Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:40:01.386Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Radiocarbon Dates from the Ice-Free Corridor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Thomas G Arnold*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A-1S6. Email: [email protected].
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Ice-Free Corridor has been hypothesized as the main migration route into the Americas since the 1930s. Radiocarbon dates have been used by archaeology, geology, and palynology to date the corridor. A total of 564 14C dates ranging between 20,000 and 8000 BP from the corridor area were gleaned from the published literature. After assessing these dates for suitability, 255 were plotted over four time periods. The results indicate that the corridor was not feasible as an early human migration route until after 11,000 B P, or after the appearance of Clovis south of the continental glaciers.

Type
Special Section
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Antevs, E. 1934. Climate and early man in North America. American Journal Science 28:304–11.Google Scholar
Apland, B, Harington, CR. 1994. Pleistocene bison skeleton (Bison bison cf. Occidentalis) from Clayhurst crossing, British Columbia. Geographie physique et Quaternarie 48(2):213–23.Google Scholar
Beaudoin, AB. 1991. Alberta radiocarbon dates 1988–1989, Archaeology in Alberta 1988 and 1989, Archaeological Survey, Provincial Museum of Alberta, Occasional Paper, No. 33 Google Scholar
Beaudoin, AB, Wright, M, Ronaghan, B. 1996. Late Quaternary landscape history and archaeology in the ‘Ice-Free Corridor’: some recent results from Alberta. Quaternary International 32:113–26.Google Scholar
Beierle, B, Smith, DG. 1998. Severe drought in the early Holocene (10,000-6800 BP) interpreted from lake sediment cores, southwestern Alberta, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatologty, Palaeoecology 140:7583.Google Scholar
Berglund, B, Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, M. 1986. Pollen analysis and pollen diagrams. In: Berglund, BE, editor. Handbook of Holocene palaeoecology and palaeohydrology. London: Wiley & Sons Ltd. p 455–84.Google Scholar
Berry, JC, Drimmie, RJ. 1982. University of Waterloo radiocarbon dates I. Radiocarbon 24(1):6882.Google Scholar
Blake, W. Jr 1983. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXIII. Geological Survey of Canada. Paper 83–7.Google Scholar
Blake, W. Jr 1984. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXIV. Geological Survey of Canada. Paper 84–7.Google Scholar
Blake, W. Jr 1986. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXV. Geological Survey of Canada. Paper 85–7 Google Scholar
Blake, W Jr. 1987. Geological Survey of Canada Radiocarbon Dates XXVI. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 86–7.Google Scholar
Blake, W Jr. 1988. Geological Survey of Canada Radiocarbon Dates XXVII. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 87–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, AL. 1969. Early man in America and the Late Pleistocene chronology of western Canada and Alaska. Current Anthropology 10(4):339–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobrowsky, P, Rutter, NW 1992. The Quaternary geologic history of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Geographie physique et Quaternaire 46(1):550.Google Scholar
Burns, JA. 1986. A 9000-year-old Wapiti (Cervus elaphus) skeleton from northern Alberta, and its implications for the Early Holocene Environment. Géographie physique et Quaternaire Vol. XL(1):105–8.Google Scholar
Burns, JA. 1996. Vertebrate paleontology and the alleged Ice-Free Corridor: the meat of the matter. Quaternary International 32:107–12.Google Scholar
Burns, JA, Young, RR. 1994. Pleistocene mammals of the Edmonton area, Alberta. Part I. The carnivores. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31:393400.Google Scholar
Catto, N, Liverman, DGE, Bobrowsky, P, Rutter, N. 1996. Laurentide, cordilleran, and montane glaciation in the western Peace River – Grande Prairie Region, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Quaternary International 32:2132.Google Scholar
Christiansen, EA. 1979. The Wisconsinan deglaciation of southern Saskatchewan and adjacent areas. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 16:913–38.Google Scholar
Christiansen, EA. 1983. The Denholm landslide, Saskatchewan, Part I: Geology. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 20:197207.Google Scholar
Christiansen, ES, Sauer, EK. 1988. Age of the Frenchman Valley and associated drift south of the Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 25:1703–8.Google Scholar
Cinq-Mars, J. 1979. Bluefish Cave I: a Late Pleistocene eastern Beringian cave deposit in the northern Yukon. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 3:132.Google Scholar
