The Late-Pleistocene Human Settlement of Interior North America: The Role of Physiography and Sea-Level Change (original) (raw)

The colonization of interior North America during the late Pleistocene, ca. 20k-10k cal yr BP, would have been profoundly shaped by physiographic features early explorers and settlers encountered, such as the location of major river valleys, mountain ranges, deserts, pluvial and periglacial lakes, and ice-sheet margins, and in coastal areas by the dramatic changes in sea level that were occurring. An examination of the relationship between changes in sea level and the extent of the Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains in the vicinity of the southeastern United States indicates that, because of the uneven topography of the now submerged continental shelf, sea-level rise or fall does not closely correspond to the area lost or gained. During some periods, notably MWP-1A (Meltwater Pulse 1A), only small areas of the Coastal Plain were lost, while in others, such as during the Younger Dryas and MWP-1B, much larger areas were affected. The widespread appearance of Clovis in the interior of the Southeast, and the apparent reduction or reorganization of immediate post-Clovis settlement in the Coastal Plain, and an increase in population-or at least no evidence for reduction-farther into the interior of the region may be related to these changes in sea level. Evaluating these ideas will require much new fieldwork and the collection, compilation, and public dissemination of primary archaeological data among the professional community.