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Bones, Boats, and Bison: Archeology and the First Colonization of Western North America
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 colonizing the New World. Applying contemporary scientific methods and drawing on new archeological 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. Dixon's rigorous evaluation of the oldest North American archeological 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.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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September 17, 2012
One of few archaeology books I bought for myself after reading a library copy. Too academic for me, and the majority of the pages contain archeology site studies, but useful for exploring theories of the populating of the Americas from Asia.
(Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication places it on the 970 shelves, Native Americans, with Paleo-Indians as lead subject. Catalog placement should be archeology, shelved in pure sciences, the Dewey500s.)
"From an archeological perspective ... there is no need to think of human migration as a specific event. Humans may have populated the Americas in small numbers, or migratory 'dribbles,' over long periods of time (Meltzer 1989). Some migrations may have been successful, and others may not have been. Some of these small groups of early migrants could have genetically swamped by later groups, exterminated by warfare ..."
First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America
"Support is growing for the theory that people using watercraft ... moved southward from Beringia ... as early as 16,000 years ago. This route would have enabled humans to enter southern areas of the Americas prior to the melting of the continental glaciers.
The most influential proponent of the coastal migration route has been Canadian archeologist Knut Fladmark ... with watercraft, people gradually colonized unglaciated refugia and areas along the continental shelf exposed by the lower sea level.
Knut Fladmark
" ... except for a 400 km (250 mi) coastal area between southwestern British Columbia and Washington state, the Northwest Coast of North America was largely free of ice by approximately 16,000 years ago.
At the Manis Mastodon site in NW Washington state ... "mastodon bones lay directly on glacial deposits, suggesting that the animal had died shortly after the retreat of the last Ice Age glaciers." ... dated at 12kya. By then, the Paisley Cave site, dated 14.5kya, would have been populated for centuries. Like, Seattle was under the Puget Sound glacier when now desert southern Oregon was lush lake country.
Heading to South America with Dixon :
"Monte Verde is possibly the most significant pre-11,500 B.P. site to be documented in the Americas ... remains of at least 12 dwellings symmetrically aligned along the northern bank of the creek.
(demerit to Dixon for no mention of Paisley Caves. Oldest site in North America. Jomon.)
(Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication places it on the 970 shelves, Native Americans, with Paleo-Indians as lead subject. Catalog placement should be archeology, shelved in pure sciences, the Dewey500s.)
"From an archeological perspective ... there is no need to think of human migration as a specific event. Humans may have populated the Americas in small numbers, or migratory 'dribbles,' over long periods of time (Meltzer 1989). Some migrations may have been successful, and others may not have been. Some of these small groups of early migrants could have genetically swamped by later groups, exterminated by warfare ..."
First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America
"Support is growing for the theory that people using watercraft ... moved southward from Beringia ... as early as 16,000 years ago. This route would have enabled humans to enter southern areas of the Americas prior to the melting of the continental glaciers.
The most influential proponent of the coastal migration route has been Canadian archeologist Knut Fladmark ... with watercraft, people gradually colonized unglaciated refugia and areas along the continental shelf exposed by the lower sea level.
Knut Fladmark
" ... except for a 400 km (250 mi) coastal area between southwestern British Columbia and Washington state, the Northwest Coast of North America was largely free of ice by approximately 16,000 years ago.
At the Manis Mastodon site in NW Washington state ... "mastodon bones lay directly on glacial deposits, suggesting that the animal had died shortly after the retreat of the last Ice Age glaciers." ... dated at 12kya. By then, the Paisley Cave site, dated 14.5kya, would have been populated for centuries. Like, Seattle was under the Puget Sound glacier when now desert southern Oregon was lush lake country.
Heading to South America with Dixon :
"Monte Verde is possibly the most significant pre-11,500 B.P. site to be documented in the Americas ... remains of at least 12 dwellings symmetrically aligned along the northern bank of the creek.
(demerit to Dixon for no mention of Paisley Caves. Oldest site in North America. Jomon.)
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