Cinq-Mars, J, Harington, CR, Nelson, DE, MacNeish, RS. 1991. Engigstciak revisted: a note on early Holocene AMS dates from the Buffalo Pit. In: NOGAP Archaeological Project: an integrated archaeological research and management approach. Canadian Archaeological Association, Occasional Paper No. 1.Google Scholar
Clague, JJ. 1980. Late Quaternary geology and geochronology of British Columbia: Part 1: radiocarbon dates. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 80–13 Google Scholar
Driver, JC. 1998. Human adaptation at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary in western Canada, 11,000 to 9000 BP. Quaternary International 49/50:141–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driver, JC, Handly, M, Fladmark, KR, Nelson, DE, Sullivan, GM, Preston, R. 1996. Stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating and culture history of Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia. Arctic 49(3):265–77.Google Scholar
Dyck, W, Fyles, JG. 1962. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates I. Radiocarbon 4:1326.Google Scholar
Dyck, W, Fyles, JG. 1963. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates II. Radiocarbon 5:3955.Google Scholar
Dyck, W, Fyles, JG. 1964. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates III. Radiocarbon 6:167–81.Google Scholar
Dyck, W, Lowdon, JA, Fyles, JG, Blake, W Jr. 1966. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates V. Radiocarbon 8:96127.Google Scholar
Evans, DJA. 2000. Quaternary geology and geomorphology of the Dinosaur Provincial Park area and surrounding plains, Alberta, Canada: the identificaiton of former glacial lobes, drainage diversions and meltwater flood tracks. Quaternary Science Reviews 19:931–58.Google Scholar
Evans, DJA, Campbell, IA. 1992. Glacial and Postglacial stratigraphy of Dinosaur Provincial Park and surrounding plains, southern Alberta, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 11:535–55.Google Scholar
Fladmark, KR. 1979. Routes: alternative migration corridors for early man in North America. American Antiquity 44(1):5569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fladmark, KR, Driver, JC, Alexander, D. 1988. The Paleoindian component at Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf-39). British Columbia American Antiquity 53(2):371–84.Google Scholar
Harington, CR, Cinq Mars, J. 1995. Radiocarbon dates on Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica) fossils from Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Arctic 48(1):17.Google Scholar
Harrison, JE. 1976. Dated organic material below Mazama (?) tephra: Elk Valley, British Columbia. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 76–1C Google Scholar
Head, T. 1999. Report of radiocarbon dating analysis from BETA Analytic. Copy provided by T Head, Bison Historical Services, Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Hickman, M, Schweger, CE. 1996. The Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental history of a presently deep freshwater lake in east-central Alberta, Canada and palaeoclimate implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 123:161–78.Google Scholar
Hickman, M, Schweger, CE, Habgood, T. 1984. Lake Wabamun, Alta.: a paleoenvironmental study. Canadian Journal of Botany 62:1438–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holloway, RG Bryant, VM Jr, Valastro, S. 1981. A 16,000 year pollen record from Lake Wabamun, Alberta, Canada. Palynology 5:195208.Google Scholar
Hughes, OL, Harington, CR, Janssens, JA, Matthews, JV, Morlan, RE, Rutter, NW, Schweger, CE. 1981. Upper Pleistoncene stratigraphy, paleoecology, and archaeology of the northern Yukon interior, eastern Beringia 1. Bonnet Plume Basin. Arctic 34(4):329–65.Google Scholar
Jackson, LE, Pawson, M. 1984. Alberta radiocarbon dates: listings of radiocarbon dates with regional significance to the Late Quaternary geochronology and geomorphology of Alberta. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 83–25.Google Scholar
Jackson, LE Jr. 1983. Comments on chronology of Late Wisconsinan glaciation in middle North America. Quaternary Science Review 1:viixiv.Google Scholar
Johnson, WA. 1933. Quaternary geology of North America in relation to the migration of man. In Jenness, D, editor. The American Aborigines. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p 1145.Google Scholar
Klassen, RW. 1978. A unique stratigraphic record of the late Tertiary-Quaternary events in southeastern Yukon. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 15:1884–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klassen, RW. 1987. The Tertiary Pleistocene stratigraphy of the Laird Plain, Southeastern Yukon Territory. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 86–17.Google Scholar
Lemmen, DS, Duk-Rodkin, A, Bednarski, JM. 1995. Late glacial drainage systems along the northwestern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews 13:805–28.Google Scholar
