Classification term given to the first peoples who entered the American continents
This article is about Paleolithic people of the Americas. For Paleolithic people of India, seeSouth Asian Stone Age. For other aspects of the prehistory of the Americas, seePre-Columbian era.
Stone tools, particularlyprojectile points andscrapers, are the primary evidence of the earliest human activity in the Americas. Archeologists and anthropologists use surviving craftedlithic flaked tools to classify cultural periods.[5] Scientific evidence links Indigenous Americans to easternSiberian populations by the distribution of blood types, and genetic composition as indicated by molecular data, such asDNA.[6] There is evidence for at least two separate migrations.[7]
Paleoindians lived alongside and hunted many now extinctmegafauna (large animals), with most large animals across the Americas becoming extinct towards the end of the Paleoindian period as part of theLate Pleistocene megafauna extinctions. The potential role of human hunting in the extinctions has been the subject of much controversy. From 8000 to 7000 BCE (10,000–9,000 BP) the climate stabilized, leading to a rise in population andlithic technology advances, resulting in a more sedentary lifestyle during the followingArchaic Period.
The term "Paleoindian" was first coined byFrank H. H. Roberts in the 1940 workDevelopments in the Problem of the North American Paleo-Indian, in which the term was used to specifically apply to archaeological assemblages that were perceived to be relatively "old" and "adapted to conditions unlike those in modern times", with a number of early adopters of the term, such asJames Bennett Griffin in 1946, including archaeological assemblages now considered part of the North AmericanArchaic period, contrasting it with the term "Neo-Indian", which Griffin used to characterise assemblages with technology resembling theNeolithic of the Old World. John Witthoft in 1952 saw it as a technological stage that lacked "pecked andground" stone tools. The first author to use it to specifically refer to the first inhabitants to the Americas wasHannah Marie Wormington in 1957, viewing them as those peoples who had lived the in the Americas prior to 6000 years ago, who had lived alongside now-extinct animals and produced fluted stone points. According toThe settlement of the American continents: a multidisciplinary approach to human biogeography, in contemporary North American archaeology the term "Paleoindian" is used to specifically refer to "(1) the earliest well-documented culture in North America, (2) the characteristics of sites and artifact assemblages, and (3) a particular economic livelihood".[8]
Researchers continue to study and discuss the specifics ofPaleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled.[10] The traditional theory holds that these early migrants moved intoBeringia between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska 17,000 years ago,[11] at a time when theQuaternary glaciation significantly lowered sea levels.[12] These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinctpleistocenemegafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between theLaurentide andCordilleranice sheets.[13] An alternative proposed scenario involves migration, either on foot or usingboats, down the Pacific coast to South America.[14] Evidence of the latter would have been submerged by asea-level rise of more than a hundred meters following the end of theLast Glacial Period.[15]
The time range of the peopling of the Americas remains a source of substantial debate. Conventional estimates have it that humans reached North America at some point between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.[16][17][18][19] However, some groups of humans may have reached South America as early as 25,000 years ago.[20] One of the few areas of agreement is the origin fromSiberia, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the Last Glacial Period, and more specifically after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum around 16,000 to 13,000 years before present.[11][21]
The Palaeoindian period is generally considered to end around 9000 to 8000 yearsBefore Present (abbreviated BP, a calendar system that treats the year 1950 AD/CE as year zero).[22][8] The term "Paleoamerican" is sometimes used to refer to the pre-Clovis Paleoindian period, usually in a South American context, and with controversial connotations of the hypothesis of an earlier migration wave to the Americas prior to the arrival of the ancestors of modern Indigenous peoples of the Americas.[23] Some authors have suggested that archaeological sites in the Americas prior to 13,500-13,000 years BP should be assigned to theUpper Paleolithic, which is then followed by the Paleoindian period.[24]
