World Archaeology, 46:5, 752-774, DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2014.966273, 2014
The Solutrean hypothesis for the origin of the Clovis archaeological culture contends that people... more The Solutrean hypothesis for the origin of the Clovis archaeological culture contends that people came
from south-western Europe to North America during the Last Glacial Maximum. This hypothesis has received numerous critiques, but little objective testing, either of cultural or genetic evidence. We contest the assertion that there is NO genetic evidence to support this hypothesis, and detail the published evidence, consistent with a pre-Columbian western Eurasian origin for some founding genetic markers,
specifically mtDNA X2a, and some autosomal influence, found in ancient and modern Native American populations. The possibility that the inferred pre-Columbian western autosomal influence came more directly than through Siberia is not even considered in such studies. The mtDNA X2a evidence is more consistent with the Atlantic route and dates suggested by the Solutrean hypothesis and is more parsimonious than the assumption of a single Beringian entry, that assumes retrograde extinction of X in East
Eurasia.
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than 130 ka is unprecedented and potentially transformational. It calls for a concerted effort in
North and South America to investigate other such ancient contexts that substantially predate
the commonly accepted late-glacial timing of the first peopling of the New World.
mastodon bones and teeth with stone cobbles in California ∼130,000 years ago. Their claim
implies a human colonization of the New World more than 110,000 years earlier than the oldest
widely accepted archaeological sites in the Americas. It is also at odds with genetic and fossil
evidence for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) out of Africa and
around the world. Recognizing the incompatibility of their claim with extant knowledge, the
authors suggest that the Cerutti Mastodon locality might have been created by an as-yet
unidentified archaic hominin, for which no fossil, archaeological, or genomic evidence currently
exists in northeast Asia or the Americas. We assess Holen et al.’s (2017) supporting evidence and
argue that such extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, which their paper and
supporting materials fail to provide.
broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.
from south-western Europe to North America during the Last Glacial Maximum. This hypothesis has received numerous critiques, but little objective testing, either of cultural or genetic evidence. We contest the assertion that there is NO genetic evidence to support this hypothesis, and detail the published evidence, consistent with a pre-Columbian western Eurasian origin for some founding genetic markers,
specifically mtDNA X2a, and some autosomal influence, found in ancient and modern Native American populations. The possibility that the inferred pre-Columbian western autosomal influence came more directly than through Siberia is not even considered in such studies. The mtDNA X2a evidence is more consistent with the Atlantic route and dates suggested by the Solutrean hypothesis and is more parsimonious than the assumption of a single Beringian entry, that assumes retrograde extinction of X in East
Eurasia.
Human Remains Materials and Methods
Following a skeletal inventory, osteometric measurements were taken of all complete and
refitted elements. The approximate ages of Individuals 1 and 2, along with length and weight of
the latter, were then estimated using several standard techniques (1-8). Aging based on the state
of deciduous crown development follows (9) and (10). These two methods account for multiple
formation stages to facilitate precision in aging young individuals; however, both are based on
European reference groups. A third method adjusted for aging Native Americans (11) is also
used, but is primarily based on eruption times so in this case is more subjective.
Recording of the 22 dental nonmetric traits in the deciduous crowns of Individual 1 was
effected using the method of Sciulli (12). With exception, this method emulates the Arizona
State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS) (13) and other previous approaches for
the study of permanent teeth. The utility of these traits is well known (14-15). Briefly, they have
minimal inter- and intra-observer recording error rates, are easily identifiable, represent all dental
morphogenetic fields, are not sexually dimorphic and, of most importance, because they are
evolutionarily conservative with a high genetic component in their expression (16-18), are
excellent markers for biodistance analyses (19). Beyond simply making them available to
interested researchers, these data are included to show that the USR site inhabitants apparently
possessed a Sinodont-like dental pattern (16) present in all Northeast Asians and Native
Americans; there are researchers who believe that some early immigrants had alternate origins
and/or possess a morphologically simpler Sundadont pattern (16).
