Late Wisconsin and early Holocene paleoenvironments of east-central North America based on assemblages of fossil Coleoptera

Radiocarbon dates from 176 sites along the Delmarva Peninsula record the timing of deposition and sea-level rise, and non-marine wetland deposition. The dates provide confirmation of the boundaries of the Holocene subepochs (e.g. “early-middle-late” of Walker et al.) in the mid-Atlantic of eastern North America. These data record initial sea-level rise in the early Holocene, followed by a high rate of rise at the transition to the middle Holocene at 8.2 ka, and a leveling off and decrease in the late-Holocene. The dates, coupled to local and regional climate (pollen) records and fluvial activity, allow regional subdivision of the Holocene into six depositional and climate phases. Phase A (>10 ka) is the end of periglacial activity and transition of cold/cool climate to a warmer early Holocene. Phase B (10.2–8.2 ka) records rise of sea level in the region, a transition to Pinus-dominated forest, and decreased non-marine deposition on the uplands. Phase C (8.2–5.6 ka) shows rapid rates of sea-level rise, expansion of estuaries, and a decrease in non-marine deposition with cool and dry climate. Phase D (5.6–4.2 ka) is a time of high rates of sea-level rise, expanding estuaries, and dry and cool climate; the Atlantic shoreline transgressed rapidly and there was little to no deposition on the uplands. Phase E (4.2–1.1 ka) is a time of lowering sea-level rise rates, Atlantic shorelines nearing their present position, and marine shoal deposition; widespread non-marine deposition resumed with a wetter and warmer climate. Phase F (1.1 ka-present) incorporates the Medieval Climate Anomaly and European settlement on the Delmarva Peninsula. Chronology of depositional phases and coastal changes related to sea-level rise is useful for archeological studies of human occupation in relation to climate change in eastern North America, and provides an important dataset for future regional and global sea-level reconstructions.

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East Central and Southeast Europe: A Handbook of Library and Archival Resources in North America

The American Historical Review ◽

10.2307/1865253 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 82 (4) ◽

pp. 1013

Author(s):

Owen V. Johnson ◽

Paul L. Horecky ◽

David E. Kraus

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Southeast Europe ◽

East Central

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The Role of Basketry in Early Holocene Small Seed Exploitation: Implications of a Ca. 9,000 Year-Old Basket from Cowboy Cave, Utah

American Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0002731600041299 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 73 (1) ◽

pp. 83-102 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Phil R. Geib ◽

Edward A. Jolie

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Great Basin ◽

Processing Technique ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Western North America ◽

Seed Processing ◽

Small Seed ◽

Food Exploitation ◽

The Continuum

Despite ranking at the low end of the continuum in net caloric benefit relative to other foods, small seeds assumed great dietary importance in many parts of the world, including western North America. In a series of publications, Adovasio (1970a, 1974, 1980, 1986) argued that coiled basketry technology was invented in the eastern Great Basin during the early Holocene as a specialized food-processing technique. Coiled baskets are indeed useful for collecting and processing seeds, but it does not necessarily follow that they were originally designed for this purpose. A whole basket recently discovered at Cowboy Cave in southeastern Utah returned an AMS radiocarbon assay of 7960 ± 50 B.P., making it currently the earliest directly dated coiled basket from the Americas. This basket is not a parching tray and likely had nothing to do with harvesting seeds. We discuss the implications of this find with regard to tracking the temporal spread of coiled basketry technology in western North America and the role of coiled and twined forms in the initiation of small seed exploitation. Coiled and twined baskets for small seed processing may result from reconfiguration of existing technologies to create novel forms suited to a new food exploitation strategy.

