CHAPTER FOUR

ANATOMICALLY MODERN HUMANS, MARITIME

VOYAGING, AND THE PLEISTOCENE COLONIZATION OF
THE AMERICAS

Jon M. Erlandson

most of hiin/íin bis/oí'}', ii'/i/t'r n/ital biirc hcen

a majar physical tnid píjchological harricr tind thc
inability to cope ii'/fb water is shown ¡u lb<> archaco-
logícal record by /be absence of rc/i/uhis of fish, shell-
f/s/j, or ntiy ob/ccl thuí required going dcefily lulo
fir //s/tit» boais. There ¿s no evidence ¡bal n'sources oj rirer
¡i¡id .«'// i/'t'/'c iilih-^cd /¡u/U ibis /¿//e pre-agricultural period . . .
fot- etirl}' HKIII, n'iili'i' in/s a barrh'r and a dangsT, no! u res o urce
( W a s h b u r n & Lancastcr 1968:294).

l'or decades, most anthropologists havc believed rhat maririmc adaptations and sca-
faring dcvelopcd very late in human hisrory and that rhc Amcricas werc fírsr coloni/ed
by terrestrial hunrers who walked rhrough thc interior regions of Heringia and rhc
Amcricas. Since thc 1970s, perceplions aljout thc antiquity of human seafarin^ havc
changed dratnatically, but theories about thc devclopmcnt of maririmc adaptations and
rhc pcopling of thc New World havc not kcpr pace. Recently, there has bccn a vcrirable
sea change in our perccprions of thc Pleistocene colonization of thc Americas. |usr a few
years ago, thcrc was a general cnnsensus that thc New World was coloni/ed sometime in
rhc very I-ate Pleistocene by land-based hunters who trekked across Bcringia antl down
the fabled ice-frec corridor inro thc heartland of America, gradually sprcading from sea
to shining sea. An alternative thcory, long peripheral to the dominant paradigm, pro-
posetl that maritime peoples followed the coastüncs of rhc Norrh Pacific from Asia to
the Americas — moving by land añil by sea from northcast Asia, along the southern
shores of Bcringia, and down the Pacific Coast of Norrh America. Ironicallv, while this
"coastal migration thcory" has gained adherents in recent years, it has become almost
conservative compated to scholarly claims and media accounts rhat the Americas may
have first been coloni/ed by seafaring Australian Aborigincs, Polyncsians, or even

59
 ERLANDSON

Europeans who crossed the open Pacific or Atlantic oceans by boat (^., Dixon 1993;
Cann 1994:10; Locke 1999:16; Toyne 1999; Stanford, this volumc).
Aftcr roughly a century of scientific investigación into how and when the Americas
were first settled, many scholars and lay people might reasonably ask how we got from
"Clovis-fírst" to the "Coastal Mígration Theory" to "Almost Anything Gocs" in such a
short amount of time? The amwer to that question is complex, but an important com-
ponent of it clearly grows out of the emcrging (but not unanimous) consensus that the
so-called "Clovis barrier" has been broken by the 12,500 year oíd pericoastal site of
Monte Verde in Chile (see Dillehay 1997; Meltxer et al. 1997). Also contributing ¡s an
emerging body of data that suggests that the ice-free corridor developed relatively late in
time and was probably a daunting and difficult landscape for hunter-gatherers to survivc
in («?.#, MacDonald 1987; Clague (tai 1989; Mandryk 1991; Wright 1991; Elias, this vo¡-
ume). Research has also shown that the coastlines of Alaska and British Columbia
deglaciated earlier than once thought and were more suitable for human occupation than
previously believed (/.?., Mann 1986; Molnia 1986; Barrie et a!. 1993; Beatón & Grady
1993; Mann & Peteet 1994; Mann & llarnilton 1995; Dixon et al. 1997; Josenhans et al.
1997). As thcsc íssues are discusscd clsewhere, they are not the focus of my paper. My
collcagues in this voíume also summari/e the genetic, biological, and linguistic evidence
for the peopling of the New World.
Instead, T focus on another prime reason why the idea that Plcistocene coastal mígra-
tions into the Americas rnay have occurrcd has been marginalixed for decades. This is
the fact that we have long undcrcstimated the sophistication of our distant ancestors, the
importance of the sea in human history, and the maritime capabilities of Late
Pleistocene peoples. When ditl our ancestors first develop relatively complex technolo-
gies? When did they atlapt to the sea and first use relatively sophisticated watercraft?
When were the Americas first settled and what do current archaeological data tcll us
about the possibiiity that maritime peoples may have followed the coastlines of the
North Pacific into the New World?
In this paper, I bring a relatively global perspective to bear on such questions by
examining three related topics: the emergence of anatomically rnodern humans, the
antiquity of maritime adaptations and seafaring, and the peopling of the Americas.
Entirc books have been written on each of these complex Íssues, so my discussion of
each musí be relatively brief and focused on recent developments. In the proccss, I
explore the maritime capabilities of Pleistocene peoples and their potcntial for discover-
ing and settling the New World by sea, by following a North Pacific Rim route from
northeast Asia to the Americas.

60
 MAR1TIMII VOYAGING AND COLONI/ATION OF TMH AMERICAS

Anatomically Modern Humans: An ~ELmerging Consensus?

One of the most ¡nrriguing issues in anthropology today involvcs the cvolution of
•natomicaUy modern humans (I lomo sapiens sapiens). Until the late 1980s, anatoniically
modern humans (AMH) wcrc gencrally believed to have evolved from discrete archaic
Homo sapiens populations in scveral gcographic regions of África, Asia, and Hurope.
These archaic humans were in turn thought to have evolved from ancestral Homo erectas
populations who migrated out of África roughly a million years ago* (I'agan 1990; Klein
1995). Advocares of this rhcory of "muí ti regional evolutíon," relying primarily on mor-
phological studies of human fossils, have proposed a relatively high antiquity (ca. 1—2 mil-
lion years) for the diversity found among living humans and evolutionary continuíty
between largely discrete líneages Momo erecíus, archaic llamo sapiens, and AMH in múltiple
regions of the worid. Mosr multiregionalists believe, for instance, that many modern
humans of Huropean descent carry the ONA of Neanderthal anccstors within their
genetic inheiitance (sec Smith 1994).
In rhc late 1980s, molecular hiologists and anrhropologists proposed a stunning and
very differcnt theory. Based on the analysis of mitochondrial DNA collected from the
placentas of 189 living women, Cann and collcagues (1987) proposed that AMH evolved
first in África ca. 150,000 to 200,000 years ago, then sprcad rapidly around the world
replacing all archaic humans. Bascd on data essentially independent of the human fossil
and archaeological records, rhis controversial "Out of África" (a.k.a. the live or
Replacernent) theory proposed just the oppositc of the orthodox multiregional scenario.
Instead of 1-2 million years to account for modern human diversity, the Out of África
model proposed a calendar of 200,000 years or Icss. Instcad of the essentially indepen-
dent evolutíon of AMH in múltiple regions around thc world, the Out of África theory
proposed a complete and relatively reccnt repiacement by a single evolutionary lineage
of African origin. And instead of Neanclerthals contríbuting their genes to a communal
European inheritance, Out of África proponents see Neandcrthals as an evolutionary
dead end (see Srringer & McKie 1996).
Scemíngly consistent with some archaeological and paleoanrhropological data, and in
conflíct with other evidence, thc Out of África theory has deeply divided paleoanthro-
pologists and archaeologists studying such problems. It has been criticiiíed on numcrous
counts, from small sample size, to inappropriate statistical analyscs, and invalid chrono-
logical calibration. Among the most vociferous in this chorus of criticisms have been
biológica! anthropologists who claim that the use of modern DNA to reconstruct evo-
lutionary relationships ignores thc fragmcntary fossil evidence for transitional stages in
the physical development of archaic Homo sapiens and AMH. Unforrunately for anthro-
pologists, this last criticistn recalls an earlier debate about the ancestry of a 14—17 mll-

