Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This well-written archeological synthesis advances a new model of the earliest human migrations to North America from Asia. The author argues that Asian people did not come across the Bering Strait but instead migrated in well-developed watercraft along the deglaciated coasts about 13,500 years ago. They reached South America within about a thousand years of leaving Asia. Most scholars have thought that early New World dwellers were big-game hunters, but Dixon sees them as general foragers on the coastal plains who spread into the interior from south to north about 10,500 years ago. His groundbreaking account is recommended for scholars, students, and general readers.
Synopsis
This revolutionary synthesis dispels the stereotype of big game hunters following mammoths across the Bering Land Bridge, while painting a vivid picture of marine mammal hunters, fishers, and general foragers colonizing the New World.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-312) and index.
About the Author
E. James Dixon is curator of Museum and Field Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.