Working from the Known to the Unknown: Linking the Subaerial Archaeology and the Submerged Landscapes of Santarosae Island, Alta California, USA
Braje TJ, Erlandson J, Gusick A, Nyers A, Davis L, Gill KM, Reeder-Myers L, Ball D. 2019. Working from the Known to the Unknown: Linking the Subaerial Archaeology and the Submerged Landscapes of Santarosae Island, Alta California, USA. Open Quaternary. 5(10):1-15
Since the collapse of the Clovis-first model of the peopling of the Americas some 30 years ago, there has been growing interest in the Pacific Coast as a potential early human dispersal corridor. With postglacial eustatic sea level rise inundating most New World paleoshorelines older than ~7000 years, however,locating terminal Pleistocene sites along modern coastlines is challenging. Using the distribution and archaeology of subaerial Paleocoastal archaeological sites on California’s Northern Channel Islandsas a guide, we developed a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) predictive model to locate and mapsubmerged high probability landforms, which might contain Paleocoastal sites. Our results illustrate how archaeologists can narrow targets in their search for evidence of the first Americans along submerged Pacific Coast paleoshorelines.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Braje, Todd; Erlandson, Jon; Gusick, Amy; Nyers, Alex; Davis, Loren; Gill, Kristina; Reeder-Myers, Leslie; Ball, David
- Units
- CHIS
- Keywords
- Geophysical Mapping, Paleoshorelines, Peopling of the New World, Underwater Archaeology