The success of sex estimation in infant skeletal remains differs by element and feature(s),
but has most often been attempted using mandible and ilium morphology (20-24); that approach
was followed here. Accuracy rates also vary by sex and among samples if derived from different
populations (24). Still, Schutkowski (21) reported accuracy rates of up to 95%, though his work is
based on samples of European and European-derived skeletal remains. And, many researchers are
dubious that skeletal sexing of infants can be done at all. Therefore, the successful extraction of
viable (nuclear or mitochondrial) aDNA is a crucial step toward final sex determination
11,500 calibrated years (cal) B.P. at the Upward Sun River site in
central Alaska. The infants were interred in a pit feature with
associated organic and lithic grave goods, including the earliest
known North American hafted bifaces with decorated antler foreshafts.
Skeletal and dental analyses indicate that Individual 1 died
shortly after birth and Individual 2 was a late-term fetus, making
these the youngest-aged late Pleistocene individuals known for
the Americas and the only known prenate, offering, to our knowledge,
the first opportunity to explore mortuary treatment of the
youngest members of a terminal Pleistocene North American population.
This burial was situated 40 cm directly below a cremated
3-y-old child previously discovered in association with a central
hearth of a residential feature. The burial and cremation are contemporaneous,
and differences in body orientation, treatment,
and associated grave goods within a single feature and evidence
for residential occupation between burial episodes indicate novel
mortuary behaviors. The human remains, grave goods, and associated
fauna provide rare direct data on organic technology, economy,
seasonality of residential occupations, and infant/child mortality of
terminal Pleistocene Beringians.
Background: Although the genetic heritage of aboriginal Siberians is mostly of eastern Asian ancestry, a substantial
western Eurasian component is observed in the majority of northern Asian populations. Traces of at least two migrations into southern Siberia, one from eastern Europe and the other from western Asia/the Caucasus have been detected previously in mitochondrial gene pools of modern Siberians.
Results: We report here 166 new complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences that allow us to expand and
re-analyze the available data sets of western Eurasian lineages found in northern Asian populations, define the
phylogenetic status of Siberian-specific subclades and search for links between mtDNA haplotypes/subclades and
events of human migrations. From a survey of 158 western Eurasian mtDNA genomes found in Siberia we estimate
that nearly 40% of them most likely have western Asian and another 29% European ancestry. It is striking that 65 of
northern Asian mitogenomes, i.e. ~41%, fall into 19 branches and subclades which can be considered as Siberian-specific
being found so far only in Siberian populations. From the coalescence analysis it is evident that the sequence divergence of Siberian-specific subclades was relatively small, corresponding to only 0.6-9.5 kya (using the complete mtDNA rate) and 1–6 kya (coding region rate).
Conclusions: The phylogeographic analysis implies that the western Eurasian founders, giving rise to Siberian specific
subclades, may trace their ancestry only to the early and mid-Holocene, though some of genetic lineages may trace their ancestry back to the end of Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We have not found the modern northern Asians to have western Eurasian genetic components of sufficient antiquity to indicate traces of pre-LGM expansions.
Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 14C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. “Blind testing” analysis of coprolites by an
independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.
Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 14C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. “Blind testing” analysis of coprolites by an
independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.
Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis
technological complex in North America ca. 11-10.8
thousand radiocarbon years before present (14C ka B.P.)
remains contentious. We establish that humans were
present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, south-central
Oregon, by 12,300 14C yr. B.P., through recovery of
human mtDNA from coprolites, directly dated by
accelerator mass spectrometry. The mtDNA corresponds
to Native American founding haplogroups A2 and B2.
The dates of the coprolites are >1000 14C years earlier
than currently accepted dates for the Clovis-complex.
