5 research outputs found
A chronometric investigation of the initial peopling of the Americas
The initial peopling of the American continent marks a major event in the expansion of humans
across the planet. For most of the 20th century, it was believed that a group of big-game hunters
initially entered North America approximately 13,500 years ago, through the now flooded land
bridge of Beringia, between modern day Siberia and Alaska. Once across, they would have
moved southward through an ice-free corridor formed between the Laurentide and Cordilleran
ice sheets, which began their recession after the last Ice Age. This model, however, was
effectively refuted in 1997 when archaeologists found evidence in Chile, South America, which
was reliably older than the North American record suggested. Today, questions associated with
this dispersal are debated in First American research, and remain largely unanswered. These
include the antiquity and origin of the initial arrivals, the number of migrational episodes, and
the impact of human expansion in the late Quaternary faunal extinctions. In response,
considering that timing is fundamental in the study of human dispersals, this investigation
employs radiocarbon dating and Bayesian age modelling to build a robust chronological
framework with which to elucidate broad spatio-temporal patterns. This is accomplished by
obtaining reliable radiocarbon measurements for key archaeological sites across the continent,
resolving dating discrepancies using a single-amino-acid isolation method, and building largescale
Bayesian age models to track human presence and frame current evidence. This involved
the laboratory processing of dateable material from 18 archaeological sites, the production of 133
radiocarbon dates, and the statistical analysis of archaeo-chronometric data from 41
archaeological sites in North America and Beringia. A widely used method, called ‘14C-dates-asdata’,
is assessed from a radiocarbon dating perspective, and the potentially confounding effects
introduced by challenges in sample processing in the analysis are demonstrated. This approach is
the only other quantitative technique apart from Bayesian age modelling that uses the
chronometric record to elucidate large-scale population events. Here, however, it is argued that
Bayesian age modelling is the most efficient tool in tackling human dispersals.
Results obtained in this thesis have enabled the creation of a new Bayesian age model for the
initial peopling of the Americas. This suggests that the earliest arrivals to mid-latitude North
America were humans from eastern Asia, who most likely crossed near the end of the LGM. The
synchronous commencement of Beringian, Clovis and Western Stemmed cultural traditions is
also identified, and their overlap with the last appearance dates for 18 extinct genera suggests
that human expansion was a key driver behind animal extinction events. Notably, these findings
overturn the widespread notion that North America was first penetrated only after 16-15,000
years ago.
It is hoped that, in the future, new evidence in First Americans research will increase the
resolution of the models here created, and enhance the conclusions drawn. Particular attention
should be paid to Central and South America, regions with more limited archaeo-chronometric
data and immediate chronometric potential. Improved chronological control in these regions is
key in understanding the pattern of American settlement
Radiocarbon protocols and first intercomparison results from the chronos carbon-cycle facility, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
The Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility is a new radiocarbon laboratory at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Built around an Ionplus 200 kV MIni-CArbon DAting System (MICADAS) Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) installed in October 2019, the facility was established to address major challenges in the Earth, Environmental and Archaeological sciences. Here we report an overview of the Chronos facility, the pretreatment methods currently employed (bones, carbonates, peat, pollen, charcoal, and wood) and results of radiocarbon and stable isotope measurements undertaken on a wide range of sample types. Measurements on international standards, known-age and blank samples demonstrate the facility is capable of measuring 14C samples from the Anthropocene back to nearly 50,000 years ago. Future work will focus on improving our understanding of the Earth system and managing resources in a future warmer world
Radiocarbon protocols and first intercomparison results from the chronos carbon-cycle facility, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
The Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility is a new radiocarbon laboratory at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Built around an Ionplus 200 kV MIni-CArbon DAting System (MICADAS) Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) installed in October 2019, the facility was established to address major challenges in the Earth, Environmental and Archaeological sciences. Here we report an overview of the Chronos facility, the pretreatment methods currently employed (bones, carbonates, peat, pollen, charcoal, and wood) and results of radiocarbon and stable isotope measurements undertaken on a wide range of sample types. Measurements on international standards, known-age and blank samples demonstrate the facility is capable of measuring 14C samples from the Anthropocene back to nearly 50,000 years ago. Future work will focus on improving our understanding of the Earth system and managing resources in a future warmer world
Evidence of human occupation in Mexico around the Last Glacial Maximum.
The initial colonization of the Americas remains a highly debated topic1, and the exact timing of the first arrivals is unknown. The earliest archaeological record of Mexico-which holds a key geographical position in the Americas-is poorly known and understudied. Historically, the region has remained on the periphery of research focused on the first American populations2. However, recent investigations provide reliable evidence of a human presence in the northwest region of Mexico3,4, the Chiapas Highlands5, Central Mexico6 and the Caribbean coast7-9 during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs. Here we present results of recent excavations at Chiquihuite Cave-a high-altitude site in central-northern Mexico-that corroborate previous findings in the Americas10-17of cultural evidence that dates to the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500-19,000 years ago)18, and which push back dates for human dispersal to the region possibly as early as 33,000-31,000 years ago. The site yielded about 1,900 stone artefacts within a 3-m-deep stratified sequence, revealing a previously unknown lithic industry that underwent only minor changes over millennia. More than 50 radiocarbon and luminescence dates provide chronological control, and genetic, palaeoenvironmental and chemical data document the changing environments in which the occupants lived. Our results provide new evidence for the antiquity of humans in the Americas, illustrate the cultural diversity of the earliest dispersal groups (which predate those of the Clovis culture) and open new directions of research