TESTING FOR EVIDENCE OF PALEOINDIAN RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES DURING THE YOUNGER DRYAS CHRONOZONE IN GEORGIA

Abstract

For the Southeast, it has been proposed that climate changes during the Younger Dryas period triggered a human population decline and/or substantial reorganization. We use the Georgia point record in the Paleoindian Database of the Americas to test for evidence of changes in landscape use through the Paleoindian period and consider these changes in the context of the Georgia paleoenvironmental record spanning the Younger Dryas. Based on differences in point frequencies, distributions, raw material types, and transport distances and directions, we conclude that significant changes in landscape use occurred during the Paleoindian period, and these correspond to destabilization of the immediate coastal zone due to fluctuations in sea level.