Peopling of the America's Unit Test

Theories of megafauna mass extinction: Overill

(an extensive illness killed much of the species and they died out) The sickness—maybe rabies—would have spread from one animal to another and so on until much of the species had died off.

Ochre

A clay used for body decoration (made from powder mixed with animal fat) People would apply decorative body paint in spiritual connection before hunts. Worldwide from Paleolithic peoples in Europe to Late Holocene peoples of the Americas, residues of red ochre are found in burial contexts. The coastal natives of Texas are no exception and used red ochre to imbue the departed with symbolic "blood."

Bestiary

A collection or grouping of real and mythical creatures.

Hertzian cone

A cone shaped rock fragment that ejects from back of glass plate when hit by a projectile (billet) at an angle of less than 90 degrees (acute angle). Point of impact is the *bulb of precision, which causes a *conchoidal fracture pattern.

Paleo-indians

Also called *Paleoamericans, classification term for the first peoples who entered/inhabited the Americas during the late Pleistocene.

Kill site

An archaeological site that was primarily used for killing and butchering animals. It is recognized by its distinctive location, tools, or animal bone evidence. These sites are also recognized through taphonomy (the branch of paleontology that deals with the processes of fossilization)

Refugia

An area where organisms can survive through a period of unfavorable conditions especially glaciation (cold cold cold!).

Stratigraphic context

An event or action that left discrete detectable traces in the archaeological sequence.

Watering holes

An ideal place to hunt big game; many animals in one place, fairly vulnerable as they were drinking.

Mitochondrial DNA

Ancient DNA molecules are normally so few and fragmented, and preserved soft tissues are so rare, scientists had little hope of finding and analyzing it. Two breakthroughs have made this possible: the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a method of copying a fragment of DNA. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passes on only by mothers to their offspring. This can chart a lineage over time, but could run into snags if people did not have daughters who would become mothers.

Box canyon, arroyo and jump kill sites

Ancient hunters used arroyos or ditches as natural drive lines, Bement explained, to chase bison and trap them in a dead-end gulch. "When the animals reach the high bank at the dead end of the gully, they can't get out, and that is when the hunters positioned on the gully rim spear them," he said. The animals are then butchered where they fall in the gully. "All of these sites are large-scale bison kills in arroyo traps," he added. "Each kill was of between 30 and 60 animals."

Migration theory Solutrean Hypothesis

Atlantic Coastal Route (another pre-Clovis theory) Early explorers from *Solutrean culture of *Southern France and *Northern Spain. Skirted *Laurentide ice sheet that covered the *North American Ocean and much of *Eastern North America. Landed on *eastern edge of *North America. *Grand Banks: they were islands during late-last Ice age (Pleistocene) they are now underwater. The signature sight is *Cactus Hill, Virginia. This theory was suggested by archaeologists Bruce Bradley and Dennis Stamford, it wasn't *universally accepted among scientists.

Atlatl and dart weapons system

Atlatls were essentially spear-throwers, special sticks designed to serve as a virtual extension of a hunters throwing arm. Spear/dart hurled by atlatl would have a greater velocity than one thrown by an unaided arm. A small spear/dart has more speed, distance, and killing power than a large spear thrown by hand.

Tool kit

Awls (small pointed tool to pierce holes in wood and leather) Burins (a flint tool with a chisel point, used for engraving, or carving wood and bone) End scraper (used to scrape animal hides and wood) Drills (thin, pencil-shaped section for point/shaft of drill. Base is varied. Used as a drill.)

Caching tools and weapons

Before a big hunt, the best points/tools/weapons/ were buried in a cache in a ceremony to honor the spirit gods and hopefully ensure luck, success, and safety on their hunt. Clovis people also built caches of weapons and raw materials for later use.

Dung

Can be used to fuel a fire (animal poop)

Archaeological sites; Naia Girl

Found bones in an underwater cave in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. They had been there for 12,000 years. The shape of Naia's skull and the DNA in her bones have led researchers to the conclusion that there was only one major migration to the Americas, over an ancient land bridge that spanned what is now the Bering Strait. (Beringia). SUPPORTS THE BERINGIA LAND BRIDGE THEORY OF MIGRATION.

Homo Sapien

Homo sapien comes from Latin meaning "wise man". It is the scientific name for the only existing human species. They are the only surviving species of the genus "homo". Modern humans are the subspecies "Homo sapien sapien", which differentiates them.

Bola

I throwing weapons made of chords with weights attached to the ends. It catches animals by and tangling their legs.

