Boats, Seafaring, and the Colonization of the Americas and California Channel Islands: A Response to Cassidy (2021)

Abstract

ABSTRACT In a recent issue of California Archaeology, Jim Cassidy (2021. “A Technological Assessment of the North Pacific Seafaring Hypothesis: Informed by California Channel Island Research.” California Archaeology 13 (1): 69–92). provided a flawed assessment of the potential role boats and seafaring played in the initial peopling of the Americas, as well as the nature of watercraft used to settle Santarosae and California’s other Channel Islands. His arguments contain numerous errors and inconsistencies and are based primarily on his previously published interpretation of lithic tools from the Early Holocene component at the Eel Point site on San Clemente Island. Here, we point out the most obvious errors and weaknesses in Cassidy’s arguments and present a more realistic view of what we know and do not know about early seafaring and maritime technology in North America and southern California.