61
 ERLANDSON

lion year oíd fossü "hominid" jaw dubbcd Qamapithecus^ \vhich molecular biologists stutly-
ing ihc biochemistry of modcrn apes had thc audacity to proclaim was much roo oíd ro
be a hominid. This heated and now histórica! debate was settled (much to the conster-
nation of many palcoanrhropologists) only when a ncarly complete \{amupith?cm skull
was discovcrcd and round ro be a íbssil orangután (see Ixwin 1987).
ln rhe current debate about thc origins of anatomically modcrn humans, palcoan-
thropologisrs and archacologists are rhemsclves dceply dividcd, with each new discovery
cliciting claims from one camp or thc other that rhc new data support their theory. In
the meantime, scientists studying human DN A — mitochondrial DNA for marcrnal lin-
eages, y-chromosome DNA for paternal lincages, nuclear DNA, and cvcn DNA extract-
cd from archaeological samples of Neanderthal and AMH bones — have continucd to
accumulatc a compelling body of data that seems to support thc Our of África theory.
With much larger samples from a wider range of cultures, better analytical and statistical
mcthods, and samples of Neanderthal DNA suggesting that the Neandcrthals may have
bccn a sepárate species- {V.c<>., Krings el ¡i¡. 1997), an emergí ng conscnsus argües rhar some
versión of thc Out of África theory is probably correa (Klein 199.S; Mellars 1998).
This conscnsus ís supported ñor only by molecular data, but by some substancial
palcoanthropological and archaeological evidcnce, as wcll. As predictcd by thc Out of
África theory, for instance, thc earliest securely dated AMH skeletal rcmains have bccn
found ín África, at Klasies River Mouth Caves in coasta] South África (Singer & Wymcr
1982; Rightmirc & Dcacon 1991; Klein 1995). líbese remains, betwecn about 120,000
and 65,000 years oíd, are associated with Middle Stonc Age stone tool assemblagcs that
include the earliest blade technologies, the earliest microlirhic geornettic assemblages
(Howieson's Poort), and some of the earliest formal bone tools (Mellars 1998). l''rom the
Semüki River arca of /aire, receñí research also documented the earliest examplcs of
complex barbed bone harpoons and intensíve fishing from rhe Karanda sites, dated to
roughly 90,000 to 80,000 ycars ago (Brooks et ni. 1995; M-llcn et ni. 1995; M-llen 1998).
Also darcd to about 90,000 years are thc earliest AM11 rcmains found outside of África,
thc Qafxeh and Skhul skeletons from coastal Israel, suggesting that early modcrn popu-
lations hael begun to movc out of A trica by this lime, í^uriously, anatomically modern
humans do ñor appear ro have moved into most of líuropc for anothcr 45,000 ro 55,000
years (Klein 1998), possibly held at bay by Neanderthal populations that occupicd thc
área. Qirrent evidcnce suggests, however, that AMH had spread into southern Asia by
at Icast 70,000 to 60,000 years ago. l'Yom there, within jusr a fc\ mülcnnia, they proba-
bly had made thc múltiple maritimc voyages through island southeast Asia thai are
required lo settle Sahul, the larger continent that linkcd Australia, New Guinea, and
Tasmania during glacial periods of lower sea level.

62

L
 MARITIMl- VOVACÜNC AND COLON1ZATION O í ' T I I I i A M I - R I C A S

Wherever anatomically modern humans wem, ¡ir leasi aftcr about 60,000 years ago,
thcy also scern to have carried with thcm a pcnchant fot art and symbolism, techflolog-
ical innovatíon, rapul population growth and gcographic expansión, and complcx prob-
lem-solving and communication skills (sce Davidson & Noble 1992; Klein 1998). This
creativo revolution is cvident virtually worídwide during the Late Pleistocene in rhe
inventíon of a wholc series oí" new technologies and behaviors never seen among our
archaic ancestors.- These include the first chipped stone bladc and microlithic tcchnolo-
gíes, ornamcnts, complcx art and musical instruments, ground stone tools, formal bone
and shell teehnologies, ceramics, basketry, cremarions, complcx projectiles (harpoons,
throwing sticks and darts, the l>o\ and arrow), mtensive fishing, and thc domestication
of plants and animáis. Significandy, as \vc shall sec, they also include the first widespread
evidence for thc dcvelopment of sophisticated boats and planned maritíme voyaging.
Thus, a convergcnce of molecular, archaeological, and paleoanrhropological evidence
poinfs toward an emcrging consensus — alrhough still vigorously debated -- that
anatomically modern humans evolved in África roLighK 150,000 years ago, then rapidly
sprcacl arountl rhe world in thc lasr 75,000 to 100,000 years, armecl with superior intel-
Icctual and technological ca[)aí)Íliries (Klein 1995; Meliars 1998). In the process, anatom-
ically and inicllectualh' modern humans appear to have replaced the vasf majorii} 1 of
archaic humans, although somc mixing between AMH and archaic populations ma\ have
occnrred, with occasional hybrids bcing swamped in a sea of rapidly expanding anatom-
icall\n populations. Significantly, the (Hit of África model reduces the amount of
avaikble time to account for thc demographic and geographic expansión of AMI1 pop-
ulations by 90 percent or more. As 1 \\~ill show, tnarítime adaptations and seafaringplayecl
a key role in the geographic expansión ot [linao .wpieiis .w/Vcw, inckiding some of the
raost dramatic migrations in human history.

The Antiquity of Maritime Adaptations and Seafaring

Por decadcs, the idea that our Pleistocene aneestors may ha\e made subslantial
migrations by boat sutfered from an anihropological theory that maritimc añil other
acjuatic adaptations and scafaring developed very late ¡n human history (see Washburn &c
ianeaster 1968; Osborn 1977; Bailey 1978; \\asclkov 1987; M-sncr 1987; and others).
This view is clearlv illustrated by Yesner (1987:2S5), who stated that thc tLhistorical facr
that maritimc resources were not cxploited unfil relatively late in thc prehistoric record
has attracted a general consensus. . . . A real commitmenr to maritimc lifeways did not
precede late Uppcr Paleolirhic fimes." Through thc I970s, ihcre was virtual unanimitv
that boats, too, were a relatively receñí addirion to (he human technological rcpertoire
(Uass 1972:12; (irecnhill 1976; Johnstonc I980:xv).

