapter demonstrates that the reconstruction of both past climate change and past human cultural systems is best accomplished by using data from multiple sources, or proxy records, and by specialists from different disciplines working together. The development of the radiocarbon calibration curve has profound implications for archaeological and paleoenvironmental research. Furthermore, this study describes the possible causes of Holocene climate change, also rationalizing the need to study climate and culture change, and particularly events and processes occurring during the Mid-Holocene from ca. 9000 to 5000 years ago to help in the modern world. The basis for such studies lies in the relationship between climate and cultural change, which is elucidated in this chapter.

Pleistocene Human Settlement in the Southeastern United States: Current Evidence and Future Directions

Abstract Research into the earliest occupations in the southeastern United States has been underway since the 1930s, when a pattern of large-scale excavations combined with the reporting of surface finds was initiated that continues to this day. Work at Macon Plateau and Parrish Village, excavated during the New Deal, was followed by a series of stratigraphic excavations in floodplains, rockshelters, and other locales from the 1940s onward. These early studies produced a basic cultural sequence, portions of which were defined by cross-dating findings from the Southeast with discoveries made in other parts of the country. The Southeast is unique in that surveys of fluted projectile points have been conducted in every state, some since the 1940s. These surveys now encompass a wider range of projectile points and other tool forms, and the large numbers of Paleoindian artifacts found in the region suggest intensive occupation. Whether these quantities reflect the presence of large numbers of early people, or of modern collectors and extensive agriculture, remains the subject of appreciable debate. The regional radiocarbon record is fairly robust for the latter end of the period, but far more sample collection, analysis, and interpretation is needed. The regional literature is burgeoning, with research being conducted in every state, much of it funded by CRM activity.

Mid-Holocene cultural dynamics in southeastern North America

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the cultural dynamics as a result of climatic changes in the Southeastern region of North America. During the middle Archaic period in the Southeast, corresponding to the mid-Holocene era, from 8000 to 5000 14C yr BP, monumental construction began in a number of areas. The mid-Holocene was a period of dramatic cultural change in the Midsouth and in the immediately adjacent lower Midwest. During this period ceremonial shell/earthen mound construction was initiated, long-distance exchange networks spanning much of the region appeared, new tool forms such as bannerstones and grooved axes were adopted, and there was increased evidence for interpersonal violence or warfare. These trends are attributed to climate change and continued and even accelerated during the ensuing Late Archaic, and it was at the very start of this period, soon after 5000 14C yr BP (ca. 5750 cal yr BP), that pottery appeared. During the mid-Holocene, use of the southeastern coastal plain decreased dramatically, and extensive use of shellfish resources appeared for the first time along the major rivers of the interior and in coastal areas. With the onset of essentially modern climate and resource structure after 5000 14C yr BP (ca. 5750 cal yr BP), a dramatic increase in regional population levels is indicated. The social complexity observed over the mid-Holocene Southeast North America is related to differences in regional physiography, resource structure, climate, intensity of intergroup interaction, and the historical traditions prevalent in each region.

The Initial Colonization of North America: Sea Level Change, Shoreline Movement, and Great Migrations

A number of different scenarios have been proposed regarding the origin, timing, and directions initial populations took as they first entered the Americas. In this chapter the major colonization models that have dominated thinking for decades are reviewed, followed by a detailed examination of the role sea level change played in early settlement, with a case study from the southeastern USA. How rapidly shorelines were changing is examined, in meters per year and decade, over 18 time periods from 20,000 to 10,000 cal year BP and along 22 transects running from the modern shoreline to the edge of the continental shelf spaced at roughly 250–300 km intervals from the Texas–Mexico border to the Virginia–North Carolina line. Shoreline movement was neither uniform nor unidirectional, and ranged from a few meters to hundreds of meters per decade, conditions that would have likely influenced human settlement. Shoreline movement was, on average, much faster along the Gulf of Mexico where the continental shelf was broader and more gently sloping than on the South Atlantic seaboard. Shoreline movement was comparatively minor in most areas from the Last Glacial Maximum until the onset of the Bolling-Allerod and MWP-1A, for several hundred years after MWP-1A, and again for several hundred years towards the end of the Younger Dryas. Much greater shoreline movement is evident during MWP-1A, at the end of the Bolling-Allerod and the initial centuries of the Younger Dryas, and during MWP-1B. Variation in coastal environments may help explain the lower incidence of Middle Paleoindian Clovis sites and isolated finds on the modern Gulf as opposed to South Atlantic Coastal Plains, and the increased use of interior areas during the Late Paleoindian period in parts of the region.

Southeastern data inconsistent with Paleoindian demographic reconstruction

Buchanan et al.s (1) statistical evaluation of radiocarbon dates as a demographic proxy depends on accurate and complete datasets. However, their database is incomplete for the Southeast, where 181 radiocarbon dates from Paleoindian and Early Archaic deposits are now available (2). Only a fraction of these are included in their …

The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition in the Eastern United States

We define the eastern United States for the purposes of this chapter as being bordered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet on the north, the ancestral Gulf of Mexico on the south, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Western Plains on the west. These borders enclose most of the area between the latitudes 25–50°N and longitudes 65–90°W a region of ecological diversity and complexity even today.

Sea-level rise and archaeological site destruction: An example from the southeastern United States using DINAA (Digital Index of North American Archaeology)

The impact of changing climate on terrestrial and underwater archaeological sites, historic buildings, and cultural landscapes can be examined through quantitatively-based analyses encompassing large data samples and broad geographic and temporal scales. The Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) is a multi-institutional collaboration that allows researchers online access to linked heritage data from multiple sources and data sets. The effects of sea-level rise and concomitant human population relocation is examined using a sample from nine states encompassing much of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the southeastern United States. A 1 m rise in sea-level will result in the loss of over >13,000 recorded historic and prehistoric archaeological sites, as well as over 1000 locations currently eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), encompassing archaeological sites, standing structures, and other cultural properties. These numbers increase substantially with each additional 1 m rise in sea level, with >32,000 archaeological sites and >2400 NRHP properties lost should a 5 m rise occur. Many more unrecorded archaeological and historic sites will also be lost as large areas of the landscape are flooded. The displacement of millions of people due to rising seas will cause additional impacts where these populations resettle. Sea level rise will thus result in the loss of much of the record of human habitation of the coastal margin in the Southeast within the next one to two centuries, and the numbers indicate the magnitude of the impact on the archaeological record globally. Construction of large linked data sets is essential to developing procedures for sampling, triage, and mitigation of these impacts.