A consideration of the Siberian data by anyone acquainted, albeit summarily, with the major themes of North American prehistory, cannot fail to lead to the formulation of a number of specific problems relating to prehistoric contacts between the Old World and the New and their effect on culture development on both continents. The limitations of available data, time, space, and competence alike set limits to the degree to which they may be fruitfully explored here. Yet it seems worthwhile at least to list the more obvious ones and to comment on them briefly, thereby suggesting directions for future investigation.
AbstractMy object here is to list and briefly discuss the themes which seem most important and most valuable in Albert Spaulding's contributions to archaeological method and theory. I have not attempted to be biographical, to deal with his substantive contributions to North American prehistory, or to be exhaustive in mentioning every good idea and useful suggestion he has put into print. My discussion is also incomplete because the flow of major contributions has not ceased. Al is still busy trying new things (Spaulding 1976) and assessing current archaeological fashions with clarity, vigor, and reason (Spaulding 1973,1974).
The Tremarctinae are a subfamily of bears endemic to the New World, including two of the largest terrestrial mammalian carnivores that have ever lived: the giant, short-faced bears
Arctodus simus
from North America and
Arctotherium angustidens
from South America (greater than or equal to 1000 kg).
Arctotherium angustidens
became extinct during the Early Pleistocene, whereas
Arctodus simus
went extinct at the very end of the Pleistocene. The only living tremarctine is the spectacled bear (
Tremarctos ornatus
), a largely herbivorous bear that is today only found in South America. The relationships among the spectacled bears (
Tremarctos
), South American short-faced bears (
Arctotherium
) and North American short-faced bears (
Arctodus
) remain uncertain. In this study, we sequenced a mitochondrial genome from an
Arctotherium
femur preserved in a Chilean cave. Our molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that the South American short-faced bears were more closely related to the extant South American spectacled bear than to the North American short-faced bears. This result suggests striking convergent evolution of giant forms in the two groups of short-faced bears (
Arctodus
and
Arctotherium
), potentially as an adaptation to dominate competition for megafaunal carcasses.
While the prevailing theoretical orthodoxy of North American archaeology overwhelmingly discourages consideration of transoceanic cultural diffusion, linguistic and archaeological evidence appear to indicate at least one instance of direct cultural contact between Polynesia and southern California during the prehistoric era. Three words used to refer to boats - including the distinctive sewn-plank canoe used by Chumashan and Gabrielino speakers of the southern California coast - are odd by the phonotactic and morphological standards of their languages and appear to correlate with Proto-Central Eastern Polynesian terms associated with woodworking and canoe construction. Chumashan and Gabrielino speakers seem to have borrowed this complex of words along with the sewn-plank construction technique itself sometime between ca. A.D. 400 and 800, at which time there is also evidence for punctuated adaptive change (e.g., increased exploitation of pelagic fish) and appearance of a Polynesian style two-piece bone fishhook in the Santa Barbara Channel. These developments were coeval with a period of major exploratory seafaring by the Polynesians that resulted in the discovery and settlement of Hawaii - the nearest Polynesian outpost to southern California. Archaeological and ethnographic information from the Pacific indicates that the Polynesians had the capabilities of navigation, boat construction, and sailing, as well as the cultural incentives to complete a one-way passage from Hawaii to the mainland of southern California. These findings suggest that diffusion and other forms of historical contingency still need to be considered in constructions of North American prehistory.
Ancient mitochondrial DNA reveals convergent evolution of giant short-faced bears (Tremarctinae) in North and South America