Arctic Beringia and Native American Origins

John F. Hoffecker · Scott A. Elias · Olga Potapova

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Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Forensic and Genetic Research Indigenous Studies and Ecology

Abstract

The central lowland of Beringia (aka the Bering land bridge) has been viewed alternately as a barrier or a refugium to the Native American founder population during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Here we suggest that an equally – if not more – likely LGM home for the founder population is the arctic zone of Beringia. People were drawn to eastern arctic Beringia during the post-LGM Younger Dryas (YD) cold period and occupied western arctic Beringia during the cold interval preceding the LGM (GS5/HE3). Arctic Beringia probably contained adequate resources for an LGM human population, especially across the exposed East Siberian Arctic Shelf (“Northwest Beringian Plain”), which supported an extensive steppe-tundra habitat populated by mammoth and other large mammals before and during the LGM. An arctic Beringian refugium would explain a growing body of evidence that indicates an early (or pre-) LGM divergence of the Native American founder population from its Asian source.

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References

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2021Revisiting the mammoth bone modifications from Bluefish Caves (YT, Canada)2022INITIAL HUMAN COLONIZATION OF THE AMERICAS, REDUX

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