63
 RRT.ANDSON

Antiquity of Coastal A-daptations: Some Problems and Jívidence

On a planet whose surface is almost 75 percent water, whcrc life itself is so depen-
dent on water to survíve, and where opportunistic hominids have successfully adapted
for millions of years, T fínd it curious that most scholars believe our ancestors did not
adapt to aquatic environments untíl very recently. The general perception that humans
only systematically adapted to marine environments during the last 10,000 to 15,000
years has long inhibited the study of maritime adaptations, coastal migrations, and boats
(Erlandson 2001). It tends to peripheralixe the signifícance of aquatic habitáis in human
cvolution, relegating thern to an incidental role in a broad-spectrum revolution leading
to agricultural societies and civilizations. Thus, maritime adaptations appear to play a
marginal role in an important but comparatively bricf proccss in which human ecology
departs from its natural coursc as a population explosión forced humans into incrcas-
ingly artificial modes of subsistence and production (see Cohén 1977). As Yesner (1987)
noted, however, this víew of aquatic resources as marginal is out of step with historical
and archaeological data triar demónstrate that maritime hunter-gathcrcrs werc gcnerally
more populous and more culmrally complex than their non-agricultural interior neigh-
bors.
It is truc that there is relatively little evidence for the íntensíve use of marine
resources prior to the end of the Pleistoccne (sce Wasclkov 1987). On a global scale,
however, it ¡s not clear whethcr an apparently dramatic expansión in the use of aquatic
resources over the last 10,000 years accurately reflects changes in human subsistence
through time. To understíind the history of maritime or other aquatic adaptations, glob-
ally or in any particular región, we must first determine if the patterns evident in the
archaeological record rcsult frorn actual changes in human behavior, biascs imposed on
the record by gcological or taphonomic forces, or thc rccovery mcthods of archaeolo-
gists themselves (see Rrlandson 2001).4
Geologically, there is every reason to believe the archaeological record of coastal
adaptations is seriously underrcprcsented, primarily due to the dramatic swings in glob-
al sea levéis associatcd with the glacial and interglacial oscillations of the Pleistoccne.
During the Last Glacial about 20,000 years ago, for instancc, world sea levéis stood
between about 100 and 125 meters below present, exposing broad coastal plains around
the world that have virtually all been inundated as seas rose to their present levéis. Similar
cycles have occurred numerous times in the last 3 million years, causing enormous, but
highly variable, changes in coastal geography around the world. Rach üme global sea lev-
éis have risen significan ti y, the record of human occupation associated with lower shore-
lines has either been inundated by rising sea levéis, destroyed by associated coastal ero-

64
 MARITIMK VOYAGING AND COLONIZACIÓN OFTHK AMKRICAS

sion, or both. Hvcn today, with sea level approximatcly six meters below the levéis of
about 130,000 years ago, a number of ¡mportant coastal sites (Klasics River Mouth caves,
Die Kelders Cave, Gorham's Cave, and orhers) occupicd during thc Last Intcrglacial are
now being destroyed by marine erosión. In North África and thc Levant, Lower
Paleolithic artifacts have bccn found in a number of interglacial beach deposits, testify-
ing to thc destruction of ancient sites locatcd in coastal scttings.
As sea levéis risc and fall, coastlines generally movc laterally in response to such
changcs. The máximum lateral movements of coastlines during the last 20,000 years, for
instance, have varied from as much as 1000 km in some áreas (¿.e., northern Australia) to
less than a kilometer in others. However, áreas wherc shorelincs have moved Icss than
about 10 km are unusual and also tend to be correlatetl wirh rclarively early evidence for
coastal occupations (lí-rlandson 2001). Rcconstrucring the ancient landscape in the vicin-
it)' of coastal sites is crucial, because a cave or open site located on thc coast today may
have been 5 km, 10 km, 50 km, or more from the coast at various times during thc last
25,000 or 125,000 years. Study of modern coastal hunter-gathcrers suggests that they
rarely travel more than about 5 or 10 km from a home base to collcct food resources
(Bigalke 1973:161; Mechan 1982). When they do hunt or foragc further aficld, rhe skele-
tal remains of shellfish, físh, sea rnammals, or sea bírds are rarely transportad much fur-
ther than this. Tn most situations, thercfore, sites located more than about 5—10 km from
an ancient shoreline are unlikely to conrain substanrial evidence for marine resource use
(Wing 1977). During periods of rising or falling sea levéis, whích cncompass most of the
Pldstocene, the intensity of aquatic resource use at any given site would have fluctuated
depending on (among othcr things) its proximity to coastal habitats. Since sea levcl has
risen dramatically in thc last 18,000 years, most evidence for early marine resource use
has almost certainly been inundared or destroyed (van Andel 1989). Furthermore, sites
wíth long occupatíonal scquences locatcd along the modern coast typically show evi-
dente for a postglacial intensification of marine resource use that may be primarily relat-
ed to changes in local environments rather than a diversification or intensification of
human subsistcnce (sec Parkington 1981; Shackleton 1988).
Despíte such problems, a number of early coastal sites have been found (Figure 1).
Almost all of these are located in arcas wherc the continental shelf is relatively narrow
and lateral movements of thc coasrline have been limited. Geologicaliy, rhese are ¡ust the
kind of places wc should expccf evidence for early coastal adaptations to be preserved
(Richardson 1998; Urlandson 2001). Whcre shorelincs are steep, sites still preserved
above sea level may sometimes be found within the foraging radius of ancient coastal
habhats. ("onsequently, sites like thc Klasies Ríver Mouth caves (Sínger & Wymer 1982)
in South África, Devil'fi Tower and Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar (Garrod et al. 1928;

65
 Daisy Cave
Channel Islán ds
•10,500 yr.B.P

Quebrada Tacahuay
á Quebrad a Jaguay
11 -10,000 yrBP.

Pacific Ocean
Monte Verde
12.5-12,000 y! B.P

1000 O 1000 Miles

I ; K . L R l 1. Prehistoric sites and áreas of coastal habiration on thc Pacific Rim, as mentioned in the text.
 MARITTME VOYAGING AND COI.ONI/ATION O F T Í I H AMERICAS

