Ghost walkers of Turtle Island : submergence, ecology and coastal migration into the Americas
Ghost walkers of Turtle Island : submergence, ecology and coastal migration into the Americas
North and South America were the last great landmasses to be inhabited by human beings. An investigation of a sample of sites claimed to be older than 11200 BP will show that early human occupation of the Americas occurred earlier than 14000 BP and that the distribution of these sites gives no indication of the route by which the Americas may have been settled. It is shown that coastal migration via the West Coast is a theory that, while believable, is beset by the problem of lack of evidence predating 11200 BP. Why would coastal inhabitants leave no trace of their existence? The use of submergence to explain site absence is explored using West Coast sea level measurements. It is shown that the effects of sea level rise differ depending on the proximity of the glacial ice-sheets and the gradient of the coast against which this rise occurs. The effects of sea level rise are shown decline towards the south so that the likelihood that submergence has affected sites here is slim. Modem environmental features on the North American West Coast are analysed from maps of the coastline. Resource data and topographic features are compared along the coast using arbitrary cells that allow identification of areas where change occurs. The use of modem data is tested using local evidence for the same features since the LGM. The evidence shows that since the LGM each part of the coast experienced environmental changes yet some of the constraining data did not change and had the effect of limiting the areas where change occurs to near where modem changes were observed. It is concluded that if coastal migration is a viable theory then the groups to first populate California must have hugged the coastline, utilising the marine resource and rarely venturing inland thus leaving little trace on currently subaerial landscapes.
University of Southampton
Carey, James Martin
8f62c2aa-e212-40a2-98f7-bc4b2fd88bb6
2003
Carey, James Martin
8f62c2aa-e212-40a2-98f7-bc4b2fd88bb6
Carey, James Martin
(2003)
Ghost walkers of Turtle Island : submergence, ecology and coastal migration into the Americas.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
North and South America were the last great landmasses to be inhabited by human beings. An investigation of a sample of sites claimed to be older than 11200 BP will show that early human occupation of the Americas occurred earlier than 14000 BP and that the distribution of these sites gives no indication of the route by which the Americas may have been settled. It is shown that coastal migration via the West Coast is a theory that, while believable, is beset by the problem of lack of evidence predating 11200 BP. Why would coastal inhabitants leave no trace of their existence? The use of submergence to explain site absence is explored using West Coast sea level measurements. It is shown that the effects of sea level rise differ depending on the proximity of the glacial ice-sheets and the gradient of the coast against which this rise occurs. The effects of sea level rise are shown decline towards the south so that the likelihood that submergence has affected sites here is slim. Modem environmental features on the North American West Coast are analysed from maps of the coastline. Resource data and topographic features are compared along the coast using arbitrary cells that allow identification of areas where change occurs. The use of modem data is tested using local evidence for the same features since the LGM. The evidence shows that since the LGM each part of the coast experienced environmental changes yet some of the constraining data did not change and had the effect of limiting the areas where change occurs to near where modem changes were observed. It is concluded that if coastal migration is a viable theory then the groups to first populate California must have hugged the coastline, utilising the marine resource and rarely venturing inland thus leaving little trace on currently subaerial landscapes.
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Published date: 2003
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Local EPrints ID: 465404
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/465404
PURE UUID: d39a7386-02cc-4d01-952c-0bfc8ef31b06
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 00:43
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 20:09
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Author:
James Martin Carey
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