Archaeological sites: Schaefer and Herbior Mammoth kill sites, north of Chicago, Illinois

In 1964, while draining a marshy field on a farm, an earthmover jolted to a halt when it struck a buried mammoth femur. The mammoth remains would end up in the nearby Kenosha Public Museum. More than 20 years later, an amateur archaeologist noticed cut marks on another set of mammoth bones in the museum's collection, indicating they had been butchered. That prompted archaeologist Dan Joyce, the museum's director, to reinvestigate the Schaefer site. He found, under two-and-a-half feet of ancient soils, roughly 80 percent of a completely butchered mammoth. Because the animal had been inundated by the waters of a long-dried-up lake shortly after it was butchered, its bones were well preserved. Many bore V-shaped cut marks typical of what would be made by humans using prehistoric tools. Joyce also found fragments of two stone blades with the remains. Preliminary dating says the bones are roughly 13,000 years old. "We had a Clovis date, so we thought we had a Clovis site," Joyce says. But when the bones were redated the next year using a more sophisticated technique that purified the collagen protein in them, that assessment went out the window. The new dates came back clustered around 14,500 years ago. If the analysis wasn't enough to convince Joyce, what was found three-quarters of a mile away at the Hebior Farm confirmed it. There, in 1994, a team led by David Overstreet, an archaeologist at Marquette University in Milwaukee, found 90 percent of a similarly butchered mammoth, along with a more complete set of butchering tools. The bones from Hebior would be dated to 150 to 200 years before the Schaefer bones. "Both Schaefer and Hebior are pre-Clovis, but they're a Clovis subsistence style, so they're almost bridging the gap," says Joyce, referring to the Clovis people's reputation as hunters of mammoths, bison, and other big game. "Are they more properly called 'proto-Clovis,' something that develops into Clovis?"

Archaeological sites: Anzick Boy, Montana

In 1968 an infant boy was found buried with stone and bone tools. The artifacts were covered in ochre, and this was the oldest known burial in North America associated with the Clovis culture.

What does "Naia" mean?

It means water nymph in Greek.

Glacial Lake Missoula

It was a prehistoric lake in Montana they existed at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago.

Lichen

It's like moss— and very good for kindling

Tundra permafrost

Made up of soil and rocks as well as frozen water, permafrost forms when the depth of winter freezing exceeds the depth of summer thawing. Permafrost is permanently frozen under a layer of soil or rock.

Radio carbon dating

Method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon-a radio isotope of carbon. It allows scientists/archaeologists to figure out artifacts dates better and helps to understand the early people of the America's.

Size reduction in projectile points

Near the end of the Pleistocene, glaciers shrunk and the mammoths and giant bison died or were killed off. People now had to hunt/live off of, smaller, faster animals. Smaller points weighed less and could travel faster, which was a necessity to keep up with faster animals.

Late Pleistocene sea level

The sea level was 440 feet lower than today.

Generalized hunter gatherer societies

Their food sources for example are evidence of a wider diet

Antler harpoons

They are used for hunting large marine animals, such as seals.

Evolution of the bow and arrow

Near the end of the Pleistocene, the glaciers melted and many/most of the mammoth and giant bison died/were killed. People now had to hunt smaller, faster animals. For this, they needed better weapons. It was soon discovered that the later darts could be thrown more effectively with an atlatl that flexed. Energy released from the flexing resulted in a higher-velocity dart that better suited the swifter animals. The harnessing of energy from a flexible atlatl staff to propel the dart is much of the same concept for the bow and arrow. They are both using the flex and rebound effect (a simple mechanical spring) to propel a flexible dart or arrow that has fletching.

Bone marrow

Nutritious, very good for you to eat

Younger Dryas (12,900 - 11,500 PB)

One of the most well-known examples of abrupt climate change. About 14,500 years ago, the Earth's climate began to shift from a cold glacial world to a warmer interglacial state. From 12,900 years ago to 11,500 years ago (1,400 years!)

Migration theory Pre-Clovis or Coastal Migration Hypothesis

Pacific Coastal Route It went down the West coast of the *North American continent which is when the *Cordillera ice sheet began to melt away. The ice melting made pockets for early explorers to restock their food and water supplies. Can be referred to as the *Kelp Highway. A signature sight is *Monte Verde, Chile which is where *organic artifacts were found and were 1,000 years older than Clovis.

Peat bog preservation

Peat bog has natural phenomenon that naturally staves off rot. A huge amount of amazing archaeological finds have been found in these types of bogs.

