First Peoples in a New World

First Peoples in a New World PDF Author: David J. Meltzer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520943155
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology. This dazzling, cutting-edge synthesis, written for a wide audience by an archaeologist who has long been at the center of these debates, tells the scientific story of the first Americans: where they came from, when they arrived, and how they met the challenges of moving across the vast, unknown landscapes of Ice Age North America. David J. Meltzer pulls together the latest ideas from archaeology, geology, linguistics, skeletal biology, genetics, and other fields to trace the breakthroughs that have revolutionized our understanding in recent years. Among many other topics, he explores disputes over the hemisphere's oldest and most controversial sites and considers how the first Americans coped with changing global climates. He also confronts some radical claims: that the Americas were colonized from Europe or that a crashing comet obliterated the Pleistocene megafauna. Full of entertaining descriptions of on-site encounters, personalities, and controversies, this is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of how science is illuminating our past.

First Peoples in a New World

First Peoples in a New World PDF Author: David J. Meltzer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520943155
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Get Book Here

Book Description
More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology. This dazzling, cutting-edge synthesis, written for a wide audience by an archaeologist who has long been at the center of these debates, tells the scientific story of the first Americans: where they came from, when they arrived, and how they met the challenges of moving across the vast, unknown landscapes of Ice Age North America. David J. Meltzer pulls together the latest ideas from archaeology, geology, linguistics, skeletal biology, genetics, and other fields to trace the breakthroughs that have revolutionized our understanding in recent years. Among many other topics, he explores disputes over the hemisphere's oldest and most controversial sites and considers how the first Americans coped with changing global climates. He also confronts some radical claims: that the Americas were colonized from Europe or that a crashing comet obliterated the Pleistocene megafauna. Full of entertaining descriptions of on-site encounters, personalities, and controversies, this is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of how science is illuminating our past.

The Settlement of the American Continents

The Settlement of the American Continents PDF Author: C. Michael Barton
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816523238
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
When many scholars are asked about early human settlement in the Americas, they might point to a handful of archaeological sites as evidence. Yet the process was not a simple one, and today there is no consistent argument favoring a particular scenario for the peopling of the New World. This book approaches the human settlement of the Americas from a biogeographical perspective in order to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms and consequences of this unique event. It considers many of the questions that continue to surround the peopling of the Western Hemisphere, focusing not on sites, dates, and artifacts but rather on theories and models that attempt to explain how the colonization occurred. Unlike other studies, this book draws on a wide range of disciplinesÑarchaeology, human genetics and osteology, linguistics, ethnology, and ecologyÑto present the big picture of this migration. Its wide-ranging content considers who the Pleistocene settlers were and where they came from, their likely routes of migration, and the ecological role of these pioneers and the consequences of colonization. Comprehensive in both geographic and topical coverage, the contributions include an explanation of how the first inhabitants could have spread across North America within several centuries, the most comprehensive review of new mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome data relating to the colonization, and a critique of recent linguistic theories. Although the authors lean toward a conservative rather than an extreme chronology, this volume goes beyond the simplistic emphasis on dating that has dominated the debate so far to a concern with late Pleistocene forager adaptations and how foragers may have coped with a wide range of environmental and ecological factors. It offers researchers in this exciting field the most complete summary of current knowledge and provides non-specialists and general readers with new answers to the questions surrounding the origins of the first Americans.

First Peoples in a New World

First Peoples in a New World PDF Author: David J. Meltzer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108498221
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
A study of Ice Age Americans, highlighting genetic, archaeological and geological evidence that has revolutionized our understanding of their origins, antiquity, and adaptations.

Origin

Origin PDF Author: Jennifer Raff
Publisher: Twelve
ISBN: 153874970X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! From celebrated anthropologist Jennifer Raff comes the untold story—and fascinating mystery—of how humans migrated to the Americas. ORIGIN is the story of who the first peoples in the Americas were, how and why they made the crossing, how they dispersed south, and how they lived based on a new and powerful kind of evidence: their complete genomes. ORIGIN provides an overview of these new histories throughout North and South America, and a glimpse into how the tools of genetics reveal details about human history and evolution. 20,000 years ago, people crossed a great land bridge from Siberia into Western Alaska and then dispersed southward into what is now called the Americas. Until we venture out to other worlds, this remains the last time our species has populated an entirely new place, and this event has been a subject of deep fascination and controversy. No written records—and scant archaeological evidence—exist to tell us what happened or how it took place. Many different models have been proposed to explain how the Americas were peopled and what happened in the thousands of years that followed. A study of both past and present, ORIGIN explores how genetics is currently being used to construct narratives that profoundly impact Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It serves as a primer for anyone interested in how genetics has become entangled with identity in the way that society addresses the question "Who is indigenous?"

Ellis Island and the Peopling of America

Ellis Island and the Peopling of America PDF Author: Virginia Yans-McLaughlin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565843646
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Ellis Island has become an invaluable resource center on immigration and genealogy as well as a national tourist attraction, widely praised for its excellent displays and informative exhibits. Now, the best of the Ellis Island Museum is available to readers in this book that provides an exciting overview of the island, placing it in historical context with a concise history of immigration and global migration. Photos, charts, map, graphs & cartoons.

The Peopling of the New World

The Peopling of the New World PDF Author: John B. Carlson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : America
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description


Voyagers to the West

Voyagers to the West PDF Author: Bernard Bailyn
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307798526
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 721

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Book Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Saloutos Prize of the Immigration History Society Bailyn's Pulitzer Prize-winning book uses an emigration roster that lists every person officially known to have left Britain for America from December 1773 to March 1776 to reconstruct the lives and motives of those who emigrated to the New World. "Voyagers to the West is a superb book...It should be equally admired by and equally attractive to the general reader as to the professional historian."--R.C. Simmons, Journal of American Studies

The Peopling of the New World: The films

The Peopling of the New World: The films PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : America
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Dolní Vestonice–Pavlov

Dolní Vestonice–Pavlov PDF Author: Jirí A. Svoboda
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623498120
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 678

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Book Description
Perhaps the oldest modern human settlement in Europe, the archaeological site at Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov, located in the rolling, forested plains just north of the Danube River, has yielded a treasure trove of Ice Age artifacts since its first excavation in 1924. The earliest people who lived here some 30,000 years ago produced tools crafted from stone and bone and carved elaborate animal and human figurines fashioned of mammoth ivory and sculptures of fired clay, including the famous “Venus of Dolní Věstonice,” one of the oldest known ceramic artifacts in the world. Interestingly, novelist Jean M. Auel took much of the inspiration for her popular novel, Clan of the Cave Bear, from the discoveries at Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov. Richly illustrated throughout, including beautiful color renderings of scenes from Paleolithic life suggested by Svoboda’s research, this first English translation of Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov: Explaining Paleolithic Settlements in Central Europe is sure to provide not only vital information for scholars, researchers, and students but also insightful and thought-provoking background for interested general readers.

Peopling of the New World

Peopling of the New World PDF Author: Jonathon E. Ericson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description