Wacchter 1964), several shell tniddens located on thc Melanesian íslands of" New Ireland
antl New Britain (Míen ef ai. 1988; Wicklcr & Spriggs 1988), and Daisy Cave on
California'* Channcl íslands (Krlandson e/ al. 1996) have all produced evidence for thc
Píeistoccne use of marine resources.
Yesner (1987J suggested that such sites are exceptional and reflect rarc ¡nsranccs of
early coasral adaptations in áreas of unusually high marine producriviry. This is rrue of
some early sites, but ir does ñor cxplain rhc evidence for early marine resource use at early
sires ¡n Italy, Lebanon, Libya, and Algeria (sec McBurncy 1967; Klein & Scott 1986;
Stiner 1994) along the shorelines of the Mediterranean Sea, where marine productivity is
generally relatively low (Krlandson 2001). Yesner (1980, 1987) also argued that micldle
llolocene sea levcl stabilization vvas crucial to the formation of extcnsive shallow
Qearshore habitats, increased coastal productivity, and the inicnsification of" maritime
adaptaüons, which suggests that stecp coastlines should be marginal for human exploita-
tion. Such changes may havc enhanced nearshore productivity and marine resource use
ín somc áreas, but 1 suspcct that evidence for Pleistocene use of marine resources —
inclmling widespread evidence for inland tradc or transport of ornamental shclls by
A M I 1 groups — is the Hp of thc proverbial iceberg, reprcsenring rhe only visible rem-
nants of earlier and more extcnsive coastal settlemcnt and adaptations. Until we system-
arically search for undervvater Pleistocene sites, howcvcr, we will not know which sce-
nario is correct. Cjiven the nearly endless divcrsiry in the rclntive productivity and acces-
sihility of marine and terrestrial habitats Ín coastal xories around the world (see Perlman
1980), moreover, ir seems likcly that the antiquity and intcnsity of coastal adaptations
varied widely through both space and time.
At present, it is apparcnt thar Homo erectas and archaic HOMO sapiens used marine
resources to some extent, but the intensity of such use is unknown and appears fo be
limircd krgely to shellfish. 5 Not surprisingh', anatomically modcrn humans currcnth-
show the earliest evidence for a more intensive use of shellfish and a wider range of
marine or aquatic resources. At Rlasies Rivcr Mouth caves, Dic Keklers, and other Kast
Interglacial localitics in South África, for instance, Ai\(íl appcar to havc regularly eatcn
a variety of shellfish, marine mammals, and flighrlcss birds (see Singer & VíVmer 1982;
Klein & ("rux-L'ribe 2000), although some or all of rhc largcr verrebrares may have been
scavcnged ratlier rhan hunred (Binford 1984). Ar Karanda Ín /aire, moreover, comes the
earliest evidence for complcx aquatic hunting gear, thc roughly 85,000 year oíd barbed
harpoons menrioned prcviously (Yellen et al. 1995).
Although thc situation is stíll sketchy, current evidence suggcsts that rhe eariiest sub-
sisrcncc srraregics rhar includcd rclarivclv eciectic and intensive use of marine or other
c resources rnay wcll be associared with AMH. When such aquatic adaptations

67
 ERLANDSON

were combined with the exploitation of a range of terrestrial plants and animáis, the
result would have bccn a more diversífied and stablc rcsourcc base. Such economies may
have contributed significanrly ro the reproductivo success of / loma sapiens sapiens and our
dramaüc demographic and geographic expansión of the last 150,000 ycars (Urlandson
2001).

Thc Antiqulty of Seafaring

The idea that maritime adaptations may have relatively high antiquity, at least among
anatomically modcrn humans, is supported by recent evídence for a relatively early dcvcl-
opment of seafaring capabilities. lt now appears, in fact, that Homo erectus in Southeast
Asia may have had some seafaring capabiiities, apparently settling the Indonesian island
of Flores as much as 700,000 to 800,000 years ago (Sondaar et al. 1994; Morwood e 1 al.
1998). At present, however, there is little other evidence for the use of watcrcraft by
/ I o/fía erectus or archaic / lomo supkns (see Cherry 1990), however, and. ít appears that such
capabilities were relatively rudimentary.
Jívidencc for more systematic and sophisticatcd Pleistocene voyaging comes from
several coastal regions around the world, but most of it derives from Australia,
Melanesia, and eastern Asia, wherc evidence for voyages in excess of 20 to 200 km has
now been wiclely documenced (Table 1). The proof that seafaring extended well back
into the Pleistocene requircs a major paradígm shift, since marítimc voyaging was once
thought to be strictly a Ilolocene phenomenon. T\vo publications in the 197()s pushecl
back the antiquity of human seafaring sígnifícantly. One of these was the discovery of
obsidian from the Mediterranean island of Melos in strata at Franchthi Cave in mainland
Greecc dated betwccn about 9500 and 13,000 14 C yr B.P. (Cherry 1990). The second
was the unequivocal demonstration that humans had rcached Australia by at least 20,000
ago (Lampert 1971), a migr-ation that rcquiretl múltiple sea crossings through island
southeast Asía, even when sea levéis were lowcred approximately 125 m during the last
glacial. By the mid-1970s, thc Australian archaeological record had been extended to
about 34,000 years at Lake Mungo (Bowler & Thorne 1976), and subsequent research
pushed it back to about 40,000 years (Groube et al. 1986), 50,000 years (Roberts el ai
1990), and now possibly to 60,000 years or more (Thorne et al. 1999).
At first, the Australian data were pu/xling for two reasons. First, in historie times
Australian Aborigines reportedl\ had no sophísticated watercraft capable of making sub-
stantial sea crossings (l'lood 1990:36), which raised qucstions about their ability to trav-
el through island Southeast Asia by boat. I.íke much of the rest of the world, Australia
also had no truc coastal shell middens or othcr evidence for intensive marine rcsource

68
 MARITIMH VOYAGING AND COLONIZATTON O F T H K AMF.RICAS

Tíible 1. Islands Coloni/al or líxplorcd by Pleistoccne Si-íifíirers.

Localitv Keterenc

Flores, SE Asia Possibie cvidence for limited seafaring by Morwoodáái ¡998;

Hamcnxluí. . 1984.

New Guinea
and Australia
Thomeüd/1999.

Crete.Greece sxpifns remaiiis uith pooiiy -50,000? Faccluni & Giusbeiti

documental contcxt; calcareoiis btcccía in 1992
wtucb boncs wre ccinenied dilt'd hy Pa/L) to
51,000 + 12,000 BP; coionizaiion of OK
apparemly icquúcd serení short sea crossings.

Bismarck Arcliipelago, Shell middens, íishini;, and sea/anng at 35,000 Alien «¿1988,1989;
Melanesia several sites dated írom 15-35 KYR, «nth Wickler&Spiiggs 198!
vo>ages up to 140 km kmg.

Sicilv, Italy Aurignacian assembüi;c Irom Meditenanean

Island; possibly ¡nvolving a sea ctnssing.

Human skeleta! ivmains found in Tamas hiu-cho

and otiiercaves on Okinawi and other isbnds;
involves voyages of ca. 75-150 km.

Kozushmia Ishnd UpptT Paleolithic peoples on Honshu crossing 25-20.COC Oda 1990:64.
japan 50 küi wide cnannel to obiain obsidán.

Meíos Island, Grcect Ttavel across ca. 24 km of open water to Oieirv 1990.
obtain obsidian formamiand trade.

AdmiraJU^Isiand1; Sertleniem of ,\bnus Isianti required 200 km Alien & Keishaw 1996.
Melanesia voyage.

C)prus Oeny 1990:151.

Ganne! Isbnds, 11-10,000 Eriandsonííií¿1996;

Califomu Johnson a ai 2000;
Orr 1968.

Southeast Aksb Presente on íslamls indícales ¿ mariiime

& Bmisli Cbliinibi.1 lifestyic and seafaring capaÍMÜtíes.
1999.

