Beringia

The Ice Free Corridor has been invoked as a route for Pleistocene human and animal dispersals between eastern Beringia and more southerly areas of North America. Despite the significance of the corridor, there are limited data for when and how this corridor was used. Hypothetical uses of the corridor include: the first expansion of humans from Beringia into the Americas, northward postglacial expansions of fluted point technologies into Beringia, and continued use of the corridor as a contact route between the north and south. Here, we use radiocarbon dates and ancient mitochondrial DNA from late Pleistocene bison fossils to determine the chronology for when the corridor was open and viable for biotic dispersals. The corridor was closed after ∼23,000 until 13,400 calendar years ago (cal y BP), after which we find the first evidence, to our knowledge, that bison used this route to disperse from the south, and by 13,000 y from the north. Our chronology supports a habitable and traversable corridor by at least 13,000 cal y BP, just before the first appearance of Clovis technology in interior North America, and indicates that the corridor would not have been available for significantly earlier southward human dispersal. Following the opening of the corridor, multiple dispersals of human groups between Beringia and interior North America may have continued throughout the latest Pleistocene and early Holocene. Our results highlight the utility of phylogeographic analyses to test hypotheses about paleoecological history and the viability of dispersal routes over time.

This paper explores the main features of the development of ancient archaeological cultures of the extreme Northeast of Asia in the context of the reconstruction of ethnogenetic processes in this region in the Late Pleisto- cene and Holocene. Based on researches of previous years and recent results the aim of the present study was to give the complex view of problems of ethnic identification of ancient cultures, reconstruction of the directions of migrations and episodes of ethnic interaction. The wide spread of the Beringian tradition could be associated with the «Ancient Paleosiberian» population, which largely became ancestral to many populations of the Holocene of the extreme Northeast Asia and North America, including Paleoeskimos, Neoeskimos, and Chukotka-Kamchatkian clade, and appear as a common ancestor for Kets and Athabascans. Haplotype D2a'b of the mitochondrial genome, discovered in the burial on the lake Nozhyj (Trans-Baikal), may indicate carriers of the Kitoy tradition as a population associated with the Asian ancestors of the Paleoeskimo people. At least two large waves of the back migration from America to extreme Northeast Asia since the Holocene were identified. Migration of the Paleoeskoimo and Aleutian groups is observed starting at ~3,500 cal. BP and expressed in the emergence of the Paleoeskimo tradition in Chukotka and the Tokarev culture in Northern Priokhotye. Starting at ~2,100 cal. BP the Neoeskimo populations expanded to Chukotka, which evinced in the development of Neoeskimo cultures of the Bering Sea.

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В статье рассматриваются особенности развития древних археологических культур крайнего Северо-Востока Азии в контексте реконструкции этногенетических процессов в позднем плейстоцене и голоцене. На основе исследований предыдущих лет и недавних открытий предлагается комплексный взгляд на проблемы этнической идентификации древних культур, реконструкции направлений миграций и эпизодов этнического взаимодействия в регионе. Широкое распространение берингийской традиции верхнего палеолита могло быть связано с древней палеосибирской популяцией, которая в значительной степени стала предковой для многих групп населения крайнего Северо-Востока Азии и Северной Америки, в том числе для палеоэскимосов, неоэскимосов и чукотско-камчатской общности, а также повлияла на генофонд общего предка кетов и атапасков. Обнаруженный в погребении на оз. Ножий в Забайкалье гаплотип D2a'b митохондриального генома может указывать на носителей китойской традиции, как на популяцию, связанную с азиатскими предками палеоэскимосов. Выделено две крупных волны обратной миграции из Америки на крайний Северо-Восток Азии в эпоху голоцена. Миграция палеоэско-алеутских групп фиксируется, начиная с ~3 500 кал. л.н. и выражается в появлении палеоэскимосской традиции на Чукотке и токаревской культуры в Северном Приохотье. Начиная с ~2 100 кал. л.н. отмечается неоэскимосская экспансия на Чукотку, что проявилось в развитии неоэскимосских культур Берингоморья.

