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Two Early Sites of Eastern Beringia: Context and Chronology in Alaskan Interior Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Jon Erlandson ,
Rudy Walser ,
Howard Maxwell ,
Nancy Bigelow ,
John Cook ,
Ralph Lively ,
Charles Adkins ,
Dave Dodson ,
Andrew Higgs  and
Janette Wilber
Jon Erlandson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403
Rudy Walser
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
Howard Maxwell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
Nancy Bigelow
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
John Cook
Affiliation:
Bureau of Land Management, 1150 University Ave, Fairbanks, Alaska 99709
Ralph Lively
Affiliation:
Tongass National Forest, 204 Siginaka Way, Sitka, Alaska 99835
Charles Adkins
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
Dave Dodson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
Andrew Higgs
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
Janette Wilber
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
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Between the Alaska Range to the south and the Brooks Range to the north, the Yukon River and its tributaries form an extensive network of waterways leading through the lowlands of interior Alaska deep into the North American continent (Fig 1). Despite the extremely cold winters of this arctic and subarctic landscape, much of the region remained unglaciated during the last 50,000 years. The central Alaskan lowlands are at the west end of the “ice-free corridor,” thought by most prehistorians to be the pathway to the Americas for Asian hunter-gatherers crossing the continental Beringian “landbridge.” Until recently, relatively little was known of the early human prehistory of Alaska's interior. Growing interest in the timing, nature and paleoecological context of the initial peopling of the Americas has prompted excavation at a number of early sites in central Alaska and the adjacent Yukon (see Powers & Hamilton 1978; West 1981; Fagan 1987: 119-134; Hamilton 1989; Powers & Hoffecker 1989).

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , 1991 , pp. 35 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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