69
 RRI.ANDSON

use dating to thc Pleistocene. In fact, an ovcrwhelming majority of Australia's coastal

shell middcns wcrc less than about 5,000 to 6,000 ycars oíd. It was somctimcs atgued,
thereforc, that Australia was colonixed accidcnrally by castaways, who, stranded in a
strangc ncw land, abandoncd thc coast and adaptcd to terrestrial habitats. As knowlcdge
of thc Pleistocene geography of island Southcast Asia and Salí u 1 accumulated, thc cast-
away model of thc pcopling of Australia was rejected on gcnctic and othcr groumls
(Birdsell 1977; Bowdlcr 1977). Rcgardless of the routc chosen, the coloni^arion of New
Guinea and Australia required sevcral sepárate sea crossings, inclutling voyages at least
80 km long (Clark 1991). As the antiquity of rhis migration was pushcd progrcssively
back in time, it became clcar that the initial settlemcnt of Sahul reprcsented thc carliest
evidence in thc world for plannetl maririmc voyaging.
Oonfirmation of this scenario carne Ín thc late 1980s, when archaeologists investi-
gating thc roots of the 3500 year oíd Lapita cultural complex in western Melanesia dís-
covered scveral Plcistocenc shell middcns ¡n thc Bismarck Archipclago and the Solomon
Islands cast of New Guinea (Alien et al. 1988, 1989; Wickler and Spriggs 1988).
Settlemcnt of thcse islands, now dated to at least 35,000 yr B.P. (Alien & Kcrshaw
1996:185), addcd scveral significant marititnc crossings to thosc already required to reach
Australia and New Guinea. Perhaps more importantly, the sites themselves contained the
marine shellfish, fish, and othcr rcmains cxpectcd of a maritime pcople. Thc presence of
these Pleistocene shell middcns Ín Melanesia, in conrrast to the Australian situation, is
due to thc fact that coasrlines adjaccnt to fhc sites plungc steeply into dcep water and sea
Icvel fluctuations have had a relativcly limitcd effcct on the local geography and coasta!
archaeological record.
Thc Melancsian evidence also suggests that maritime voyaging capabilities improved
significantly betwccn about 35,000 and 15,000 years ago. Although the initial scttlement
of Sahul, New Britain, and New Ireland rec¡uirecl voyagcs of up to 100 km, for insrance,
thc settlemcnt of Buka in thc Solomon Islands at least 28,000 ycars ago required a mín-
imum sea crossíng of 140 km and pcrhaps as long as 175 km (Irwin 1992:20). By about
15,000 years ago, moreover, roughly the time most scholars think the Americas werc first
scttled, Mcianesian seafarers had rcached iVfanus Island Ín the Atímiralty group, which
required an unintcrrupted voyage of 200—220 km, - km of which was completely out of
sightof land (Irwin 1992:21).
Qcarly, rhe rclarively warm watcrs of island Southeast Asia and Melanesia would have
posed very diffcrent challenges to Pleistocene seafarers than thosc of the North Pacific
and Beringia (I ; ,rlandson 1993, 1994:269). lairther evidence for Pleistocene seafaring
comes from the islands of [apan. |apan itself was connccted to the Asían mainland dur-
ing periods of very low sea Icvcl, so its settlemcnt did not necessarily require boats. Í7agan

70
 MARITIMli VOYAG1NG AND COI.ONI/.ATION Oí'THE AMERICAS

(1990:191) has suggesrcd, howevcr, thar thc itirroducrion of new bladc and cdgc-grind-
¡ng rechnologies abour 30,000 years ago rook place when Japan was scpararcd from thc
mainland and probably involved boats. This idea may be supported by rhe discovery of
human bones found bcnearh a charcoal-rich stratum in Yamashita-cho Cave on Okinawa
which has bccn radiocarbon datcd ro abour 32,000 14 C yr B.P. (Marsu'ura 1996:186).
Human rcmains dated bctween about 15,000 and 26,000 yr B.P. have also bcen found ¡n
sevcral othct ümestone caves on Okinawa and rhe smaller islatids of rhe Ryukyu chain
(Matsu'ura 1996), an island are rhar stretches sourhward from |apan nearly ro Taiwan.
Human rcmains from Pinza-abu (lave on Miyako Island, found stratigraphically below a
calcareous flowstone stratum, were associated with charcoal datcd to about 26,000 14 C
yr B.P. (Matsu'ura 1996:187). The bathymetry of th<¿ Ryukyu Islands arca suggests that
several sea voyagcs would have bcen required ro rcach Okinawa from ¡apan, including
one crossing roughly 75 km long. Rcaching Miyako Island, from eirhcr ¡apan or Taiwan,
would have required even longer voyages of up to 150 km.
In Japan irself, archaeological evidence suggests that by at Icast 21,000 years ago, mar-
itime peoples from Honshu were using boats ro procure obsidian from Kozushima
Island locared approximatcly 50 km offshore (Oda 1990). As Fagan (1990:191) noted,
rhe firsr appearanee of anatomically modcrn humans ¡n me ¡apáñese archipelago may
have "coincidcd with rhe beginnings of scafaring ¡n rhese températe warers." Dcsprte rhe
evidencc ror Plcistocenc maritime voyaging, rhe oldesr shcll middens ¡n rhe ¡apáñese
islands date to bcKveen 9,000 and 10,000 years ago (Aikcns & Iliguchi 1982). Earlier
coastal sites may be submcrged offshore.
The presence of Pleistoccne niaritime peoples in (apan is also signíficant bccause it
places compctent mariners ¡n the eool waters and boreal climates of thc Norrh Pacific at
a daré early enough to have contribu tcd ro rhe initial colonization of thc Americas. From
Japan, morcovcr, the Kurile Islands are northeastward like stcpping stones to the
Kamchatka Península. From there, the Commandcr Islands could have provicled a base
for rnigration through thc Aleudan Islands, alrhough a gap of roughly 250 km would
have reprcsented a formidable obstacle. A more ükcly route would have been to follow
rhe shorclines of rhe Kamcharka Península norrhcasrward where rhey would have
merged impercepdbly wirh rhe sourh coasr of Beringia.
Given the Pleistocene scafaring capabiliries of Homo sapiens sapiens, the presence of
Plcistoeene seafarers in the Japanesc archipelago, and the geography of thc Norrh
Pacific, what was once imponderable (Aikcns 1990:12) now seems entirely conceivable
and increasingly likely. Ncar rhe end of rhe Pleisrocene, in Upper Paleolirhic ¡apan and
pnssibly eisewhere in coastal northeast Asia, maritime peoplcs were situatcd at the base
of a maritime pathway to rhe New World. Oíd rhey make such a journey?
 ERLANDSON

Out of A-sia: Migration Montes into the New World

Changing perspectives on thc peopling of the Americas are interesting, in part,
because they contrast dramatically with colonixation modcls and recent developments in
Australian archaeology. The two cases have some interesting parallcís —- both rcgions
were colonixed by AMH relatívely late in human history, for instance, and involve the
movement of humans into pristine continents untouched by carlier hominids — but the
contrasts are even more interesting. Where Australia has been witlely viewecl as having
been colonixed by sea, thc carly settlement of the Americas has traditionally been seen
as a terrestrial affair. Over the last 40 years, moreover, the colonixation of Australia has
been pushed steadily backward in time, while thc widelv accepted antiquity of human
settlement in the Americas has contracted significantly, despite repeated claims for much
earlier occupations. VVhen I first began scriously studying archaeology in the 1970s, many
introductory tcxtbooks suggested that the Americas were first scttled 40,000 or more
years ago and many of the earliest sites were considered to be located along the Pacific
Coast of North America. At the time, it was widelv believcd the ice-free corridor was
closed between about 40,000 and 70,000 years ago, so some archaeology textbooks sug-
gested that the Americas must have been colonized more than 70,000 years ago. One by
one, however, purportedly ancient localiries Hke Oíd Crow ¡n the Yukon and Del Mar
Man, Los Angeles Man, Texas Street, and Santa Rosa Island in California, all succumbed
to careful scicntific scrutiny, ineluding the redating of several key artifacts or human
skcletons using improved analytical techniques, which showed thcm to be Holocene in
age (e,g,, Taylor et al. 1985). Although there has never been any shortage of new claims
for sites older than about 12,000 years, legitímate questions have been raisecl about vir-
tually all of them, and thc 11,000 to 12,000 year oíd Nenana and Clovis complexes of
North America carne to be widelv accepted as the earliest evidence for human occupa-
rion in the New World (see Hoffecker et al. 1993). With thc wídesprcad acceptance of the
12,500 year oíd pre-Govis site of Monte Verde in Chile (Meltzcr et ai 1997), however,
the "Clovis-first" position has come under attack and left rnany scientists in search of
alternative modcls for the peopling of the New World.