Sites in Alaska (eastern Beringia) exhibit some of the earliest evidence of Paleo-Indians,[25][26][27] followed by archaeological sites in northernBritish Columbia, westernAlberta and theOld Crow Flats region of theYukon territory.[28] The Paleo-Indians would eventually flourish all over the Americas.[29] These peoples were spread over a wide geographical area; thus there were regional variations in lifestyles. However, all the individual groups shared a common style of stone tool production, makingknapping styles and progress identifiable.[27] This early Paleo-Indian period'slithic reduction tool adaptations have been found across the Americas, utilized by highly mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 60 members of an extended family.[30][31] Food would have been plentiful during the few warm months of the year. Lakes and rivers were teeming with many species of fish, birds and aquatic mammals. Nuts, berries and edible roots could be found in the forests and marshes. The fall would have been a busy time because foodstuffs would have to be stored and clothing made ready for the winter. During the winter, coastal fishing groups moved inland to hunt and trap fresh food and furs.[32]
Late ice-age climatic changes caused plant communities and animal populations to change.[33] Groups moved and sought new supplies as preferred resources were depleted.[29] Small bands utilized hunting and gathering during the spring and summer months, then broke into smaller direct family groups for the fall and winter. Family groups moved every 3–6 days, possibly traveling up to 360 km (220 mi) per year.[34][35] Diets were often sustaining and rich in protein; clothing was made from a variety of animal hides that were also used for shelter construction.[36] During much of the early and middle Paleo-Indian periods, inland bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinctmegafauna.[29] Large Pleistocene mammals included thegiant beaver,steppe wisent,giant muskox,mastodon,woolly mammoth andancient reindeer.[37]
Proposed models explaining the peopling of the Americas used stemmed projectile points
The glaciers that covered the northern half of the continent began to gradually melt, exposing new land for occupation around 17,500–14,500 years ago.[33] At the same time as this was occurring, worldwide extinctions among the large mammals began. In North America,camelids andequids eventually died off, the latter not to reappear on the continent until theSpanish reintroduced thehorse near the end of the 15th century CE.[44] As theQuaternary extinction event was happening, the late Paleo-Indians would have relied more on other means of subsistence.[45]
Fromc. 10,500 – c. 9,500 BCE (c. 12,500 – c. 11,500 BP), the broad-spectrum big game hunters of theGreat Plains began to focus on a single animal species: thebison (an early cousin of theAmerican bison).[46] The earliest known of these bison-oriented hunting traditions is theFolsom tradition. Folsom peoples traveled in small family groups for most of the year, returning yearly to the same springs and other favored locations on higher ground.[47] There they would camp for a few days, perhaps erecting a temporary shelter, making and/or repairing some stone tools, or processing some meat, then moving on.[46] Paleo-Indians were not numerous, and population densities were quite low.[48]
Paleo-Indians are generally classified by lithic reduction orlithic core "styles" and by regional adaptations.[27][49]Lithic technology fluted spear points, like other spear points, are collectively calledprojectile points. The projectiles are constructed from chipped stones that have a long groove called a "flute". The spear points would typically be made by chipping a single flake from each side of the point.[50] The point was then tied onto a spear of wood or bone. As the environment changed with the ice age ending around 17–13KaBP on short, and around 25–27 Ka BP on the long,[51] many animals migrated overland to take advantage of the new sources of food. Humans following these animals, such as bison, mammoth and mastodon, thus gained the namebig-game hunters.[52] Pacific coastal groups of the period would have relied on fishing as the prime source of sustenance.[53]
Archaeologists are piecing together evidence that the earliest human settlements in North America were thousands of years before the appearance of the current Paleo-Indian time frame (before the late glacial maximum 20,000-plus years ago).[54] Evidence indicates that people were living as far east as Beringia before 30,000 BCE (32,000 BP).[55][56] Until recently, it was generally believed that the first Paleo-Indian people to arrive in North America belonged to the Clovis culture. This archaeological phase was named after the city ofClovis, New Mexico, where in 1936 uniqueClovis points were found in situ at the site ofBlackwater Draw, where they were directly associated with the bones of Pleistocene animals.[57]
In South America, the site ofMonte Verde indicates that its population was probably territorial and resided in their river basin for most of the year. Some other South American groups, on the other hand, were highly mobile and hunted big-game animals such asgomphotheres andgiant sloths. They used classic bifacial projectile point technology, such asFishtail points.
