Gateway to the Americas: New Archaeological Evidence on North American Origins

大陆冰川降低了全球海平面，暴露了白令陆桥，并在末次盛冰期（LGM）期间阻止了从亚洲迁移到美洲的人类进入。 然而，考古发现表明，人类在最后一个冰河时代结束之前（大约11，000年前）就已经在冰盖以南的地区定居。基于这些数据，PI E.詹姆斯狄克逊质疑的主要理论，白令陆桥和向南迁移通过北美中部是人类进入美洲的最初路线。 狄克逊？另一种假说认为，在16,000年至12,000年前，人类可能首先使用船只进入美洲，殖民避难所和北美西北海岸大陆架的冰川消退地区，这些地区因海平面较低而暴露出来。 这个研究项目挑战了关于美洲原住民起源的传统思想，他们最初适应的性质，以及他们何时以及如何首次殖民美洲。 美洲原住民的口述历史，最近在海底发现的文物，以及精细的古环境和地质数据，使我们有可能确定阿拉斯加东南部古代水下遗址的具体地点。 这项研究将分析这些数据，并采用地理信息系统（GIS）建模的LGM和LGM后古地理，以确定特定的水下地点在阿拉斯加东南部（SE）的大陆架上表现出很高的考古潜力。 将使用海洋考古技术，包括多波束侧扫声纳和海底沉积物取样，对已确定的地点和具有高考古潜力的选定地区进行调查和取样，以检验沿海迁移假设。

Continental glaciers lowered global sea level exposing the Bering Land Bridge and blocked the entry of humans migrating from Asia to the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, archeological discoveries indicate that humans had colonized areas south of the ice sheets prior to the end of the last Ice Age (c 11,000 years radiocarbon ago). Based on these data, PI E. James Dixon questions the predominant theory that the Bering Land Bridge and southward migration through central North America was the original route of human entry to the Americas. Dixon?s alternative hypothesis suggests that between 16,000 and 12,000 years ago humans using watercraft may have first entered the Americas by colonizing refugia and deglaciated areas of the continental shelf of the Northwest (NW) Coast of North America exposed by lower sea level. This research project challenges traditional thought regarding the origins of Native Americans, the nature of their original adaptation, and when and how they first colonized the Americas. Native American oral histories, recent discovery of artifacts on the ocean floor, and refined paleoenvironmental and geological data, make it possible to identify specific locales where ancient submerged sites may be located in SE Alaska. This research will analyze these data and employ Geographic Information Systems (GIS) modeling of LGM and post-LGM paleogeography to identify specific under water locales on the continental shelf of Southeast (SE) Alaska that exhibit high archeological potential. Identified site locales and select areas exhibiting high archeological potential will be surveyed and sampled using marine archeological techniques including multibeam side scan sonar and bottom sediment sampling in an effort to test the coastal migration hypothesis.