Initial peopling of North America: paleogeography and archaeology

Abstract

The paper contains a summary of the new data relevant to the time and routes of the first peopling of the New World. The first unambiguous traces of humans are dated by the time span after the Last Glacial Maximum. The chronology and orientation of prehistoric migrations depended on the Late Pleistocene paleogeography. Instead of a postulated single wave of migration oriented from NW to SE from the Bering Land Bridge via the Mackenzie ice-free corridor to the territory lying southwards from the ice sheets we argue about a complicated picture of human movements of different age and direction. It seems that the earliest inhabitants penetrated from Beringia to the main area of North America following the Pacific coast and later dispersed to the east. The migration along the Mackenzie ice-free corridor should have place later. The Clovis culture seems to originate in the southeastern part of the USA territory then dispersing in northern and western directions along the whole continent. The Final Pleistocene saw the ‘inverse’ migration of the Paleoindians to the north, along the Mackenzie corridor to Beringia.