Coastal Migration
Encyclopedia
Coastal Migration is a term sometimes used in modern anthropology
and genetics
for the concept that, from a single origin in Africa
100-200 thousand years before present, early human migrations
first spread eastwards to areas outside Africa along routes that were predominantly located around coast
lines. Other terms, such as Southern Coastal Route, Rapid Coastal Settlement, Coastal Migration Theory and Coastal Migration Model, are also used.
, Southeast Asia
, New Guinea
, Australia
, coastal China
and Japan
, and is linked with the presence and dispersal of mtDNA haplogroup M
and haplogroup N
, as well as the specific distribution patterns of Y-DNA haplogroup C
and haplogroup D
, in these regions. The theory proposes that humans, likely similar to the Negrito
s or Proto-Australoid
s of modern times, arrived in the Arabian peninsula from Africa
, then on the southern coastal regions of the Indian mainland, followed by spread to the Andaman Islands
and modern-day Indonesia
, and thence branching southwards to Australia and northwards towards Japan. National Geographic's Genographic Project
uses the term 'Coastal Clan' to describe the initial human groups of Y-DNA haplogroup C who expanded eastwards out from Africa along the coastal route around 50 kybp.
Roger Blench
discusses the theory in relation to language families.
(which was a land bridge
during the last ice age
), into North America, and then onwards to Central
and South America
along the western coast. Findings such as the report that the sediments in the Port Eliza caves on Vancouver Island
, which indicated the possibility of survivable climate until 16 kybp in the area, have helped bolster the hypothesis recently. However, despite such research, the postulate is still subject to considerable debate. For the Pacific Northwest, Carlson, and others have argued for a coastal migration from Alaska pre-10,000 B.P. that predates the migration of Clovis
people moving south through an ice-free corridor located near the continental divide. These people were followed by the Clovis culture
, which some archaeologists believe moved south from Alaska
through an ice-free corridor located between modern British Columbia
and Alberta
. Recent dating of Clovis and similar paleoindian sites in Alaska suggest that Clovis technology actually moved from the south into Alaska following the melting of the continental glaciers about 10,500 years ago.
As the ice sheets began to melt, it became possible for riverine-adapted people who made and used microblade technology
to move west to the Northwest coast. A second migration of the Denali culture at around 10,700 b.p. brought peoples down the coast from Alaska. Carlson hypothesizes that a population with a maritime adaptation could have travelled south from Alaska down the coastal islands by watercraft, settling as the ice receded, then moving up rivers to the interior. This would account for early finds at Ground Hog Bay in SE Alaska and Namu, about 800 km south of Ground Hog Bay near modern Bella Coola
dating to 10,180 +/- 800 b.p. and 9700 b.p., respectively. According to the Matson and Coupland dual migration hypothesis, Namu and Ground Hog Bay represent a second migration while the initial migration route south was through the ice free corridor. Part of the difficulty is the lack of site data prior to 10,000 b.p. as well as the limited number of archaeological investigations into the coastal migration model. Other factors affecting migration models are sea level changes and the question of available land mass to support migrating groups of people.
Evidence from Southeast Alaska
and Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia
, provides some data about food and land resources during the last glacial maximum. Fedje and Christensen (1999) have identified several sites on Haida Gwaii that date to post 9000 b.p. (642). The oldest human remains known from Alaska or Canada
are from On Your Knees Cave, which is on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. The individual, a young man in his early twenties when he died, has been dated to 10,300 years ago and isotopic analyses indicate the individual was raised on a diet primarily of marine foods. These data suggest that there are a number of submerged sites just beyond the shorelines of Haida Gwaii (Fedje & Christensen, 1999) and along the coast of Southeast Alaska. Paleoecological evidence suggests that travel along the coast would have been possible between 13,000 and 11,000 b.p. as the ice sheets began retreating. Between 13,000 and 10,500 b.p. Haida Gwaii had more than double its current land area (Fedje & Christensen, 1999:638). This area was flooded as the ice sheets began to melt between 11,000 and 9,000 b.p. (Ibid). Therefore any evidence of human occupation would now be below sea level. Conversely, older sites that are located near modern shorelines would have been approximately 15 miles from the coast (Ibid). The antiquity of the lithic scatters that Fedje and Christensen (1999) have found in intertidal zones along the Haida Gwaii coast suggests an early human occupation of the area.