Ethnographic

Scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.

Seal hunting techniques

Seal-hunting is dangerous and difficult. One (safer) option is to wait at holes in the ice for seals to surface. Seals can hold their breath for a long time, but not forever, so they have to come up to breathe. Once they surface, you stab them with a barbed harpoon so they can't pull it out. (like in the docudrama)

Archaeological sites; Kennewick Man

Skull found in the Columbia river shallows in Kennewick, WA in 1996. The teeth were cavity-free (signaling a diet low in sugar and starch) and worn down to the roots—a combination characteristic of prehistoric teeth. Chatters then noted something embedded in the hipbone. It proved to be a stone spearpoint, which seemed to clinch that the remains were prehistoric. He sent a bone sample off for carbon dating. The results: It was more than 9,000 years old.

Ethnographer

Someone who studies ethnography.

Ethnobotanist

Someone who studies the relationships that exist between people and plants.

Digging sticks

Sometimes called a *Yam Stick, made of wood and used to dig under ground food out (tubers and roots) or burrowing animals and anthills out.

Archaeological sites: Folsom Site

The Folsom Site or Wild Arroyo, is located 8 miles west of Folsom, New Mexico. It shows Folsom tradition, aPaleo-Indian culture sequence dating between 9,000 BC and 8000 BC.

Projectile points

The object that was halted onto a *projectile (such as a *spear, *dart, or *arrow).

Theories of megafauna mass extinction: Overgrill

The overgrill theory suggests that a meteor crashed into Earth from space and that this killed the mega fauna. The impact might've caused lots of damage and deaths, but the flying wreckage and harmful gasses could've gone out everywhere for miles and wiped out many things. This is the least popular theory though, because how would the humans live through this but the Megafauna die? The evidence for this theory is a layer of black soil in the ground that could mean a meteor strike.

Osteobiography

The process of identifying human remains.

Hafting

The process of securing a point into a handle. Points are usually inserted into a piece of wood and then wrapped in sinew and left to dry.

Economic defensibility

When resources are useful/important/economic enough to warrant defending against others. For example if you live by a river bed that provides fish and fresh water, as well as many other resources, this would be a vital resource and one that members of the tribe would risk their lives to defend.

Last Glacial Maximum

When the ice age glacial were at their maximum (the worst of it).

What is the significance of Siberia and Kamchatka?

They were points of departure. People travels from there to the new world.

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990

This law requires federal agencies/places that get federal funding to return Native American cultural items to descendants/culturally affiliated tribes. Includes human remains, funereal objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural significance.

Archaeological sites: Upward Sun River

This site is located in Tanana Valley, Alaska. It is from the late Pleistocene and is the site with the oldest human remains yet discovered. It is dated around 11,500 BP.

Diaspora

This spreading or movement of the population from their original homeland.

Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets

Two large ice sheets that covered much of what would be Canada and parts of the US during the last ice age (Pleistocene).

Archaeological sites: Gault, Texas

Unusual to find a site with both good stone for tools and enough resources to live on. However, Gault has both, and people lived there for extended periods of time. Artifacts found at Gault are redefining how we view the Clovis people. Yes, they ate mammoth and bison, but bones were found from frogs, turtles, snakes, and rabbits. EVidence for an earlier people than Clovis was also found at Gault, but research is not widely accepted. Flakes found date 350 years before Clovis. Also found materials even further back, but technique is questionable and imprecise.

Clovis point description

Used for killing mammoths and other megafauna. Clovis refers to this particular style of stone spear point and to the culture of the North American people who used such weapons to devastating effect against large game. Clovis points are leaf-shaped and have a wide groove, or flute, on both sides of the base for fitting into short wooden or bone spear shafts. The largest spear point ever found, measuring nine inches long, was a Clovis point made of chalcedony, a kind of quartz. Clovis points are more numerous in the East than the West.

Pressure flaking technique

Using a heavy dense tool applied with pressure to the edge of your blade will serrate and flake the edges.

Theories of megafauna mass extinction: Overchill

(climate became too cold and barren which resulted in loss of food and warmth) This theory is that the mega fauna were wiped out by a major change in climate, which began about 17,000 years ago. The main wave of climate changes happened around 12,900 years ago. The reason people believe this theory is true is because there was a lot of climate changes that were going on that could have drove the mega fauna to extinction. But most people don't believe in this theory because they can't find any frozen or evidence that the animals were naturally killed some how. Another reason people don't believe in this theory is because there has been so many swings in climate so how can it be that they were just taken out by one climate period?

