Terminal Pleistocene Occupation Isla Cedros

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Loren Davis of Oregon State University and Dr. Matthew Des Lauriers of California State University-Northridge, along with colleagues in Mexico, will conduct research to study the earliest archaeological evidence of marine environmental use along the Pacific coast of the Americas. Current archaeological evidence indicates that humans migrated from northeastern Asia into North America and spread throughout the rest of the Americas. As part of this research theme, archaeologists are interested in learning about the timing and route that humans initially took to migrate into the Americas. One main hypothesis on this theme asserts that people used a hunting-gathering-fishing lifeway to spread from northeastern Asia into North America and beyond by initially traveling along the Pacific coastline around the glaciated margins of Alaska and Canada. If this is true, archaeologists expect that early coastal sites should contain artifacts and the remains of animals that reveal the application of effective technologies used to extract a living from a broad range of marine environmental resources. Finding archaeological sites that show early North Americans peoples possessed a full mastery of marine environments would add confirmatory evidence to support the Pacific coastal migration hypothesis. The team will generate and share interdisciplinary knowledge about the history of changing coastal environments on Cedros Island and how humans lived in a changing coastal context. This international collaborative project will generate critical knowledge about the larger issue of the initial human settlement of the Americas and in the process will provide unique educational opportunities for students and the public alike. Drs. Davis and Des Lauriers will lead a research team to examine how early coastal peoples used fishing and hunting technologies to exploit the full range of Pacific marine resources from nearshore to deep-water offshore biomes. The research will be conducted on Cedros Island, which is located in northwestern Mexico along the Pacific coast of Baja California. This island is special because it retains many well preserved archaeological sites clustered around ancient freshwater springs that were undoubtedly attractive places for early peoples to repeatedly settle and in the process create a record of their lives that accumulated over hundreds to thousands of years. The researchers will lead a team of archaeologists, geoarchaeologists, and environmental scientists to conduct excavations at four sites that are known to contain artifacts and marine animal remains that date earlier than 12,000 calendar years old. The team will also study local geological records that date to the early period of human occupation in order to better understand the environmental context in which coastal people lived. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.