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Radiocarbon and Protein Analyses Indicate an Early Holocene Age for the Osseous Rod from Grenfell, Saskatchewan, Canada

American Antiquity ◽

10.7183/0002-7316.79.4.782 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 79 (4) ◽

pp. 782-793 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

John W. Ives ◽

Duane Froese ◽

Matthew Collins ◽

Fiona Brock

Keyword(s):

Mass Spectrometry ◽

North America ◽

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Raw Material ◽

Long Bone ◽

Data Sets ◽

Additional Information ◽

Made In ◽

Do So

AbstractThe Grenfell bone rod resembles other instances of Clovis-era organic or osseous technology and has on a number of occasions been considered with other Clovis bone, antler, and ivory rods or beveled artifacts. It had been suspected of being constructed from proboscidean long bone. As an early discovery (made in 1883), the Grenfell artifact had somewhat obscure provenience details and a lengthy curatorial history. We describe accelerator mass spectrometry and zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry methods that allow rapid, minimally destructive determinations of both the age and the raw material composition of osseous artifacts. Our analysis reveals that the Grenfell artifact is actually a terminal Paleoindian-era manifestation made of bison bone. Similar methods could be more widely applied in North America in order to build more refined data sets for osseous technologies. These results also reveal the ease with which archaeologists can secure additional information from existing collections, highlighting our ethical obligations to do so.

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Foetal bison long bones and mortality season estimates at the early Holocene Casper and Horner II sites, North America

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology ◽

10.1002/oa.2869 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 425-434

Author(s):

Ryan P. Breslawski ◽

Tomasin Playford ◽

Christopher M. Johnston

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Long Bones

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A giant Permian fusulinid from east-central Alaska with comparisons of all giant fusulinids in western North America

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1017/s0022336000035484 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 69 (5) ◽

pp. 805-812 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Calvin H. Stevens

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Related Species ◽

The Other ◽

Lower Permian ◽

Early Permian ◽

Western North America ◽

Closely Related Species ◽

East Central ◽

West Texas ◽

Species Groups

The discovery of a new locality yielding giant Guadalupian (Lower Permian) fusulinids in east-central Alaska extends the range of these forms much farther north than previously known, and into a tectonostratigraphic terrane from which they previously had not been reported. The number of areas from which giant parafusulinids are known in North America is thus raised to eight. Three of these localities are in rocks that previously had been referred to the allochthonous McCloud belt arc, and one, West Texas, is known to have been part of Paleozoic North America. Comparison of species from all areas suggests that there are two closely related species groups: one represented in Texas and Coahuila, and the other represented in Sonora, northern California, northeastern Washington, southern and northern British Columbia, Alaska, and apparently in Texas. These groups may differ because they are of slightly different ages or because interchange between the faunas of Texas–Coahuila area and the other regions was somewhat inhibited during the Early Permian.

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Influence of Changing Atmospheric Circulation on Precipitation δ18O–Temperature Relations in Canada during the Holocene

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1006/qres.1996.0061 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 211-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 107

Author(s):

Thomas W.D. Edwards ◽

Brent B. Wolfe ◽

Glen M. Macdonald

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Atmospheric Circulation ◽

General Circulation ◽

Isotope Composition ◽

Circulation Model ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Temperature Relation ◽

Atmospheric Circulation Patterns ◽

Central Canada ◽

Precipitation Ratio

Postglacial precipitation δ18O history has been reconstructed for two regions of Canada. Long-term shifts in the oxygen-isotope composition of annual precipitation (δ18Op) in southern Ontario appear to have occurred with a consistent isotope–temperature relation throughout the past 11,500 14C yr. The modern isotope–temperature relation in central Canada near present boreal treeline evidently became established between 5000 and 4000 years ago, although the relation during the last glacial maximum and deglaciation may also have been similar to present. In the early Holocene, however, unusually high δ18Op apparently persisted, in spite of low temperature locally, probably associated with high zonal index. A rudimentary sensitivity analysis suggests that a small reduction in distillation of moisture in Pacific air masses traversing the western Cordillera, perhaps accompanied by a higher summer:winter precipitation ratio, could have been responsible for the observed effect. Equivalent isotope–temperature “anomalies” apparently occurred elsewhere in western North America in response to changing early-Holocene atmospheric circulation patterns, suggesting that a time-slice map of δ18Op for North America during this period might provide a useful target for testing and validation of atmospheric general circulation model simulations using isotopic water tracers.

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