Block B is located on Terrace 1. The oldest deposits in Block B (Fig. S1) are fluvial
channel gravels (unit 1a) overlain by floodplain clays (unit 1b). Sediment from unit 1b yielded
five luminescence ages ranging from 39,000 to 19,000 yr B.P. and contained no artifacts or
faunal remains. Unit 1 was eroded and a 4 m-wide channel was created. This channel filled with
multiple thin layers of sand and gravel (unit 2a) that are interbedded with clay (unit 2b). At the
base of the channel are Clovis artifacts (blades, blade cores, end-thinned bifaces, a fluted
preform, and other tools) and above this are later artifacts, including an Angostura point. These
artifacts represent prehistoric activities that took place in and adjacent to the channel. Five
luminescence ages from the clay sediments (unit 2b) range from 13,885 + 1015 yr B.P. (UIC-
2383; associated with Clovis) to 9860 + 740 yr B.P. (UIC-2378; above the Angostura point).
These sediments were truncated by later erosion and channel formation. The next sequence of
deposits consists of basal gravels (unit 3a) containing a Middle Archaic Andice point (ca. 5500
to 6800 yr B.P.). This is overlain by fine-grained silt and clay sediments (units 3b, 3d, and 3f)
and occasional sand lenses in small channels (units 3c and 3e). Three luminescence ages from
the fine-grained sediments center around 4000 yr B.P. These deposits represent ancestral
channels and floodplains of Buttermilk Creek
years ago) in North America is present at only a few sites, and the stone tool assemblages from
these sites are small and varied. The Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas, contains an assemblage of
15,528 artifacts that define the Buttermilk Creek Complex, which stratigraphically underlies a
Clovis assemblage and dates between ~13.2 and 1
5.5 thousand years ago. The Buttermilk Creek
Complex confirms the emerging view that people occupied the Americas before Clovis and provides
a large artifact assemblage to explore Clovis origins.
south of the glaciers [∼11,500 to ≥ ∼10,800 14C yBP; ∼13,300 to
∼12,800 calibrated (Cal) years] made distinctive “Clovis” artifacts.
They are stereotypically characterized as hunters of Pleistocene
megamammals (mostly mammoth) who entered the continent
via Beringia and an ice-free corridor in Canada. The origins of
Clovis technology are unclear, however, with no obvious evidence
of a predecessor to the north. Here we present evidence for Clovis
hunting and habitation ∼11,550 yBP (∼13,390 Cal years) at “El Fin
del Mundo,” an archaeological site in Sonora, northwestern Mexico.
The site also includes the first evidence to our knowledge for
gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) as Clovis prey, otherwise unknown
in the North American archaeological record and terminal Pleistocene
paleontological record. These data (i) broaden the age and
geographic range for Clovis, establishing El Fin del Mundo as one
of the oldest and southernmost in situ Clovis sites, supporting the
hypothesis that Clovis had its origins well south of the gateways
into the continent, and (ii) expand the make-up of the North
American megafauna community just before extinction.
than 130 ka is unprecedented and potentially transformational. It calls for a concerted effort in
North and South America to investigate other such ancient contexts that substantially predate
the commonly accepted late-glacial timing of the first peopling of the New World.
mastodon bones and teeth with stone cobbles in California ∼130,000 years ago. Their claim
implies a human colonization of the New World more than 110,000 years earlier than the oldest
widely accepted archaeological sites in the Americas. It is also at odds with genetic and fossil
evidence for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) out of Africa and
around the world. Recognizing the incompatibility of their claim with extant knowledge, the
authors suggest that the Cerutti Mastodon locality might have been created by an as-yet
unidentified archaic hominin, for which no fossil, archaeological, or genomic evidence currently
exists in northeast Asia or the Americas. We assess Holen et al.’s (2017) supporting evidence and
argue that such extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, which their paper and
supporting materials fail to provide.
broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.
from south-western Europe to North America during the Last Glacial Maximum. This hypothesis has received numerous critiques, but little objective testing, either of cultural or genetic evidence. We contest the assertion that there is NO genetic evidence to support this hypothesis, and detail the published evidence, consistent with a pre-Columbian western Eurasian origin for some founding genetic markers,
specifically mtDNA X2a, and some autosomal influence, found in ancient and modern Native American populations. The possibility that the inferred pre-Columbian western autosomal influence came more directly than through Siberia is not even considered in such studies. The mtDNA X2a evidence is more consistent with the Atlantic route and dates suggested by the Solutrean hypothesis and is more parsimonious than the assumption of a single Beringian entry, that assumes retrograde extinction of X in East
Eurasia.