One if by l^and: The Ice-Free Corridor

Historically, two main routes have been proposed for the initial colonization of the
Americas. Both involve Late Pleistocene mígrations by AMH from northeast Asía into
North America, but the two models diverge dramatically in the details. Thc traditional
vicw is that terrestrial hunters walked from northeast Asia into North America across the

72
 MARITIME VOYAGING AND COLONIZATION OFTHK AMERICAS

arctic plains of Beringia during a glacial period when sea level was relatively low. The
Iflfld-based scenario involves hearty bantls of terrestrial hunters spreading across the
Beringian interior, then winding their way into the American hcartland vía a long and
narrow icc-frec corridor running between two massive glacial ice sheets.
Thís story of an epic journey rhrough a 1,500 km long icc-free corridor has captuíed
the imaginations of botb archaeologists and the American public for decades. It also
seemed to make sensc as long as the carliest well-documented sites were the Clovis and
Folsom kill sites where Pleistocene megafauna bad buen butchered by bunters east of the
Rocky Mountains. Coastlines were clearly peripheral to mis scenario and gave rise to the
common perception that land-bascd Paleoindian hunters gradually radiated ourward
from the continental center, following game-rich rivers and vallcys until they cvcntually
reached the coast and slowly learned to survive in novel marine environments.
This neat scenario ran into some trouble as Clovis and Folsom sites, both dated to
relatively narrow pcriods of time near the end of the Pleistocene, were found further and
further from the continental core, except to the north where they should havc been rel-
atively abundant and logically the carliest. By the 1980s, fluted Qovis-like points had
been found from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts of North America and from Central
America to Alaska, raising qucstions about where Clovis cultural traditions originated
and how they spread so far so fast. The discovery and definítion of the Ncnana complex
in south-centtal Alaska (Powers & Hoffecker 1989; Goebel ef al. 1991; Yesner 1996), a
logical and slighfly earücr precursor to Clovis that lacks fluted points, occurred just in
time to save the Clovis-first, big game hunting, ice-free corridor modcl from collapse.
Located far to the south and apparently prcdating both Clovis and the opening of the
ice-free corridor, however, the possibility of a 12,500 year oíd perícoastal occupation at
Monte Verde in Chile raised new qucstions about when and how tbe Americas were first
settled and brought new attenrion to the coastal migration theory (see Krlandson
1994:268; Dixon 1999).

Two if by Sea: The Coastal Migration Theory

Recent discoveríes and uvenrs have brearhed new Ufe into the coastal migration the-
ory, which suggests just the opposite of the ice-free corridor hypothesis —- that maritime
pcoples first traveled around the North Pacific Coast then followed river valleys leading
inland from the sea. Having a coastal route available, however, does not prove that such
a maritime migration took place. Archaeological evidence for early boat use from islands
along the westcrn matrgin of the Pacific may support the idea that such a journey was
technolügicaüy feasible, but archaeological data from the Pacific Coast of North and

73
 ERLANDSON

South America are presently ambiguous about the origins of rhe carliest coastal occu-
pants. i havc long argued that many skeptics would ñor be pcrsuadcd that a coasral
migration was involvcd in thc initial scttlcment of rhc New World until truc coastal sites
older rhan the Nenana and Olovis complexes were clearly documcntcd. Such sites have
not yer been found, but evidence for the antiquity of coasral setrlcmcnt, maridmc adap-
tations, and seafaring along thc Pacific Coast of thc Amcricas has ¡ncreased significantly.
Ovcr the years, numerous scholars have proposcd rhat a coastal migrarion may havc
contriburcd to the initial pcopling of thc Amcricas (e.g., Heusscr 1960; Chard 1963;
Laughlin 1967; Fladmark 1979, 1986; Mithun 1979; Gtuhn 1988, 1994; Iiaston 1991;
Dixon 1993,1999; Erlandson 1994; Fedjc & Christensen 1999; and others). With the dis-
covery in thc 1920s of Cío vis and l'olsom kill sites in the interior, howevcr, models of
the peopling of rhe New World shiftcd íncxorably towards thc interior and the ice-free
corridor.
By the 196()s, prcvaiLing thought on the paleogeography of thc North Pacific Coast
reinforced this shift, suggesring that a coastal route into thc New World would have been
blockcd by massive and continuous accumuladons of glacial ice that complcrely covered
the Alaska Península and the northern Northwest Coast. Conscqucntly, the coastal
migration theory remained a marginal and all but ignorcd alternativc to the ice-free cor-
ridor model. Fladmark (1979) and orhers havc revivcd interest in a coastal migration
route, citing ncw evidence that glacial refugia cxisted along the northern Northwest
Coast cvcn during rhe last glacial, that most of the outer coast was deglacíated by at Icast
13,000 to 14,000 years ago (Mann & Petect 1994; Mann & Mamilton 1995), and that thc
ice-frce corridor of the interior was far less hospitable to human migration than prcvi-
ously thought. Recent evidence even suggests that an ice-frce interior route may only
have bccome availablc as rccenrly as 11,000 or so years ago (Mandryk 1991; Dixon 1993).
Thus a coastal route into the Arnericas once again seems to be theoretically possible.
Therc are other reasons for thc marginaüxation of rhe coasral migration theory,
including thc oíd biascs against carly scafaring and maririmc adaptarions dcscribcti above.
The most important reason, howcver, is the fact rhar for dccades thc oldest securely tloc-
umentcd New World archacological sites have been found in thc American hearrland,
Nenana, Clovis, and l'"olsom sites locatcd in interior rcgíons and ofren assocíated with
the remains of bison and other large game animáis. The oldesr widcly acccpted interior
sites were dated between about 11,800 and 11,000 14 O yr B.P., while the oldest Pacific
Coasr shell middcns dated to about 9,000 14 C yr B.P. This chronological gap of ncarly
3,000 radiocarbon years seemed consistent with a m<ídel that big-game hunting and inre-
rior occupation carne first, followcd by migrations to the coast and rhe development of
coastal foragíng economics.

74
 MARIT1MK VOYAGINC; AND COU )NI/AT1ON OFTHli AMERICAS

With further rcsearch, howevcr, fluted Clovis or Folsom-like poinrs have now been
found thtoughout much of North America, ¡ncluding a number of specimens discov-
ered along the Pacific Coasr of North America (Erlandson & Moss 1996). Unfortunatcly,
the vast majority of spccimcns found in the far west have bccn surface tlnds or isolatcs
that cannot be preciscly dated and have no associated faunal remains to illuminate the
nature of Paleoindian economies. Whilc the temporal priority of coastal vs. interior
occupation has essentially closed, it is ñor yet possible to determine if Pacific Coast
Clovis peoples veré adapted to the sea (Moss & lirlandson 1995).

