Peopling of the Tularosa Playa during the Last Glacial Maximum

留下或找到一个足迹，提供了一个直接连接到过去和过去的行为，有一些巨大的情感。新墨西哥州的白色沙滩国家公园是一个干涸的湖床，上面有数千个人类和已灭绝的冰河时代巨型动物（如猛犸象）留下的脚印。它们讲述了冰河时代在这个干涸的湖床（干湖）上生活的故事。这些脚印非常广泛，使我们能够在湖床上追踪猛犸象、骆驼、巨型地懒和可怕的狼，并揭示它们与早期人类猎人的互动。不像其他网站，他们提供了一个独特的窗口，以了解过去。对于遗迹考古学来说，这是一个真正令人惊叹的地方，或者换句话说，研究足迹化石，这是一门被称为遗迹学的学科。2021年9月，我们设法在一个地方确定了这些脚印的年代，这个年代让我们感到惊讶，并挑战了关于美洲人的传统智慧。它们可以追溯到冰川周期的高度，也就是最后一次冰川最大期，当时冰盖在北美形成了一个不可穿透的东西屏障。传统的模式是人们从亚洲走到阿拉斯加，等待冰盖融化，然后向南迁移。我们的工作改变了这一点，人们证实了在21,000年至23,000年前的两千年里，在冰盖屏障以南的白色沙滩上。很显然，他们应该是在冰障之前就到了，但又是在冰障之前多久？这些人在新墨西哥州做什么？他们是怎么活下来的？他们的生活方式是什么？白色沙滩的脚印可以回答这些问题;我们已经写了标题，但现在需要挖掘我们可以从这个网站的考古信息的全部潜力。这项工作还有另一个非常重要的方面。这些足迹代表了土著人民祖先的足迹，然而科学霸权削弱了他们的声音，然而他们有权讲述自己的故事，并让他们的足迹叙述与考古学家的足迹叙述一起被听到。我们建议在尊重和互惠的基础上开发新的合作方式，承认和重视关于白色沙滩足迹的多个事实。有必要制定包含土著方法的方法，因为足迹发现越来越频繁地在世界各地发生。这项研究将为这个勇敢的新发现世界培训和装备新一代遗迹考古学家，同时为围绕美洲人口的长期争论的问题提供重要信息。

There is something hugely emotive about leaving or finding a footprint that provides a direct connection to the past and to past behaviour. White Sands National Park in New Mexico is a dried lake bed with literally thousands of footprints left by humans and extinct Ice Age megafauna such as mammoths. They tell of story of life on this dried lakebed (playa) during the ice age. The footprints are so extensive they allow us to track mammoths, camels, giant ground sloth and dire wolves across the lake bed and reveal their interaction with early human hunters. Like no other site they provide a unique window into the past. It is a truly amazing place for ichno-archaeology or put another way the study of track fossils a discipline called ichnology.In September 2021 we managed to date these footprints at one locality and the age surprised us and challenges conventional wisdom about the peopling of the Americas. They date from the height of the glacial cycle, referred to as the Last Glacial Maximum when ice sheets formed an impenetrable east-west barrier across North America. Traditional models have folk penned up in Alaska having walked from Asia waiting for this ice sheet barrier to melt before migrating south. Our work changes that with people confirmed at White Sands south of the ice sheet barrier over two millennia between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. Clearly, they must have arrived before the ice barrier, but how much before? What were these people doing in New Mexico? How did they survive? What were their lifeways? The footprints at White Sands can answer these question; we have written the headline but now need to mine the full potential of archaeological information that we can from this site. There is another hugely important dimension to this work. These footprints represent the ancestral footfall of indigenous peoples, yet scientific hegemony emasculates their voice, yet they have a right to tell their stories and for their footprint narratives to be heard alongside those of archaeologists. We propose to develop new ways of collaborative working based on respect and reciprocity which recognises and values multiple truths about the White Sands footprints. There is a need to develop methodologies that embrace indigenous methods since footprint discoveries are occurring around the world with increasing frequency. This research will train and equip a new generation of ichno-archaeologists for this brave new world of discovery while adding vital information to long debated questions around the peopling of the Americas.