Serpentine Hot Springs,Alaska: results of excavations and implications for the age and significance of northern fluted points |
| |
Authors: | Ted Goebel Heather L. Smith Lyndsay DiPietro Michael R. Waters Bryan Hockett Kelly E. Graf Robert Gal Sergei B. Slobodin Robert J. Speakman Steven G. Driese David Rhode |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, 4352-TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA;2. Department of Geology, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97354, Waco, TX 76798, USA;3. Nevada State Office, U.S.D.I. Bureau of Land Management, 1340 Financial Blvd., Reno, NV 89502, USA;4. Alaska Region, National Park Service, 240 W. 5th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501, USA;5. Northeast Interdisciplinary Science Research Institute, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulitsa Portovaya, 16, Magadan 685000, Russia;6. Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA;g Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, USA |
| |
Abstract: | The dispersal of Homo sapiens across the New World is one of the greatest chapters in the history of our species; however, major questions about this late Pleistocene diaspora remain unanswered. Two contentious issues are the timing of colonization of the Bering Land Bridge and origin of Clovis, which at 13,000 calendar years ago is the earliest unequivocal complex of archaeological sites in temperate North America, known by its specialized fluted spear points. One hypothesis is that fluting technology emerged in Beringia and from there was carried southbound, with fluted points becoming the diagnostic “calling card” of early Paleoindians spreading across the Western Hemisphere. Fluted points have long been known from Alaska, yet until now they have never been found in a datable geologic context, making their relationship to Clovis a mystery. Here we show that a new archaeological site at Serpentine Hot Springs, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska, contains fluted points in a stratified geologic deposit dating to no earlier than 12,400 calendar years ago. Our results suggest that Alaska's fluted-point complex is too young to be ancestral to Clovis, and that it instead represents either a south-to-north dispersal of early Americans or transmission of fluting technology from temperate North America. These results suggest that the peopling of the Americas and development of Paleoindian technology were much more complex than traditional models predict. |
| |
Keywords: | Bering Land Bridge Peopling of the Americas Fluted points Paleoindian technology |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|