The Pacific Coast Archaeological Record

Nonetheless, unequivocal evidence for the antiquity ot coastal or maririme adapta-

tions continúes to be pushcd back in time along the Pacific Coast of North and South
America. Today, despire significan t biases imposcd on coastal archacological records by
sea level rise and marine erosión, the gap between Clovis and the earlicst documented
maririme peoples continúes to cióse and has nearly disappeared in some áreas.
A key arca in any test of thc coastal migration theory is the southern coast of Alaska,
comparable to the ice-free corridor in the sense that it links Beringia with températe
Norrh America. In the Alcutian and southwest Alaska coastal áreas, scveral sites dating
bcrween about 7500 and 8700 14 C yr 13.P. have bccn found, suggesting that scafaring
peoples had colonized the eastcrn Aleutians and Kotliak Island by ar least rhis time. No
carlier evidence of coastal occupation has yeí been found, bur archaeological research in
diese áreas has been limited and the detailed geológica! work required to focus any sys-
tematic search for carly coastal sites has only rarely been done. Alrhough portions of the
Kotliak Archipelago are relatively protected, most <íf the shorelines of this área are also
exposed seasonally to vcry high waves and marine erosión, conditions under which early
sites are unlikcly to have been prescrved,
A dífferent situation exists in the labyrinrhine nctwork of islands, estuarics, and heav-
ily forestetl shorelines of southcast Alaska and Brítish (x)lumbÍa. I lere, many stretches
of coast are relatively protected from marine erosión and boat travel is relatively easy in
sheltered inside waters. Marine productivity is also very high, with a high ratio of coast-
line length to land área, and terresrrial resources are limited. Finally, geológica! work has
shown that posrglacial warmíng and the rctreat of glacial ice fíelds has rcsulted in iso-
static rebound of many coastal landforms, íeading to unusual circumstances where
shorelinus daring between about 8000 and 13,000 years ago are sometimes found in áreas
abuvc rnodtrn sea level. (Jonsequently, the northern Northwest í^oast has been the focus

75
 HRLANDSON

of rcccnt ¡ntcrdisciplinarv cfforts to flnd early coastal sites (sec Dixon ct al. 1997;
Josenhans et al. 1997; Fedjc & Christensen 1999; Moss & Hrlandson 1999).
One such effort has been the Tongass Chaves or Southeast Alaska Caves (SEA Caves)
projecr in the southern Alexander Archipclago (Dixon d a!. 1997; Moss Sí Hrlandson
1999). In rhis ongoing interdisciplinary projcct, archaeologists, geologists, and palcontol-
ogists have worked togcther to reconstruct the sea level, glacial, palcoecological, and
archaeological histories of the área. Archaeological and paleontológica! field studies have
focused on caves and rockshelters on Prince of Wales and other islands west of
Ketchikan. So far, the earliest secure evidence for human occupatíon dates to about 9200
14 C yr B.P. at Pl_i,T^K)8, where portions of a human skelcton and a microblade-bearing
occupational horizon have been documcnted (Dixon 1999:117-119; Dixon et al. 1997).
Hlsewherc in snutheast Alaska, thrce open air sites dated between about 8000 and 9000
14 C. yr B.P. are also known: Groundhog Bay 2, Hidden Falls, ancl Chuck Lake II (scc
Ackerman ti al. 1979, 1985; Davis 1989; Moss 1998). lixccpt for Grounclhog Bay, all
thcse carly southcast Alaskan sites are locatecl on islands that required boats to settle.
In British Colutnbia, equally early sites are known, including the mainland site of
Nitmu, dated to as much as 9700 14 C yr B.P. (Carlson 1995) and a numher of sites on
the Queen Charlotte Islands now known to be 9000 or more years oíd (Fedje &
Christensen 1999). Recent interdisciplinary work on the Queen Charlotte Islands has
focused on reconstructing thc regional paleogeography to narrow thc scarch for early
coastal sites (Fedje et al. 1996; Josenhans et al. 1997). This work has documented several
inrcrtidal sites dated to between about 8000 and 9500 14 C yr B.P. and even dredged a
basalt flake from the sea bottom in waters ca. 55 m dccp, a surfacc estimated to have last
been above sea level about 10,200 years ago (Fedje & Christensen 1999:647). The sheer
nutnbcr of early intertidal and raised beach sites documented on the Queen Charlotte
Islands also implies some time for the demographic expansión of coastal peoples to
attain that level of archaeological visibility. Unfortunately, it is not currently possible to
estímate the Icngth of that proccss.
On the southern Northwest Coast in Washington, Oregon, and northern California,
no shell middens more than about 3500 years oíd vvere known prior to about 1985. Hven
today, the vast majoríty of coastal archueological sites within this arca date to the late
Holocene, but a few early and middlc Holoccnc sites have now been found (Moss &
Hrlandson 1998). An incrcasingly compelüng body of Hterature now implicatcs geologi-
cnl forces as playing a significan! role in the dearth of early coastal sites (Minor & Grant
1995; Hrlandson nial. 1998, 2000; Moss & Hrlandson 1998). This área is located adjaccnt
to what is known as thc |uan de Fuca píate and thc Cascaclia Subductíon Zone, where
geological evidence suggests that very largc earthquakcs associated with tsunamis and

76
 MARITIMK VOYAGING AND COLONIZATION OF THK AMHRICAS

accelerated marine erosión occur every few centuries. It now appcars that large portions
of thc coast may drop a meter or more during such earthquakes, raising sea levéis virtu-
ally instantaneously and leading to scvcre marine erosión (Peterson et al. 2000). Dcspiíe
rhcse proccsses, two shcll middens daring to roughly 8000 14 C yr B.P. have bccn found
along thc southern Northwest Coast in the last decade, the Imlian Sands (35—CU—67)
site on the southern Oregon Coast (Moss & Hrlandson 1998) and the Duncan's
Rockshelter site (CA-SON-348) on the northern California Coast (Schwaderer 1992).
The earliest evidencc of maririmc adapta tions and seafaring in North America cur-
rently comes from California's Channel Islands, which have remained separated from the
mainland chroughout the Pleistocene and coukl only have been scttled by boat. At Daisy
Cave on San Miguel Island, an ephemeral but stratígraphically discrete shell middcn lens
containing a few chipped stone artifacts has produced radiocarbon dates on marine shell
(10,600 ± 70 and 10,700 ± 90 14 C yr B.P.) and wood charcoal (10,390 + 130 14 C yr
B.P.) that indicate that the cave was briefly occupicd by maririmc Paleoindians during
Folsom times (Rrlandson et al. 1996). Stratigraphically above this terminal Pleistoccne
stratum is a series of much denser sheil midden layers dated between about 9700 and
8000 14 C yr B.P. that have produced abundant shellfish and fish rcmains, sea mammal
and sea bird boncs, stone tools, bone bipoints (fish gorges), and shell beads. At Arlington
Springs on the northwest coast of Santa Rosa Island, Orr (1962, 1968) also found human
bones in a paleosol buried 37 feet (ca. 11 m) below the surface. Early dates on charcoal
and rhe bones of Arlington Woman suggested that she died roughly 10,000 years ago
(Rrlandson 1994:186), but recent AMS datíng using advanced extraction and decontam-
ination techniques suggests that her true age may be closer to 10,500 or even 11,000 14
C yr B.P. (Johnscm et al. 2000). The Channel Islands have also produced numerous other
early Holoccne sites that corrobórate thc presence (íf cari;- seafaring peoples off the
(California Coast. Along the mainland coast of central and southern California, more than
30 coastal sites have becn dated between about 9500 and 8000 14 C yr B.P. (see
Erlandson & Moss 1996:285-287).
In South America, even earlier evidencc for coastal adaptatkms has been found (sec
Richardson 1998). This includ.es apparcnr evidence for the use of coastal rcsources at
Monte Verde in Chile, where scaweed and asphaltum reportedly dcrived from coastal
habitáis may cíate to as much as 12,500 14 C yr B.P. (sec Dillehay 1997). At the Querero
site north of Santiago, Nunex and colleagues (1994) reportedly found marine shellfish,
sea lion, and whale rcmains associated with thc bones of terrestrial animáis, wíth a series
of radiocarbon dates ranging between about 11,600 and 10,900 14 C yr B.P. (Richardson
1998). JJagostera (1979) has also documented the cxistence of diversified maririme
cconomíes on the northern (]hile Coast dated to as much as 9700 14 C vr B.P.

