Across Beringia: The Palaeolithic Peopling of Canada

Abstract

Pleistocene peopling of the American continent has been one of the most discussed and controversial issues of human beginnings for over a century. The western coastal and interior Canada is the key area as far as the search for evidence of the earliest paleo-American dispersals from NE Asia. The territory experienced multiple glaciations, each leading to changes in palaeo-landscape and erosion with massive continental accumulation of glacial/glacigenic deposits, most extensive of which occurred during the early and late Last Glacial stages at the end of the Pleistocene (74–56 ka BP and 24–12 ka BP, respectively). The moderate mid-Last-Glacial interstadial (55–24 ka BP) climates generated mosaic and biotically rich habitats of boreal forests and parklands comparable to those of today, with a vital potential to support early prehistoric occupations. The related non-glacial (MIS 3) geological formations of the former riverine and open prairie settings are believed to have represented the principal culture-bearing contexts of the pre-Last Glacial (>24 000 yr BP) palaeo-Canadian / pre-Clovis peopling. The regional geological history and geomorphologic configuration predetermined the temporal and spatial framework of the pre-Holocene archaeological records buried under the present surface. This logical assumption is confirmed by patterned discoveries of the “pre-glacial” sites along the eastern (Alberta) foothills of the Rocky Mountains sealed by massive (10–80 m-thick) Cordilleran and Laurentide tills and associated glacial lake beds that provide a definite proof of the Native Canadian settlements of the western prairies prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. The associated cultural records are defined as Palaeolithic given their geo-chronology and the uniformity of the lithic industries found in Siberian traditions of the same period that were the cultural substrate of the initial New World migrations.