Theories of megafauna mass extinction: Overkill

(hunters killed off many of the animals which lead to extinction) Many people don't believe in this theory because there are only 14 kill sites and only two species of animals that were massively wiped out. These were the mastodons and the mammoths. Scientists believe because only this hardly enough evidence to support that the mega fauna was killed by mass hunting.

Corprolites

*14,300 year old fossilized human excrement found at *Paisley Caves in *Central Oregon

Animal fat uses and importance

*Fuel for fire (the fire not necessarily for warmth, it is used to melt snow into drinking water. You can't drink/eat unmelted snow, it lowers the body temperature) *rendering fat (portable, lasts for long time. Can be eaten if necessary. Can be used to flavor/add fat to meals)

Blade cores

A large piece of *knappable rock from which *thinner blades are hit off and then refined into *points.

Hearth site

A large site with many hearths and full range of tools was probably a favorite campsite revisited by tribes.

Paradigm

A pattern/example of something; a model

Shaman

A person who accesses and reads the spirits. Relied on by the tribe for advice/guidance. Performs ceremonies (such as caching points)

Temporary campsite

A place where people would not have stayed for long; potentially find animal bones (from food) here. Probably not tools, but I'm not sure.

Quarry site

A quarry is a place from which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate has been excavated from the ground. In Paleo-American times, this would probably be a site where they found good rock to make points with, or where the points were made. *Galt, for example, had good stones to make weapons.

Travois

A sled like carrier that was used by North American Indians to carry goods.

Microblade technology

A technique using small pieces of stone embedded in a wooden shaft to make a spearpoint or a cutting tool. Technology characteristic of the *late Pleistocene (the last ice age) cutlers from *Siberia.

Archaeological sites: Debra L. Fried kin and Gualt on Buttermilk Creek in Central Texas

Chronology of tools found in layers clay deposits, dating back from 1,800 years old to possibly 15,500 years old at bottom layers. People were coming there for millennia to hunt and camp on the stream banks. Had Clovis points, and in layers of soil below, 16,000 chert pieces from tool production—including 60 identifiable tools. Could not use radiocarbon dating here because water had carried away organic material that could have been radiocarbon dated. Used a technique called optically stimulated luminescence, which estimates last time a quartz grain has been exposed to sunlight. Generally agreed to be a legit pre-Clovis site. Sometimes referred to as proto-Clovis because the Friedkin findings were very similar to Clovis technology.

Side notched points

Clovis points with notches in the lower sides, a holding place for your fingers.

Conchoidal fracture

Cryptocrystalline rocks fracture this way... One side is *convex and the other side is *concave. It is a repeatable process for knappers who can understand the way brittle material breaks, and describes how the rocks break.

Raw materials

Cryptocrystalline rocks that fracture predictably Flint Chert Jasper Chalcedony Obsidian

Archaeological sites: Manis Mastodon Kill Site, Olympic Peninsula, Washington

Discovered while digging through 6' of peat. Found 2 fossilized tusks. When excavated, found a rib with a bone projectile point in it. Organic material found near the remains was dated to roughly 14,000 years ago. Controversy ensued, with members of the archaeological community refuting the dating because it hadn't been done on the actual bones. In addition, multiple theories emerged as to how the bone fragment had come to be embedded in the mastodon rib, including an antelope attack—which would mean that people were not the cause if it were so. In 2011, Mike Waters announced that he'd dated purified collagen in the bone, and that it was 13,800 years old. CT scans and 3-D projections of the rib with the projectile in it show that the bone fragment is, in fact, a spear point.

Scurvy

Disease due to lack of vitamin C. Attacks your cells, internal bleeding occurs, your joints become loose and sloppy, your body essentially starts to come apart. Prevalent in sailors with no fresh food (fixed by eating relish—doesn't spoil and high in vitamin C). *Scurvy grass is rich in vitamin C.

Gulf Stream

Dubbed the 'engine of the Atlantic'. Carries huge sheets of ice across the Atlantic, people could have come to the Americas this way. (in the docudrama)

Paleoclimate and Paleoenviorment

During the Pleistocene, it was cold. Paleoclimatology is the study of past climates. Since it is not possible to go back in time to see what climates were like, scientists use imprints created during past climate, known as proxies, to interpret paleoclimate. Paleoenvironment (an environment prevailing at a particular time in the geological past.)