Fedje and Christensen (1999) support Carlson (1990), and Fladmark's (1975, 1979 & 1989) initial coastal migration model rather than the ice free corridor model proposed by Matson and Coupland (1995) through their investigations of intertidal zones on Haida Gwaii. The coastal region was quite hospitable by 13,000 b.p. to peoples with watercraft and a maritime adaptation. Furthermore, Fedje and Christensen (1999) argue that the coast was likely colonized before 13,000 b.p. (648). This assertion is based largely on watercraft evidence from Japan and Australia before 13000 b.p. If maritime peoples colonized Island Southeast Asia, Australia, western Melanesia, the Ryukyu Islands, and Japan between 50,000 and 35,000 years ago, they may well have been capable of migrating from Northeast Asia into the Americas as the North Pacific Coast warmed and deglaciated after about 16,000 years ago. Although no boats have been recovered from early Northwest Coast archaeological sites, this may be due to poor preservation of organic materials and the inundation of coastal areas mentioned above. We can still infer water travel based on the presence of artifacts made by humans found in island sites.
Other evidence comes from zooarchaeological finds along the Northwest coast. Goat remains as old as 12,000 b.p. have been found on Vancouver Island
, British Columbia as well as bear remains dating to 12,500 b.p. in the Prince of Wales Archipelago
, British Columbia. Even older remains of black and brown bear
, caribou, sea birds, fish
, and ringed seal
have been dated from a number of caves in Southeast Alaska by paleontologist Timothy Heaton. This means that there were enough land and floral resources to support large land mammals and theoretically, humans. Further intertidal and underwater investigations may produce sites older than 11,000 b.p.. Coastal occupation prior to 13,000 b.p. would allow for people to migrate further south and account for the early South American sites.
Anecdotal evidence comes from the surviving Bella Bella oral tradition as recorded by Franz Boas
in 1898. "In the beginning there was nothing but water
and ice
and a narrow strip of shoreline". Some believe this story describes the Northwest Coast during the last glacial maximum and that the story suggests that the Northwest Coast colonization occurred during the last ice age.
Further south, California's Channel Islands
have produced even earlier evidence for seafaring by Paleoindian (or Paleocoastal) peoples. Santa Rosa
and San Miguel
islands, for instance, have produced five sites dating to the Terminal Pleistocene, including the Arlington Man site dated to ~11,000 radiocarbon years (13,000 cal BP) and Daisy Cave occupied about 10,700 radiocarbon years ago (~11,500 cal BP). Erlandson and his colleagues have also identified several early shell middens located near sources of chert, which was used to make stone tools. These quarry/workshop sites have been dated between about 10,800 and 10,500 RYBP (~12,000-11,500 cal BP) and contain crescents and finely made stemmed projectiles points probably used to hunt birds and sea mammals, respectively. Significantly, the Channel Islands have not been connected to the mainland coast during the Quaternary, so maritime peoples contemporary with the Clovis and Folsom complexes in the interior had to have seaworthy boats to colonize them. The Channel Islands have also produced the earliest fishhooks yet found in the Americas, bone bipoints (gorges) that date between about 10,000 and 9500 cal BP.
Even further south, the Monte Verde
site in Chile has become accepted as a settlement around 14,800 years ago.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
for the concept that, from a single origin in Africa
Recent African origin of modern humans
In paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans is the most widely accepted model describing the origin and early dispersal of anatomically modern humans...
100-200 thousand years before present, early human migrations
Early human migrations
Early human migrations began when Homo erectus first migrated out of Africa over the Levantine corridor and Horn of Africa to Eurasia about 1.8 million years ago, a migration probably sparked by the development of language Early human migrations began when Homo erectus first migrated out of Africa...
first spread eastwards to areas outside Africa along routes that were predominantly located around coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
lines. Other terms, such as Southern Coastal Route, Rapid Coastal Settlement, Coastal Migration Theory and Coastal Migration Model, are also used.
Coastal migration theory in Asia and Oceania
The coastal route is primarily used to describe the initial peopling of the Arabian peninsula, IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, coastal China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and is linked with the presence and dispersal of mtDNA haplogroup M
Haplogroup M (mtDNA)
In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup M is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. An enormous haplogroup spanning all the continents, the macro-haplogroup M, like its sibling N, is a descendant of haplogroup L3....
and haplogroup N
Haplogroup N (mtDNA)
In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup N is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. An enormous haplogroup spanning many continents, the macro-haplogroup N, like its sibling M, is a descendant of haplogroup L3....
, as well as the specific distribution patterns of Y-DNA haplogroup C
Haplogroup C (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup C is a Y-chromosome haplogroup, defined by UEPs M130/RPS4Y711, M216, P184, P255, and P260, which are all SNP mutations. It is a sibling clade of Haplogroup F, within the more ancient grouping of Haplogroup CF...
and haplogroup D
Haplogroup D (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup D is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. Both D and E lineages also exhibit the single-nucleotide polymorphism M168 which is present in all Y-chromosome haplogroups except A and B, as well as the YAP unique-event polymorphism, which is unique to Haplogroup...
