Coastally-adapted: A developing model for coastal Paleoindian sites on the North American eastern continental shelf

Abstract

Earth has experienced several phases of glacial and interglacial climates over the past 200,000 years. A majority of that time has been under colder than current conditions. During these periods, large amounts of water were frozen at the poles, which lowered sea-levels by as much as 130 m. The climate has been so weighted toward colder conditions, that 90% of human history has taken place during lower than modern sea-levels. The reintroduction of freshwater into the oceans after the last glacial maximum radically changed global sea-levels, inland water tables, and littoral landscapes. Over the last 20,000 years, approximately 20 million km2 of coastal landscape has been submerged worldwide, an area roughly the size of South America. The inundation of these landscapes has created gaps in our understanding of the history of humans directly interacting with the coasts. Here, I briefly review key global Middle and Upper Pleistocene era (162,000–11,500 years ago) archaeological sites and present a model for eastern coastally-adapted Paleoindian sites on the North American Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) submerged continental shelf. It is clear from this review that coastally-adapted Paleoindian sites will not likely reflect the quintessential hallmarks of upland Paleoindian sites, with carefully-crafted bifacial projectile points constructed from exotic lithic material, megafaunal remains, ephemeral campsites signifying high mobility. Instead, coastal Paleoindian sites will likely contain micro-blade and utilized flakes technology constructed from locally sourced lithic material in place of projectile points, with few terrestrial fauna, replaced by shellfish middens at longer-term residential sites, within 10 to 12 km of the coast.