Paleoindian Colonization by Boat? Refining the Coastal Model

ABSTRACT

Many archaeologists now generally accept the idea that Paleoindians initially entered the Americas traversing the northwestern coastline possibly in conjunction with an ice-free corridor, and arrived south of the ice before 15,000 calendar years ago. A common theme of the coastal model is an emphasis on maritime resources with an adaptation broadly characterized as seafaring with seaworthy boats. While coastal Paleoindians did have a maritime adaptation and watercraft, it seems that viewing this adaptation as seafaring with seaworthy boats is ambiguous, leading to an impression that the “first Americans arrived by boat.” Here, the terms seafaring and seaworthy are defined to avoid confusion regarding initial coastal Paleoindian adaptations. Lastly, while initial Paleoindians did use watercraft, such craft were likely simple as there is currently no evidence of the presence, use, or necessity of actual seaworthy boats along the Pacific coast of North America until after about 10,000 calendar years ago.

KEYWORDS:

• Paleoindians
• colonization of the Americas
• coastal model
• seafarers
• seaworthy boats

Acknowledgements

I thank Todd Braje, Jim Cassidy, Jill K. Gardner, Ken Gobalet, Ted Goebel, Kelly Graf, Mike Moratto, and anonymous reviewers for their assistance, comments, and suggestions to improve this paper. They have all insisted that I retain full responsibility for its content. Luke Wesner prepared Figure 1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Mark Q. Sutton is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Bakersfield. He earned his PhD in Anthropology at the University of California Riverside in 1987 and subsequently served as Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Archaeological Research at CSU-Bakersfield. Sutton’s research has focused on the archaeology of hunter-gatherers in California and the Great Basin, and on Paleoindians. Among his books are Archaeological Laboratory Methods: An Introduction (2014, with Brooke Arkush), Paleonutrition (2010, with K. Sobolik and J. Gardner), A Prehistory of North America (2011), Introduction to Cultural Ecology (2013, with E. Anderson), and An Introduction to Native North America (2016).

ORCID

Mark Q. Sutton http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2065-5157