Alaskan Lake Sediment Records and Their Implications for the Beringian Standstill Hypothesis

ABSTRACT

Recent analyses of lake sediments in Alaska have provided physical evidence supporting the genetically inferred Beringian Standstill Hypothesis and insight into the location of its occurrence. However, the biomarkers analyzed in these sediments are relatively novel paleoenvironmental proxies, so their reliability is understandably scrutinized. Further, the timing of human presence inferred from these sediments predates the oldest, unequivocal archaeological artifacts in Alaska. In this Perspective essay, I discuss the interpretation, limitations, and implications of the sedimentary analyses. Additionally, I explore the archaeological dilemma that they pose.

KEYWORDS:

• Peopling of the Americas
• fecal sterols
• polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
• Bluefish Caves
• material culture

Acknowledgements

I thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and improvements to the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Richard S. Vachula is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow of Environmental Science and Policy at the College of William and Mary. Previously, he earned his PhD from Brown University (2020) and served as a postdoctoral research assistant with the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment, and Society at the University of Reading. His research combines paleoecology and organic geochemistry to study the variability, controls, and impacts of fire in the Earth System, as well as the ecological impacts of humans on North American ecosystems.