Ancient hair and remnant plant DNA are important environmental proxies that preserve for millennia in specific archaeological contexts. However, recovery has been rare from late Pleistocene sites and more may be found if deliberately sought. Once discovered, singular hair fragments are not easily identified to taxa through comparative analyses and environmental DNA (eDNA) extraction can be difficult depending on preservation or contamination. In this paper, we present our methods for the combined recovery of ancient hair specimens and eDNA from sediments to improve our understanding of late Pleistocene environments from the Holzman site along Shaw Creek in interior Alaska. The approach serves as a useful case study for learning more about local environmental changes.

The migratory route for the Pleistocene colonization of the Americas by humans has been debated among North American archaeologists and antiquarians since before the Revolutionary War. It remains the most contentious question in archaeology today. When and by what path did the first people spread throughout the continent? Here, we report updated results from the middle Susitna Valley in southcen-tral Alaska near the community of Trapper Creek. The region is significant because it lies at the heart of what was a piedmont glacier that blocked the first Alaskans from accessing the rich resources of Alaska's southern coasts during the late glacial period. Deglaciation and human colonization of the heavily glaci-ated southeasternmost Beringia is relevant to our understanding of the timing and geographical origin of the first small-scale foraging societies to explore and eventually settle the rivers and coasts of southcentral Alaska, British Columbia, and the greater Pacific Northwest. Results suggests an interior-to-coastal migration occurred following deglaciation with no current evidence of a reverse scenario.

Researchers have explored how hearths were used and the composition of fuel to understand cultural differences and environmental adaptations. However, scant research has been conducted to understand and document methods for producing fires. Given the long-lasting durability of stone, the stone-on-stone method for producing fire with a strike-a-light will survive for thousands of years in
the archaeological record; hence it is important to recognize and document these tools. This paper will present an artifact used as a strike-a-light for producing fire in the subarctic region of interior Alaska
(middle Tanana Valley) some 5,500 years ago. The strike-a-light recognized at Goodpaster-IV is, to our knowledge, the most ancient example currently known in the American Subarctic. By reviewing the current state of research on European strike-a-lights from the French Mesolithic and Neolithic and describing use-wear analysis of the strike-a-light, we demonstrate important characteristics that reveal how strike-a-light tools were implemented in prehistory.

Because of differences in craniofacial morphology and dentition between the earliest American skeletons and modern Native Americans, separate origins have been postulated for them, despite genetic evidence to the contrary. We describe a near-complete human skeleton with an intact cranium and preserved DNA found with extinct fauna in a submerged cave on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. This skeleton dates to between 13,000 and 12,000 calendar years ago and has Paleoamerican craniofacial characteristics and a Beringian-derived mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup (D1). Thus, the differences between Paleoamericans and Native Americans probably resulted from in situ evolution rather than separate ancestry.

The taxonomy and biogeographic history of the bivalve family Margaritiferidae are controversial because previous molecular studies did not provide a well-resolved phylogenetic framework for these enigmatic freshwater mussels that have extensive but disjunct distribution in North America, Eurasia and North Africa. In this study, we present a new, fossil-calibrated phylogenetic hypothesis based on five molecular markers ($4 kb of total length) for ten species. Our results indicate that all recent margaritiferids are in the single genus, Margaritifera Schumacher, 1816. Additionally, we identified three relatively well-supported phylogenetic clades that are valid subgenera, i.e., Margaritifera s. str. (Holarctic), Margaritanopsis (=Cumberlandia) (southeast North America-southeast Asia disjunct) and Pseudunio (Mediterranean). We suggest that the crown lineage of the Margaritiferidae most likely originated in the Cretaceous (mean age 93 Ma, 95% CI 66–126 Ma). The combined results of ancestral area reconstructions based on the three different approaches (S-DIVA, DEC and S-DEC) showed that ancient vicariance events could have played an important role in speciation within the family. The rates of mitochondrial evolution of margaritiferids are notably slow, which may be associated with their longevity, long generation time and low metabolic rates. Our findings highlight the complex biogeographic history of the Margaritiferidae as an intermixing of ancient vicariance and dispersal events, which were most likely associated with some inland barriers, continental movements and a sea level dynamic.