, in these regions. The theory proposes that humans, likely similar to the Negrito
Negrito
The Negrito are a class of several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia.Their current populations include 12 Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, six Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ati, and 30 other peoples of the Philippines....
s or Proto-Australoid
Proto-Australoid
The Proto-Australoids are a hypothesized group of ancient hunter-gather people descended from the first major wave of modern humans to leave sub-Saharan Africa ~100,000 years ago...
s of modern times, arrived in the Arabian peninsula from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, then on the southern coastal regions of the Indian mainland, followed by spread to the Andaman Islands
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...
and modern-day Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, and thence branching southwards to Australia and northwards towards Japan. National Geographic's Genographic Project
The Genographic Project
The Genographic Project, launched on April 13, 2005 by the National Geographic Society and IBM, is a multi-year genetic anthropology study that aims to map historical human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people from around the...
uses the term 'Coastal Clan' to describe the initial human groups of Y-DNA haplogroup C who expanded eastwards out from Africa along the coastal route around 50 kybp.
Roger Blench
Roger Blench
Roger Blench is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and remains based in Cambridge, England...
discusses the theory in relation to language families.
Coastal migration hypothesis in the New World
Sometimes, the theory is extended to cover onwards migration, via the Bering StraitBering Strait
The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
(which was a land bridge
Land bridge
A land bridge, in biogeography, is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonise new lands...
during the last ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
), into North America, and then onwards to Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
along the western coast. Findings such as the report that the sediments in the Port Eliza caves on Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
, which indicated the possibility of survivable climate until 16 kybp in the area, have helped bolster the hypothesis recently. However, despite such research, the postulate is still subject to considerable debate. For the Pacific Northwest, Carlson, and others have argued for a coastal migration from Alaska pre-10,000 B.P. that predates the migration of Clovis
Clovis culture
The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that first appears 11,500 RCYBP , at the end of the last glacial period, characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools...
people moving south through an ice-free corridor located near the continental divide. These people were followed by the Clovis culture
Clovis culture
The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that first appears 11,500 RCYBP , at the end of the last glacial period, characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools...
, which some archaeologists believe moved south from Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
through an ice-free corridor located between modern British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
. Recent dating of Clovis and similar paleoindian sites in Alaska suggest that Clovis technology actually moved from the south into Alaska following the melting of the continental glaciers about 10,500 years ago.
As the ice sheets began to melt, it became possible for riverine-adapted people who made and used microblade technology
Microblade technology
Microblade technology is a period of technological development marked by the creation and use of small stone blades, which are produced by chipping silica-rich stones like chert, quartz, or obsidian. Blades are a specialized type of lithic flake that are at least twice as long as they are wide...
to move west to the Northwest coast. A second migration of the Denali culture at around 10,700 b.p. brought peoples down the coast from Alaska. Carlson hypothesizes that a population with a maritime adaptation could have travelled south from Alaska down the coastal islands by watercraft, settling as the ice receded, then moving up rivers to the interior. This would account for early finds at Ground Hog Bay in SE Alaska and Namu, about 800 km south of Ground Hog Bay near modern Bella Coola
Bella Coola
Bella Coola may refer to several things, all closely related to a geographic area within British Columbia's Central Coast:*The Nuxalk, an indigenous people of the area who in the past had been referred to as the Bella Coola...
dating to 10,180 +/- 800 b.p. and 9700 b.p., respectively. According to the Matson and Coupland dual migration hypothesis, Namu and Ground Hog Bay represent a second migration while the initial migration route south was through the ice free corridor. Part of the difficulty is the lack of site data prior to 10,000 b.p. as well as the limited number of archaeological investigations into the coastal migration model. Other factors affecting migration models are sea level changes and the question of available land mass to support migrating groups of people.
Evidence from Southeast Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, provides some data about food and land resources during the last glacial maximum. Fedje and Christensen (1999) have identified several sites on Haida Gwaii that date to post 9000 b.p. (642). The oldest human remains known from Alaska or Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
are from On Your Knees Cave, which is on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. The individual, a young man in his early twenties when he died, has been dated to 10,300 years ago and isotopic analyses indicate the individual was raised on a diet primarily of marine foods. These data suggest that there are a number of submerged sites just beyond the shorelines of Haida Gwaii (Fedje & Christensen, 1999) and along the coast of Southeast Alaska. Paleoecological evidence suggests that travel along the coast would have been possible between 13,000 and 11,000 b.p. as the ice sheets began retreating. Between 13,000 and 10,500 b.p. Haida Gwaii had more than double its current land area (Fedje & Christensen, 1999:638). This area was flooded as the ice sheets began to melt between 11,000 and 9,000 b.p. (Ibid). Therefore any evidence of human occupation would now be below sea level. Conversely, older sites that are located near modern shorelines would have been approximately 15 miles from the coast (Ibid). The antiquity of the lithic scatters that Fedje and Christensen (1999) have found in intertidal zones along the Haida Gwaii coast suggests an early human occupation of the area.