Archaeological sites: East Wenatchee Clovis cache

East Wenatchee Clovis cache is a deposit of Clovis points and other tools dating back to around 11,000 radiocarbon years before today. It is located in an apple orchard near the Columbia River in Washington.

Archaeological sites: Paisley Caves, Central Oregon

Found human coprolites that dated to older than 14,000 years. Three points were also found that are part of the Western Stemmed Tradition. Clovis points have a notch at their base so wooden spears can be attached, but these points have Constricted bases. They were also made from smaller pieces of stone than Clovis points were. If nothing else, this suggests that there was parallel occupation of the US by both Clovis people and a second group who made different kinds of tools. Evidence of baskets and rope, plant fibers, wooden artifacts, and animal bones were also found at the caves. Pollen and other plant minerals extracted from the coprolites suggest that people came to the site in the spring and early summer. They also provide evidence that the people in the caves ate everything from edible roots to bison, horse, and even animals as big as mastodon. Jenkins, for his part, thinks Paisley Caves were not a destination location. "There is very little debitage [residue from production] from stone tools over time," he explains. "The archaeology suggests this is a place where people are passing by—something, weather or resources nearby, or the time of day, makes you stop in."

Archaeological sites: Monte Verde, Chile

Found remains of a year-round living sight on what was an open sandbar (thousands of years ago). It had become a peat bog, and this had preserved many artifacts. Evidence includes 60 ' long structure—potentially like a tent—that could have housed up to 30 people. Preserved meat and firewood, three human footprints still visible in hardened clay, wooden slabs for grinding, burned tip of a long lance, pebble tools for scraping and cutting, biface fragments. Wood charcoal from the hearths dated slightly more than 14,500 years ago. Found 26 stones in another section, some were man made. This evidence dates that people could have been at Monte Verde earlier than Clovis. SUPPORTS THE PRE-CLOVIS MIGRATION THEORY

Knapping tools

Hammer stone (hard or soft) Antler billet (type of hammer stone) Cooper billet Abradier (tool to smooth out edges) Pressure flankers made of antler tine or copper tipped deer sinew.

Archaeological sites: Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania

People had been camping there as early as 16,000 years ago and continued visiting until the 13th century. It has never flooded, it's high and dry, large overhang, well-ventilated. Cross Creek is below the opening, so there is easy access to fresh water. Around 13,000 to 14,000 years ago, the roof collapsed. This trapped a wealth of artifacts; roughly 700 pieces of stone—some tools made from jasper and chert. 50 complete tools or large enough fragments to be recognizable tools. Prismatic blades and straight-based blades with lance-like tips. These blades did not have the ridged edges of Clovis points; they had smooth sides. More than 50 sequential dates were taken, primarily from charcoal found in hearths, to arrive at ages that Adovasio says are between 14,000 and 16,000 years old. He was confronted with criticism related to a lack of ancient plant and animal remains at the site, which some researchers say make it difficult to know what the people at Meadowcroft subsisted on. Adovasio, for his part, says that they were likely "broad-spectrum foragers," relying on a combination of meat and plants for sustenance. Other critics hypothesize that there was natural contamination of his radiocarbon dates, for instance, from water leaching coal from below the archaeological deposits. Adovasio has refuted those concerns. "Minimally, if you took only the very youngest acceptable dates," he says, "then people were there at the same time as Clovis folks, but with a different technology."

Ice mirages

Phenomenon that only occurs in extremely cold, flat, places on clear days (the Arctic is a good example). Able to see past the horizon and the mountains beyond. (in the docudrama, it was how they saw what was far in front of them but still there. Could have given hope/inspired early peoples to continue their journey into the unknown until they arrived in the Americas) Mirages are commonly seen on the horizon in the winter or as in this case at the end of winter when the sea-ice has just broken up. They are a result of temperature differences in the bottom few metres just above the ice or sea surface. Air of different temperatures refracts light in different ways, the same phenomena is responsible for "heat haze" as seen above a road on a very hot day. It is the difference in temperature that is important and in this case it is causing a reflection downwards just above the level of the horizon so that objects on the horizon appear to be floating above the sea or ice rather than resting on it.

Barbed points

Points with barbed edges, used to stick and stay in target (the animal).

Paleolithic

Relating to the early phase of the Stone Age (lasting around 2.5 million years).