The primary examples are populations associated with El Jobo points (Venezuela), fish-tail or Magallanes points (various parts of the continent, but mainly the southern half), andPaijan points (Peru andEcuador) at sites in grasslands, savanna plains, and patchy forests.[70]
The dating for these sites ranges fromc. 14,000 BP (forTaima-Taima in Venezuela) toc. 10,000 BP.[71] The bi-pointed El Jobo projectile points were mostly distributed in north-western Venezuela; from theGulf of Venezuela to the high mountains and valleys. The population using them were hunter-gatherers that seemed to remain within a certain circumscribed territory.[72][73] El Jobo points were probably the earliest, going back toc. 14,200 – c. 12,980 BP and they were used for hunting large mammals.[74] In contrast, the fish-tail points, dating to c. 11,000 B.P. inPatagonia, had a much wider geographical distribution, but mostly in the central and southern part of the continent.[75][76]
Human settlement of the Americas occurred in stages from theBering sea coast line, with an initial layover on Beringia for thefounding population.[82][83][84][85] Themicro-satellite diversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to South America indicates that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.[86] TheNa-Dené,Inuit andIndigenous Alaskan populations, however, exhibithaplogroup Q (Y-DNA) mutations that are distinct from other Amerindians with various mtDNA mutations.[87][88][89] This suggests that the earliest migrants into the northern extremes of North America andGreenland derived from later migrant populations.[90]
Evidence from full genomic studies suggests that the first people in the Americas diverged from Ancient East Asians about 36,000 years ago and expanded northwards into Siberia, where they encountered and interacted with a different Paleolithic Siberian population (known asAncient North Eurasians), giving rise to bothPaleosiberian peoples andAncient Native Americans, which later migrated towards the Beringian region, became isolated from other populations, and subsequently populated the Americas.[91][92]
Due to the evidence that Paleoindians hunted now extinct megafauna (large animals), and that following a period of overlap, most large animals across the Americas became extinct as part of theLate Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, it has been argued by many authors that hunting by Paleoindians was an important factor in the extinctions,[93][94] though this suggestion is controversial, with other authors placing the blame on climatic change.[95] In a 2012 survey of archaeologists inTheSAA Archaeological Record, 63% of respondents said that megafauna extinctions were likely the result of a "combination of factors".[96]
TheArchaic period in the Americas saw a changing environment featuring a warmer, more arid climate and the disappearance of the last megafauna.[97] The majority of population groups at this time were still highly mobile hunter-gatherers, but now individual groups started to focus on resources available to them locally. Thus with the passage of time there is a pattern of increasing regional generalization like theSouthwest,Arctic,Poverty,Dalton, andPlano traditions. These regional adaptations would become the norm, with reliance less on hunting and gathering, and a more mixed economy of small game, fish, seasonally wild vegetables, and harvested plant foods.[35][98] Many groups continued to hunt big game but their hunting traditions became more varied and meat procurement methods more sophisticated.[33] The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated social differentiation based upon status in some groups.[99]
^Paleolithic specifically refers to the period betweenc. 2.5 million years ago and the end of thePleistocene in theEastern Hemisphere. It is not used in New World archaeology.
^Viegas, Jennifer."First Americans Endured 20,000-Year Layover".Discovery News. Archived fromthe original on 10 October 2012. RetrievedNovember 18, 2009.Archaeological evidence, in fact, recognizes that people started to leave Beringia for the New World around 40,000 years ago, but rapid expansion into North America didn't occur until about 15,000 years ago, when the ice had literally brokenpage 2Archived 13 March 2012 at theWayback Machine
^Pitblado, B. L. (2011-03-12). "A Tale of Two Migrations: Reconciling Recent Biological and Archaeological Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas".Journal of Archaeological Research.19 (4):327–375.doi:10.1007/s10814-011-9049-y.S2CID144261387.
^abBarton, C. Michael, ed. (2016) [2004].The settlement of the American continents: a multidisciplinary approach to human biogeography (First paperback ed.). Tucson: The University Of Arizona Press. p. 52.ISBN978-0-8165-3282-7.
^Chatters, James C.; Hackenberger, Steven; Prentiss, Anna Marie; Thomas, Jayne-Leigh (2012). "The Paleoindian to Archaic Transition in the Pacific Northwest: In Situ Development or Ethnic Replacement?". In Bousman, C Britt; Vierra, Bradley J (eds.).From the Pleistocene to the Holocene: human organization and cultural transformations in prehistoric North America. Texas A&M University anthropology series (1st ed.). College Station: Texas A&M University press. pp. 37–66.ISBN978-1-60344-760-7.
^deFrance, Susan D.; Keefer, David K.; Richardson, James B.; Alvarez, Adan U. (2010). "Late Paleo-Indian Coastal Foragers: Specialized Extractive".Latin American Antiquity.12 (4):413–426.doi:10.2307/972087.JSTOR972087.S2CID163802845.
^Bradley, Bruce;Stanford, Dennis (2004). "The North Atlantic ice-edge corridor: a possible Palaeolithic route to the New World".World Archaeology. Vol. 34.
^Saillard, Juliette; Forster, Peter; Lynnerup, Niels; Bandelt, Hans-Jürgen; Nørby, Søren (2000)."mtDNA Variation among Greenland Eskimos. The Edge of the Beringian Expansion".Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, University of Hamburg, Hamburg. Retrieved2009-11-22.
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