Fedje and Christensen (1999) support Carlson (1990), and Fladmark's (1975, 1979 & 1989) initial coastal migration model rather than the ice free corridor model proposed by Matson and Coupland (1995) through their investigations of intertidal zones on Haida Gwaii. The coastal region was quite hospitable by 13,000 b.p. to peoples with watercraft and a maritime adaptation. Furthermore, Fedje and Christensen (1999) argue that the coast was likely colonized before 13,000 b.p. (648). This assertion is based largely on watercraft evidence from Japan and Australia before 13000 b.p. If maritime peoples colonized Island Southeast Asia, Australia, western Melanesia, the Ryukyu Islands, and Japan between 50,000 and 35,000 years ago, they may well have been capable of migrating from Northeast Asia into the Americas as the North Pacific Coast warmed and deglaciated after about 16,000 years ago. Although no boats have been recovered from early Northwest Coast archaeological sites, this may be due to poor preservation of organic materials and the inundation of coastal areas mentioned above. We can still infer water travel based on the presence of artifacts made by humans found in island sites.
Other evidence comes from zooarchaeological finds along the Northwest coast. Goat remains as old as 12,000 b.p. have been found on Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
, British Columbia as well as bear remains dating to 12,500 b.p. in the Prince of Wales Archipelago
Alexander Archipelago
The Alexander Archipelago is a long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the...
, British Columbia. Even older remains of black and brown bear
Brown Bear
The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...
, caribou, sea birds, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, and ringed seal
Ringed Seal
The ringed seal , also known as the jar seal and as netsik or nattiq by the Inuit, is an earless seal inhabiting the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions...
have been dated from a number of caves in Southeast Alaska by paleontologist Timothy Heaton. This means that there were enough land and floral resources to support large land mammals and theoretically, humans. Further intertidal and underwater investigations may produce sites older than 11,000 b.p.. Coastal occupation prior to 13,000 b.p. would allow for people to migrate further south and account for the early South American sites.
Anecdotal evidence comes from the surviving Bella Bella oral tradition as recorded by Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
in 1898. "In the beginning there was nothing but water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
and ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
and a narrow strip of shoreline". Some believe this story describes the Northwest Coast during the last glacial maximum and that the story suggests that the Northwest Coast colonization occurred during the last ice age.
Further south, California's Channel Islands
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
have produced even earlier evidence for seafaring by Paleoindian (or Paleocoastal) peoples. Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa Island, California
Santa Rosa Island is the second largest of the Channel Islands of California at 53,195 acres . Defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block 3009, Block Group 3, Census Tract 29.10 of Santa Barbara County, California, the 2000 census showed an official population of 2 persons. It is part of...
and San Miguel
San Miguel Island
San Miguel Island is the westernmost of California's Channel Islands, located across the Santa Barbara Channel in the Pacific Ocean, within Santa Barbara County, California. San Miguel is the sixth-largest of the eight Channel Islands at , including offshore islands and rocks. Prince Island, off...
islands, for instance, have produced five sites dating to the Terminal Pleistocene, including the Arlington Man site dated to ~11,000 radiocarbon years (13,000 cal BP) and Daisy Cave occupied about 10,700 radiocarbon years ago (~11,500 cal BP). Erlandson and his colleagues have also identified several early shell middens located near sources of chert, which was used to make stone tools. These quarry/workshop sites have been dated between about 10,800 and 10,500 RYBP (~12,000-11,500 cal BP) and contain crescents and finely made stemmed projectiles points probably used to hunt birds and sea mammals, respectively. Significantly, the Channel Islands have not been connected to the mainland coast during the Quaternary, so maritime peoples contemporary with the Clovis and Folsom complexes in the interior had to have seaworthy boats to colonize them. The Channel Islands have also produced the earliest fishhooks yet found in the Americas, bone bipoints (gorges) that date between about 10,000 and 9500 cal BP.
Even further south, the Monte Verde
Monte Verde
Monte Verde is an archaeological site in southern Chile, located in the northern Patagonia near Puerto Montt, Chile, which has been dated to 14,800 years BP . This dating adds to the evidence showing that settlement in the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by roughly 1000 years...
site in Chile has become accepted as a settlement around 14,800 years ago.