The Earliest Peopling of the Rocky and Andes Mountains

Abstract

Abstract The American Cordillera comprises a system of mountains stretching nearly 15,000 kilometres from the Alaska and Brooks Ranges in the north to the southernmost tip of South America at Tierra del Fuego. In a rather real way, the Cordillera constitutes a backbone for the Western Hemisphere. Within the American Cordillera, the North American Rocky Mountains and South American Andes contain some of the earliest widely accepted sites in the hemisphere and played an important role in the initial peopling of the Americas. Recent research in the Rockies and Andes focusses on the development of physiological and genetic adaptations to high elevation, the time frames of initial and intensified residential occupation of highlands, the nature of connections between early highland and lowland sites, and potential use of the American Cordillera as an early migration corridor. Such research reveals a very early (Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene) command of high-altitude landscapes and their resources and highly flexible settlement and mobility strategies.