Human Remains Materials and Methods
Following a skeletal inventory, osteometric measurements were taken of all complete and
refitted elements. The approximate ages of Individuals 1 and 2, along with length and weight of
the latter, were then estimated using several standard techniques (1-8). Aging based on the state
of deciduous crown development follows (9) and (10). These two methods account for multiple
formation stages to facilitate precision in aging young individuals; however, both are based on
European reference groups. A third method adjusted for aging Native Americans (11) is also
used, but is primarily based on eruption times so in this case is more subjective.
Recording of the 22 dental nonmetric traits in the deciduous crowns of Individual 1 was
effected using the method of Sciulli (12). With exception, this method emulates the Arizona
State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS) (13) and other previous approaches for
the study of permanent teeth. The utility of these traits is well known (14-15). Briefly, they have
minimal inter- and intra-observer recording error rates, are easily identifiable, represent all dental
morphogenetic fields, are not sexually dimorphic and, of most importance, because they are
evolutionarily conservative with a high genetic component in their expression (16-18), are
excellent markers for biodistance analyses (19). Beyond simply making them available to
interested researchers, these data are included to show that the USR site inhabitants apparently
possessed a Sinodont-like dental pattern (16) present in all Northeast Asians and Native
Americans; there are researchers who believe that some early immigrants had alternate origins
and/or possess a morphologically simpler Sundadont pattern (16).
The success of sex estimation in infant skeletal remains differs by element and feature(s),
but has most often been attempted using mandible and ilium morphology (20-24); that approach
was followed here. Accuracy rates also vary by sex and among samples if derived from different
populations (24). Still, Schutkowski (21) reported accuracy rates of up to 95%, though his work is
based on samples of European and European-derived skeletal remains. And, many researchers are
dubious that skeletal sexing of infants can be done at all. Therefore, the successful extraction of
viable (nuclear or mitochondrial) aDNA is a crucial step toward final sex determination
11,500 calibrated years (cal) B.P. at the Upward Sun River site in
central Alaska. The infants were interred in a pit feature with
associated organic and lithic grave goods, including the earliest
known North American hafted bifaces with decorated antler foreshafts.
Skeletal and dental analyses indicate that Individual 1 died
shortly after birth and Individual 2 was a late-term fetus, making
these the youngest-aged late Pleistocene individuals known for
the Americas and the only known prenate, offering, to our knowledge,
the first opportunity to explore mortuary treatment of the
youngest members of a terminal Pleistocene North American population.
This burial was situated 40 cm directly below a cremated
3-y-old child previously discovered in association with a central
hearth of a residential feature. The burial and cremation are contemporaneous,
and differences in body orientation, treatment,
and associated grave goods within a single feature and evidence
for residential occupation between burial episodes indicate novel
mortuary behaviors. The human remains, grave goods, and associated
fauna provide rare direct data on organic technology, economy,
seasonality of residential occupations, and infant/child mortality of
terminal Pleistocene Beringians.
Background: Although the genetic heritage of aboriginal Siberians is mostly of eastern Asian ancestry, a substantial
western Eurasian component is observed in the majority of northern Asian populations. Traces of at least two migrations into southern Siberia, one from eastern Europe and the other from western Asia/the Caucasus have been detected previously in mitochondrial gene pools of modern Siberians.
Results: We report here 166 new complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences that allow us to expand and
re-analyze the available data sets of western Eurasian lineages found in northern Asian populations, define the
phylogenetic status of Siberian-specific subclades and search for links between mtDNA haplotypes/subclades and
events of human migrations. From a survey of 158 western Eurasian mtDNA genomes found in Siberia we estimate
that nearly 40% of them most likely have western Asian and another 29% European ancestry. It is striking that 65 of
northern Asian mitogenomes, i.e. ~41%, fall into 19 branches and subclades which can be considered as Siberian-specific
being found so far only in Siberian populations. From the coalescence analysis it is evident that the sequence divergence of Siberian-specific subclades was relatively small, corresponding to only 0.6-9.5 kya (using the complete mtDNA rate) and 1–6 kya (coding region rate).
