INSTAAR SCIENCE SPOTLIGHTS
2001:
Artifacts recovered from a cave in southeastern Alaska support the argument
for the late Pleistocene coastal migration of humans to the New World
ABSTRACT:
Archaeological investigations at site 49-PET-408 provide new insights
into the character and timing of the first human migrations into the New
World. Excavations and analysis are being conducted by and an interdisciplinary
team of researchers including Native peoples and federal resource managers.
The archeological research is led by INSTAAR Fellow E. James Dixon and
the analyses reveal that humans were utilizing marine resources and transporting
exotic types of stone throughout the region 9,200 years ago.
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selection of microblades discovered at 49-PET-408. Photo by Rick
Wicker, Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS)
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DETAILS:
The research at the cave has been recently highlighted in National Geographic’s
feature article on the Peopling of the New World (December 2000), and
in television specials aired on the History Channel and NOVA. The excavations
and analysis suggest that costal migration may have led the first human
inhabitants of North America south of Beringia during the late Pleistocene.
Exciting finds such as exotic stone artifacts made of obsidian from far
flung sources, imply that the early Holocene inhabitants of southeast
Alaska were using watercraft, which was undoubtedly a key technological
component for coastal migration.
The timing and character of the first human migration to
the New World is a long-standing debate among archaeologists. During the
late Pleistocene massive ice sheets limited possible migration routes
available to the first human colonizers. Because a preponderance of linguistic
and biological evidence suggests an Asian origin for the first Americans,
two possible routes are most probable. One is with the use of watercraft
along the Northwest Coast, and the other is by a pedestrian travel across
the Bering Land Bridge and then south through central western Canada.
49-PET-408 contains the oldest human remains discovered in all of Alaska
or Canada and numerous artifacts including microblades and bifaces. The
human remains found in the cave are from one individual and isotopic analysis
demonstrates that the individual was raised on a diet of marine foods.
This and other evidence suggests that early people living along the Northwest
Coast at the end of the last Ice Age were adapted to an environment characterized
by year round open water, rugged coastlines with fjords, islands, and
rocky headlands, calving glaciers, and abundant marine resources.
Research by INSTAAR graduate student, Craig Lee, using trace element analysis demonstrates that some of the stone artifacts made from volcanic glass, or obsidian, came from two different sources; Mount Edziza on the British Columbia mainland and Sumez Island in Southeast Alaska. Because Prince of Wales Island was not connected to the mainland at the time the cave was occupied, these materials could only have reached the site if humans using watercraft transported them.
These complex adaptations were probably preceded by a long, in sitú, development, suggesting that regional human adaptations began much earlier. A bone tool from the cave has been dated to 10,300 BP making 49-PET-408 the oldest reliably dated archaeological site on the Northwest Coast of North America. Collectively, the data from this important site indicate that humans along the Northwest Coast of North America were experienced coastal navigators with an economy based on maritime subsistence and an established knowledge of non-local lithic resources by 9,000 - 10,000 radiocarbon years ago. The excavations and ongoing analysis of artifacts from archaeological site 49-PET-408 continue to provide important new insights into the character and timing of the climatic transition at the end of the Pleistocene and the human response to climate change.
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Excavations
in front of the main cave entrance at 49-PET-408. Pictured from
left to right are Joel Tyberg, Heidi Manger, and Craig Lee. Photo
by E. Parrish.
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A
10,300-year-old bone tool discovered at 49-PET-408. Photo by Rick
Wicker, Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS)
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