Levson, VM, Rutter, NW. 1996. Evidence of cordilleran Late Wisconsinan glaciers in the ‘Ice-Free Corridor’. Quaternary International 32:3351.Google Scholar
Liverman, DGE, Catto, NR, Rutter, NW. 1989. Laurentide Glaciation in west-central Alberta: a single (Late Wisconsinan) event. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 26:266–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1968. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates VII. Radiocarbon 10:207–45.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1970. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates IX. Radiocarbon 12:4686.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1973. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XIII. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 73–7.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1975. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XV Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 75–7.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1976. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XVI. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 76–7.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1977. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XVII. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 77–7.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1978. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XVIII. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 78–7.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1979. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XIX. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 79–7.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Blake, W Jr. 1980. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XX. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 80–7.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Fyles, JG, Blake, W Jr. 1967. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates VI. Radiocarbon 9: 167–8.Google Scholar
Lowdon, JA, Robertson, IM, Blake, W Jr. 1971. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XI. Radiocarbon 13:255324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, GM, Beukens, RP, Kieser, WE. 1991. Radiocarbon dating of limnic sediments: a comparative analysis and discussion. Ecology 72(3): 1150–5.Google Scholar
Mandryk, CS. 1992. Paleoecology as contextual archaeology: human viability of the Late Quaternary ice-free corridor, Alberta, Canada. Unpublished PhD dissertation. University of Alberta, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Mandryk, CS. 1996. Late Wisconsinan deglaciation of Alberta: processes and paleogeography. Quaternary International 32:7985.Google Scholar
Mandryk, CS, Rutter, N. 1996. The Ice-Free Corridor revisted. In: Mandryk, CS, Rutter, N, guest editors. Quaternary International 32.Google Scholar
Mathews, WH. 1980. Retreat of the last ice-sheets in northeastern British Columbia and adjacent Alberta. Geological Survey of Canada. Bulletin 331 Google Scholar
McCallum, KJ, Dyck, W. 1960. University of Saskatchewan radiocarbon dates II. American Journal of Science, Radiocarbon Supplement 2:7381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCallum, KJ, Wittenberg, J. 1962. University of Saskatchewan radiocarbon dates III. Radiocarbon 4: 7180.Google Scholar
McCallum, KJ, Wittenberg, J. 1965. University of Saskatchewan radiocarbon dates IV. Radiocarbon 7: 229–35.Google Scholar
McCallum, KJ, Wittenberg, J. 1968. University of Saskatchewan radiocarbon dates V. Radiocarbon 10: 374–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeely, R. 1989. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXVIII. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 88–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeely, R. and McCuaig, S. 1991. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXIX. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 89–7.Google Scholar
McNeely, R. and Jorgensen, PK. 1992. Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXX. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 90–7.Google Scholar
Meltzer, DJ. 1993. Pleistocene peopling of the Americas. Evolutionary Anthropology 1(5):157–69.Google Scholar
Meyer, D, Liboiron, H. 1990. A Paleoindian drill from the Niska site in southern Saskatchewan. Plains Anthropologists 35(129):299302.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE. 1980. Taphonomy and archaeology in the Upper Pleistocene of the northern Yukon Territory: a glimpse of the peopling of the New World. National Museum of Man, Archaeological Survey of Canada. Mercury Series Paper No. 94.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE. 2001. Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Complied by Richard E Morlan. Database programming and design by Pictographics Ltd. Google Scholar
Nelson, DE. 1998. Radiocarbon dating definitions and their consequences. Isotope Lab Internal Report.Google Scholar