Salmon represented a critical resource for prehistoric foragers
along the North Pacific Rim, and continue to be economically and culturally important; however, the origins of salmon exploitation remain unresolved. Here we report 11,500-y-old salmon associated with a cooking hearth and human burials from the Upward Sun River Site, near the modern extreme edge of salmon habitat in central Alaska. This represents the earliest known human use of salmon in North America. Ancient DNA analyses establish the species as Oncorhynchus keta (chum salmon), and stable isotope analyses indicate anadromy, suggesting that salmon runs were established by at least the terminal Pleistocene. The early use of this resource has important implications for Paleoindian land use, economy, and expansions into northwest North America.

Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has been established as a viable biomolecular proxy for tracking taxon presence through time in a local environment, even in the total absence of surviving tissues. SedaDNA is thought to survive through mineral binding, facilitating long-term biomolecular preservation, but also challenging DNA isolation. Two common limitations in sedaDNA extraction are the carryover of other substances that inhibit enzymatic reactions, and the loss of authentic sedaDNA when attempting to reduce inhibitor co-elution. Here, we present a sedaDNA extraction procedure paired with targeted enrichment intended to maximize DNA recovery. Our procedure exhibits a 7.7-19.3x increase in on-target plant and animal sedaDNA compared to a commercial soil extraction kit, and a 1.2-59.9x increase compared to a metabarcoding approach. To illustrate the effectiveness of our cold spin extraction and PalaeoChip capture enrichment approach, we present results for the diachronic presence of plants and animals from Yukon permafrost samples dating to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and discuss new potential evidence for the late survival (~9700 years ago) of mammoth (Mammuthus sp.) and horse (Equus sp.) in the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada. This enrichment approach translates to a more taxonomically diverse dataset and improved on-target sequencing.

The Colorado Creek section of Alaska is an important paleontological site first excavated and reported on in the early 1980s and 1990s. The remains of two individual mammoths (the “Upper” and “Lower”), and elements of horse, bison, and caribou make this a unique faunal assemblage for a region in interior western Alaska, and the western edge of eastern Beringia. The mammoth remains were the only portions of the faunal assemblage radiocarbon dated in the 1980s. The Upper mammoth ages were widespread between 13,000 and 16,200 BP with the older dates being more accepted for the death of the individual. A single age on the Lower mammoth was produced at 22,880 14C yr BP. New accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates generally confirm the accepted ages for the two mammoths and provide more precise ages of 16,200 ± 50 and 22,710 ± 90 14C yr BP for the Upper and Lower mammoths, respectively. AMS dates on caribou and horse are similar to ages on the Upper mammoth and show an overlap in their ecological ranges in interior western Alaska between 16,000 and 17,000 14C yr BP during the Late Glacial, similar to other areas of the state. The sole AMS date on bison produced an infinite 14C age (>43,500 14C yr BP), considerably older than the Upper and Lower mammoths’ remains, and indicates that older deposits are present at the site. A dearth of dated Quaternary paleontological specimens from western Alaska hinders our understanding of this region’s paleoecology. This study enhances our conception of the geographic and chronological spread of late Pleistocene large terrestrial mammals in Alaska and Beringia.

Here we report on the discovery of two infant burials dating to ∼11,500 calibrated years (cal) B.P. at the Upward Sun River site in central Alaska. The infants were interred in a pit feature with associated organic and lithic grave goods, including the earliest known North American hafted bifaces with decorated antler foreshafts. Skeletal and dental analyses indicate that Individual 1 died shortly after birth and Individual 2 was a late-term fetus, making these the youngest-aged late Pleistocene individuals known for the Americas and the only known prenate, offering, to our knowledge, the first opportunity to explore mortuary treatment of the youngest members of a terminal Pleistocene North American population. This burial was situated ∼40 cm directly below a cremated 3-y-old child previously discovered in association with a central hearth of a residential feature. The burial and cremation are contemporaneous, and differences in body orientation, treatment, and associated grave goods within a single feature and evidence for residential occupation between burial episodes indicate novel mortuary behaviors. The human remains, grave goods, and associated fauna provide rare direct data on organic technology, economy, seasonality of residential occupations, and infant/child mortality of terminal Pleistocene Beringians.