Yukon River-Mckenzie River ice free corridor

Supporters of the ice-free corridor hypothesis proposed that an area of land between the ice sheets on the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains remained unglaciated and open for human occupation and migration during all or part of the Ice Age. According to this hypothesis, the ancestors of the Clovis hunters crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia, traversed unglaciated regions in Alaska and the Yukon, and then followed this ice-free corridor to settle in the lands to the south of the ice sheets by 11,500 years BP. The ice-free corridor hypothesis was first proposed in the 1930s and for many years was widely accepted as the most likely means of entry for the first North Americans. The corridor was thought to have been open and accessible throughout most or all of the Late Wisconsinan Glaciation, allowing early settlers to make the journey even during the height of the Ice Age. More recent evidence, however, indicates that the ice-free corridor did not open until after the glacial ice began to recede, about 12,000 years BP, and so was too late to account for the arrival of the first peoples.

Archaeological remains: Arlington Springs Man

The Arlington Springs Man is a set of human remains found during the Pleistocene on Santa Rosa Island, a channel island located on the coast off of Southern California.

Migration theory Clovis First or Land Bridge Hypothesis

The Beringia Land Bridge Route It went from *Siberia to the Yukon River Vally in *Alaska, to the Mckenzie River Vally in the *Yukon Territory in Canada, then went to the eastern flanks of the Rockies, then finally down into the interior of *North America. A signature sight is *Blackwater Draw which is near the town of *Clovis, New Mexico where the *first Clovis points were found in 1933.

Archaeological sites: Kit Carson, Colorado arroyo kill site

The Paleo-Indian site dates back to an estimated 8000-6500 B.C. and provides evidence for bison hunting, using a game drive system, long before the use of the bow and arrow or horses.[1] The site contains a bone-bed of almost 200 bison that were killed and processed by Paleo-Indian hunters.

Archaeological sites; Blackwater Draw, New Mexico

The first Clovis point was found here. Not the oldest point, but the first one found. Called Clovis points because their location was near Clovis, NM. The point was roughly 13,500 years old. SUPPORTS THE CLOVIS-FIRST MIGRATION THEORY

Fluted points

The flute of the point is the central line of the point, where the flake has been carved away for hafting. Clovis points were fluted.

Migration theory Atlantic Crossing

The goes directly across open ocean from *Africa to *South America, traveling by boat. This theory is by far the most contentious and is the least accepted theory among archaeologists because it *lacks evidence and archaeological record to support the theory. Archaeologists agree that people migrated across the land bridge to populate the America's, to to argue about it (supported by genetics). Finding preserved boats from the Pleistocene remains a problem for all Coastal Route theory's. They have relied upon ethnographic info obtained from Inuit cultures from Alaska to learn about possible animal skin boats that may have been similar to the ones used for ocean crossings by prehistoric people.

Xenocide

The intentional killing of an entire foreign plant or animal species.

Pleistocene epoch

The last Ice Age began about 1.8 million years ago and it lasted until about 11,700 years ago.

Archaic

Very old or old fashioned.

Hyperprosocial

Very social, able to work together in groups to further themselves.

Who was Vitus Bering?

Vitus Bering was an explorer in Russian service, and an officer in the Russian Navy.

Western stemmed tool tradition

Western Stemmed tool tradition (WST) is what scholars call the material culture (tangible, corporeal objects left behind) left by early Archaic/late Paleoindian hunter-gatherer-foragers who lived in the American Western desert. WST people resides in what are now the American states of Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado being at least 12,300 radiocarbon years ago.

Megafauna

giant sloths; short-faced bears; several species of tapirs; peccaries (Including the long nosed and flat-headed peccaries); the American lion; giant tortoises; Miracinonyx ("American cheetahs", not true cheetahs); saber-toothed cats like Smilodon and the scimitar cat, Homotherium; dire wolves; saiga; camelids such as two species of now extinct llamas and Camelops;] at least two species of bison; stag-moose; the shrub-ox and Harlan's muskox; 14 species of pronghorn (of which 13 are now extinct); horses; mammoths and mastodons; the beautiful armadillo and the giant armadillo-like Glyptotherium and giant beavers as well as birds like giant condors and other teratorns. The nine-foot sabertooth salmon lived at the time as well. In contrast, today the largest North American land animal is the American bison.

Beringia

large area of flat, unforested grassland tundra with permafrost. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe (steppe =a large area of flat unforested grassland) was the Earth's most extensive biome. It had a cold, dry climate, the vegetation was dominated by palatable high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs, and the animal biomass was dominated by the bison, horse, and the woolly mammoth. This ecosystem covered wide areas of the northern part of the globe, thrived for approximately 100,000 years without major changes, and then suddenly became extinct about 12,000 years ago.