Conclusions: The phylogeographic analysis implies that the western Eurasian founders, giving rise to Siberian specific
subclades, may trace their ancestry only to the early and mid-Holocene, though some of genetic lineages may trace their ancestry back to the end of Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We have not found the modern northern Asians to have western Eurasian genetic components of sufficient antiquity to indicate traces of pre-LGM expansions.
Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 14C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. “Blind testing” analysis of coprolites by an
independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.
Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 14C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. “Blind testing” analysis of coprolites by an
independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.
Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis
technological complex in North America ca. 11-10.8
thousand radiocarbon years before present (14C ka B.P.)
remains contentious. We establish that humans were
present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, south-central
Oregon, by 12,300 14C yr. B.P., through recovery of
human mtDNA from coprolites, directly dated by
accelerator mass spectrometry. The mtDNA corresponds
to Native American founding haplogroups A2 and B2.
The dates of the coprolites are >1000 14C years earlier
than currently accepted dates for the Clovis-complex.
Block B is located on Terrace 1. The oldest deposits in Block B (Fig. S1) are fluvial
channel gravels (unit 1a) overlain by floodplain clays (unit 1b). Sediment from unit 1b yielded
five luminescence ages ranging from 39,000 to 19,000 yr B.P. and contained no artifacts or
faunal remains. Unit 1 was eroded and a 4 m-wide channel was created. This channel filled with
multiple thin layers of sand and gravel (unit 2a) that are interbedded with clay (unit 2b). At the
base of the channel are Clovis artifacts (blades, blade cores, end-thinned bifaces, a fluted
preform, and other tools) and above this are later artifacts, including an Angostura point. These
artifacts represent prehistoric activities that took place in and adjacent to the channel. Five
luminescence ages from the clay sediments (unit 2b) range from 13,885 + 1015 yr B.P. (UIC-
2383; associated with Clovis) to 9860 + 740 yr B.P. (UIC-2378; above the Angostura point).
These sediments were truncated by later erosion and channel formation. The next sequence of
deposits consists of basal gravels (unit 3a) containing a Middle Archaic Andice point (ca. 5500
to 6800 yr B.P.). This is overlain by fine-grained silt and clay sediments (units 3b, 3d, and 3f)
and occasional sand lenses in small channels (units 3c and 3e). Three luminescence ages from
the fine-grained sediments center around 4000 yr B.P. These deposits represent ancestral
channels and floodplains of Buttermilk Creek
years ago) in North America is present at only a few sites, and the stone tool assemblages from
these sites are small and varied. The Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas, contains an assemblage of
15,528 artifacts that define the Buttermilk Creek Complex, which stratigraphically underlies a
Clovis assemblage and dates between ~13.2 and 1
5.5 thousand years ago. The Buttermilk Creek
Complex confirms the emerging view that people occupied the Americas before Clovis and provides
a large artifact assemblage to explore Clovis origins.
south of the glaciers [∼11,500 to ≥ ∼10,800 14C yBP; ∼13,300 to
∼12,800 calibrated (Cal) years] made distinctive “Clovis” artifacts.
They are stereotypically characterized as hunters of Pleistocene
megamammals (mostly mammoth) who entered the continent
via Beringia and an ice-free corridor in Canada. The origins of
Clovis technology are unclear, however, with no obvious evidence
of a predecessor to the north. Here we present evidence for Clovis
hunting and habitation ∼11,550 yBP (∼13,390 Cal years) at “El Fin
del Mundo,” an archaeological site in Sonora, northwestern Mexico.
The site also includes the first evidence to our knowledge for
gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) as Clovis prey, otherwise unknown
in the North American archaeological record and terminal Pleistocene
paleontological record. These data (i) broaden the age and
geographic range for Clovis, establishing El Fin del Mundo as one
of the oldest and southernmost in situ Clovis sites, supporting the
hypothesis that Clovis had its origins well south of the gateways
into the continent, and (ii) expand the make-up of the North
American megafauna community just before extinction.