Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume I
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- Book part
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Historiography, method, and themes
- Part II The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
- 13 Before the farmers: culture and climate, from the emergence ofHomo sapiensto about ten thousand years ago
- 14 Early humans: tools, language, and culture
- 15 Africa from 48,000 to 9500BCE
- 16 Migration and innovation in Palaeolithic Europe
- 17 Asian Palaeolithic dispersals
- 18 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of Australasia
- 19 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of the Americas
- Index
- References
19 - The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of the Americas
from Part II - The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume I
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- Book part
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Historiography, method, and themes
- Part II The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
- 13 Before the farmers: culture and climate, from the emergence ofHomo sapiensto about ten thousand years ago
- 14 Early humans: tools, language, and culture
- 15 Africa from 48,000 to 9500BCE
- 16 Migration and innovation in Palaeolithic Europe
- 17 Asian Palaeolithic dispersals
- 18 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of Australasia
- 19 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of the Americas
- Index
- References
Summary
Beringia, or the Bering land bridge, provided the hunting and gathering populations of northeastern Eurasia a direct overland route into the Americas at various times throughout the Pleistocene. Many aspects of the initial colonization event remain speculative, poorly evidenced, and debated among archaeologists. The Americas' first inhabitants were likely small highly dispersed populations living a nomadic lifestyle. The archaeological record documenting the colonization process contains comparatively few sites and the earliest evidence of human occupation from North, Meso-, and South America differs both temporally and in artifact typology. The earliest archaeologically distinct Paleoindian culture identified in the Americas is Clovis, named after a unique style of projectile point found at the Blackwater Draw site near the town of Clovis, New Mexico. Known almost exclusively from the stones and bones of their tools and meals, the Clovis archaeological record is consistent with a highly mobile hunter-gatherer population. In North America, Folsom is the widespread and technologically distinct Paleoindian population following Clovis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 461 - 476Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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