Rains, B, Welch, J. 1988. Out-of-phase Holocene terraces in part of the North Saskatchewan river basin, Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 25:454–64.Google Scholar
Reasoner, MA, Hickman, M. 1989. Late Quaternary Environmental change in the Lake O'Hara Region, Yoho National Park, British Columbia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 72:291316.Google Scholar
Reasoner, MA, Osborn, G, Rutter, NW. 1994. Age of the Crowfoot advance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains: a glacial event coeval with the Younger Dryas oscillation. Geology 22:439–42.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, BOK. 1973. The nature and age of the contact between the laurentide and cordilleran ice-sheets in the western interior of North America. Arctic and Alpine Research 5(1):116.Google Scholar
Reeves, BOK, Dormaar, JF. 1972. A partial holocene pedological and archaeological record from the southern Alberta Rocky Mountains. Arctic and Alpine Research 4(4):325–36.Google Scholar
Ronaghan, B. 1993. The James Pass project: early Holocene occupation in the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 17:8591.Google Scholar
Rutherford, AA, Wittenberg, J, Wilmeth, R. 1979. University of Saskatchewn radiocarbon dates VIII. Radiocarbon 21(1):4894.Google Scholar
Rutter, NW. 1980. Late Pleistocene history of the western Canadain Ice-Free Corridor. Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1:17.Google Scholar
Schweger, CE, Hickman, M. 1989. Holocene paleohydrology of central Alberta: testing the general-circulation-model climate simulations. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 26:1826–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schweger, CE. 1989. Paleoecology of the western Canadian Ice-Free Corridor. In: Fulton, RJ, editor. Quaternary geology of Canada and Greenland. Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada.Google Scholar
Shackleton, DM, Hills, LV. 1977. Post-glacial ungulates (Cervus and Bison) from Three Hills, Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 14:963–86.Google Scholar
Smith, DG. 1992. Glacial Lake Mackenzie, Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 29:1756–66.Google Scholar
Smith, DG. 1994. Glacial Lake McConnell: paleogeography, age, duration, and associated river deltas, McKenzie River Basin, Western Canada. Quaternary Science Review 13:829–43.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, H. 1977. Reporting on 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–63.Google Scholar
Szeicz, JM, MacDonald, GM, Duk-Rodkin, A. 1995. Late Quaternary vegetation history of the central Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 113:351–71.Google Scholar
Taylor, RE, Haynes, CV Jr, Stuiver, M. 1996. Clovis and Folsom age estimates: stratigraphic context and radiocarbon calibrations. Antiquity 70(269):515–25.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, S. 1994. Oldman River Dam Prehistoric Archaeology Mitigation Program technical series no. 1: campsites study. Archaeological Survey of Alberta, Manuscript Series, Alberta Culture, Provincial Museum of Alberta.Google Scholar
Vincent, JS. 1989. Quaternary geology of the northern Canadian Interior Plains. In: Fulton, RJ, editor. Quaternary geology of Canada and Greenland. Geological Survey of Canada, No. 1. p 100–37.Google Scholar
Walton, A, Trautman, MA, Friend, JP. 1961. Isotopes, Inc. radiocarbon measurements I. Radiocarbon 3:4759.Google Scholar
White, JM, Osborn, G. 1992. Evidence for a Mazama-like tephra deposited ca. 10,000 BP at Copper Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 29:5262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, JM, Mathewes, RW. 1986. Postglacial vegetation and climatic change in the upper Peace River District, Alberta. Canadian Journal of Botany 64:2305–18.Google Scholar
Wilson, MC. 1996. Late Quaternary vertebrates and the opening of the Ice-Free Corridor, with special reference to the genus bison. Quaternary International 32: 97105.Google Scholar
Wilson, M, Churcher, CS. 1978. Late Pleistocene cameloops from the Gallelli Pit, Calgary, Alberta: Morphology and geologic setting. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 15(5):729–40.Google Scholar
Woolf, K. 1993. Radiocarbon chronology for glacial Lake Peace. Unpublished MS thesis. Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University.Google Scholar
Young, RR, Burns, JA, Rains, RB, Chowalter, DB. 1999. Late Pleistoncene glacial geomorphology and environment of the Hand Hills region and southern Alberta, related to Middle Wisconsin fossil prairie dog sites. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 36:1567–81.Google Scholar
Young, RR, Burns, JA, Smith, DG, Arnold, LD, Rains, RB. 1994. A single Late Wisconsin Laurentide glaciation, Edmonton area and southwestern Alberta. Geology 22:683–6.Google Scholar