E. James Dixon

Alluvial history of the Porcupine River, Alaska: Role of glacial-lake overflow from northwest Canada

The stratigraphy and morphology of alluvial terraces in the lower Porcupine Valley permit the definition of twelve river stages, each marked by distinctive surface characteristics, sediment composition, and regional gradient. Terraces that exhibit characteristics suggestive of extremely high discharge, such as coarse, bouldery, braided gravel surfaces and intense scouring, formed-at times when the Porcupine River at the Ramparts acted as an overflow outlet for glacial lakes in northern Yukon Territory which had been impounded by the Lauren-tide ice sheet. Terraces capped by sediment suggestive of relatively low discharge meandering streams, and which were strongly affected by Coleen River drainage, probably formed when glacial-lake overflow did not occur. Ten radiocarbon dates on alluvial sediments from the lower Porcupine River range from greater than 35,000 to 2,350 ± 55 yr B.P. When combined with geomorphologic interpretations on terraces in Alaska and with radiocarbon dates from northern Yukon Territory, these dates suggest repeated glaciolacustrine innundations of the Old Crow and Bluefish Basins during Wisconsinan time.

Context and environment in taphonomic analysis: Examples from Alaska's Porcupine River Caves

Abstract Field investigations of caves along Alaskas Porcupine River document three major mechanisms which modify bone in patterns similar to alterations produced by man: (1) carnivore fracture; (2) rodent gnawing; and (3) rock fall and rubble scarring. A late Wisconsin faunal assemblage composed of Equus sp., Rangifer tarandus, Ovis dalli, Bison sp., proboscidean, numerous small mammal species, birds, and fish is well documented. This faunal assemblage suggests a mosaic environment of grassland-tundra-forest in the immediate vicinity of these caves and implies that the late Wisconsin environment in north-central Alaska may have been characterized by a number of microenvironments and colder, dryer, steppe conditions. Taphonomic data which have historically been interpreted to support human occupation of eastern Beringia during the Pleistocene are critically examined and the context of these discoveries (not the specimens themselves) provides the test essential to document the antiquity of man in North America prior to 12,000 yr ago.

Interstadial proboscidean from south-central Alaska: Implications for biogeography, geology, and archeology

Abstract In 1980 a large proboscidean femur, probably Mammuthus sp., was found in situ in a bluff exposure at the mouth of the Tyone River in the northwestern part of the Copper River Basin, Alaska. The regional setting, stratigraphy, radiocarbon chronology, flora, and implications of the fossil locality, which represents the first documented occurrence of Pleistocene terrestrial mammalian fauna in southern Alaska, are described. Radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic relations at the site indicate that the sediments containing the fossil accumulated during the transition from interstadial to glacial conditions during terminal middle Wisconsin time. During this interval the immediate vicinity was unforested and large areas of south-central Alaska may have been available for faunal and possibly human habitation. This documented find, dated at 29,450 ± 610 14 C yr B.P., extends the known range for Pleistocene mammals and possibly steppe-tundra conditions south-ward at least 150 km, and suggests that mountain passes through the Alaska Range to the north were ice free during the last part of the middle Wisconsin interstadial.

Pleistocene proboscidean fossils from the Alaskan continental shelf

Abstract Pleistocene proboscidean fossils recovered from the Bering Land Bridge strengthen the hypothesis that man may have originally colonized the Americas via this route during times of lowered sea level.

A reported early-man site adjacent to southern Alaska's continental shelf: A geologic solution to an archeologic enigma

Abstract An extensive ancient archeologic site containing lithic artifacts and associated with mammoth remains was reported at Chinitna Bay, southern Alaska in 1943. The presence of such a site adjacent to the continental shelf at the base of the rugged Aleutian Range suggested that humans may have inhabited the inner shelf environment during the late Pleistocene at times of lowered sea level. Because of the sites potential significance, an interdisciplinary research team relocated and reinvestigated the area in 1978, but failed to find evidence of prehistoric human habitation. Geologic studies and radiocarbon dating indicate that the strata reported at the site are intertidal in origin, very late Holocene in age, and have undergone significant tectonic movement in the recent past. These observations indicate that the previously published observations of the Chinitna Bay site are probably invalid.

Broken Canines from Alaskan Cave Deposits: Re-Evaluating Evidence for Domesticated Dog and Early Humans in Alaska

Broken canines from two caves on the Porcupine River, Alaska are analyzed with respect to size, development, morphology, breakage pattern, and stratigraphic placement. These analyses indicate that they are deciduous bear teeth exfoliated in these caves through noncultural processes associated with dental development. Similarity of these teeth to the canines recovered from various stratigraphic levels at Trail Creek Caves 2 and 9, on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska (Larsen 1968.58), indicates that the Trail Creek specimens (including specimens from levels dating to the late Pleistocene) are also naturally exfoliated bear teeth and not dog canines (Canis familiaris) broken out by human beings, as originally suggested.

Bones, Boats and Bison: Archeology and the First Colonization of Western North America@@@An Early Paleo-Indian Site Near Parkhill, Ontario

This revolutionary archeological synthesis argues an alternative model of the earliest human population of North America. E. James Dixon dispels the stereotype of big-game hunters following mammoths across the Bering Land Bridge and paints a vivid picture of marine mammal hunters, fishers, and general foragers colonising the New World. Applying contemporary scientific methods and drawing on new archaeological discoveries, he advances evidence indicating that humans first reached the Americas using water craft along the deglaciated Northwest Coast about 13,500 years ago, some 2,000 years before the first Clovis hunters. Dixons rigorous evaluation of the oldest North American archaeological sites and human remains offers well-reasoned hypotheses about the physical characteristics, lives, and relationships of the First Americans. His crisply written analysis of scientific exploration is essential reading for scholars, students, and general readers.