77
 KRLANDSON

In Perú, where Richardson has demonstrated a positive correlation between the pres-
cncc nf early coastal sites and steep offshorc bathymetry, cvidencc for coastal settlement
and marine resource use now appcars to extend back ovcr 11,000 years. The earliest evi-
dence comes from thc Quebrada Jaguay site along rhe south coast, where charcoal sam-
ples from a shell midden containing abundant shcllfish, fish, and sea bird remains have
been dated to ai. 11,00(1 14 C yr liP. (Sandweiss e! al. 1998). Keefer and colleagues (1998)
reported similar remains from another Peruvian midden dated to ca. 10,700 14 C yr B.P.
and rhe basal strata at the Ring site shell midden produced a similar date (Sandweiss e! al.
1989). Richardson (1998) also reported rhe prescnce of the remains of shellfísh collect-
ed from mangrove habitáis at a series of ephemeral campsites in the Talara región of
northwcst Perú, sites da red berween about 9000 and 11,200 14 C yr B.P. In Hcuador,
coastal shell middens of the Las Vegas complex havc also been dated berween about
9500 and 10,800 14 C yr B.P. (Srothert 1985).

On the Notion of "Negative" Evidence

Although there is still no cleiir evidence for the prcsence of fully maritime or seafar-
ing peoples along the Pacific Coast of North and South America before Clovis times (ca.
11,250 + 250 14 C yr B.P.), the gap has all but dísappeared in places and carlier coastal
sites will almost certainly be fountl in other áreas. As I have noted, there is also rcason
to believe that carly Pacific Coast archacologicai records havc been heavily affected by
sea level rise, marine erosión, and other factors (Richardson 1998; Erlandson 2001). The
effects of such processes vary along different stretches of the Pacific Coast., depending
on variation in offshorc bathymctry, wave energy, geology, and other attributes. Contrary
to carlier assertions (¿.e., Osborn 1977), however, there are no known áreas of the Pacific
Coast wherc shorelines between about 13,000 and 25,000 years oíd are currently above
(or even near) modern sea level (Richardson 1998). Thus, we are still missíng a key com-
ponent of the geographic and archaeological records relevant to undcrstanding the ini-
tial colonization of the Americas. I am not suggesting rhat Clovis or prc-Clovis age sites
definitcly exist along the continental shelves of thc Pacific C'oast, but without conduct-
íng a systematic search for such sites we will nevcr be able to answer crucial questions
about the peopling of the New World.
The prospect that eren older sites may exist on thc continental shelf raiscs an intcr-
csting problem in the debate about the history of maritime adaptations and the coastal
migration theory. This is the íssue of what to do with what is somerimes referred to as
"negative" evidence. The objection is relatively simple and straighfforward: Many schol-
ars insist, even if we know that rhe data we have mav be biasecl, that we must build our

78
 MARITIMB VOYAGING AND COLONIZATION Ol-'THH AMERICAS

models of the past based on me archaeological evidence we have at hand. Thercforc,

even if rising postglacial seas drowned the world's coastlincs — and possíblc evidence
for early marine rcsourcc use or coastal migrations wirh them —- we cannor assumc that
such sites exist and build our models on ncgarive evidence. Without tangible evidence for
such adaptations or mígrations, we must assumc that they did not exist, circumstantial
evidence siniply docsn't cut it.
I sympathixe with this view to some extent: Our reconsttuctions must be governed
by some rcasonable rules of evidence after all. On the other hand, I also believe that as
scienrists we must be more open about what we know and don't know, and more clear-
ly recognize that rhere are many major íssues about human history that we are unable to
resolvc with currently available data. I believe quesríons about the antiquity of maritime
societies and the possibility that Pleistocene seafanngpeoples colonizcd the Americas are
among those that cannot currently be answcred wirh any sensc of authoriry. To answcr
such questions we nced more evidence and much of the evidence we nced is bencarh the
sea, in the prescnce or absence of submerged Pleistocene archaeological sites. It is one
thing to suggest rhat maritime adaptations may have developed late in human history,
especially with caveats, but quite another to talk of historical facts whcn rhe archaeolog-
ical record remains ambiguous.
It surprises me, too, that so many archaeologists have essentially disrcgarded or dis-
missed the significancc of the geológica! processcs (sea level rise, marine erosión, etc.)
that strucfure the archaeological record of the world's coastlincs. I don't expcct cveryone
to endorse the idea rhar deeply drowned sites will be found, only to accepr the possibil-
ity that archaeological records on lamí may be significantly biased and thar further
rescarch is needed to determine the nature and extent of such biases. Since rhe 197()s,
virtualh' no one has seríously questioned that the Pleistocene colonixation of Australia,
\cw Guinea, and wcstern Melanesia ínvolved maritime peoples in seaworthy watercraft.
Yet the idea that maritime peoples may have coloni/cd rhe Americas during the
Pleistocene has been dismissed as rclying on negative evidence thar may or may not exist
along drowned Pacific Coast shorelines. Such pronouncemenrs would be easier ro accept
íf comparable skepticism was applied to tcrrestrial alternatives. What evidence is there,
for instance, rhat people walked across rhe now drowned plains of Beringja on foot?
Why has the unlikely construct of a long and narrow ice-free corridor teeming with game
rcrmined the dominant paradigm for the peopling of the Americas for decades, despire
rdíirively limited evidence for its existence, íis suitability as a human habitat, or the pres-
ence of archaeological sites of Clovis or greater age?
Given the emerging cvidence for the rechnological sophistication and rapid geo-
graphíc spread of anatomically modern humans, the antiquiry of maritime adaptations,

79
 BRLANDSON

the presence of Plcistocene mariners on the easfern shorcs of the Pacific Ocean, and the
nature of late glacial environments in northwestern North America, it is time for a sea
change. I am not suggesting that we discard the concept of an ice-free corridor that may
have played a signiñcant role in the peopling and carly history of the Americas. I believe,
however, that the most likely sccnario cmerging from data dcrivcd from a variety of dis-
ciplines will show that the colonization of the Americas was a complex process that
involved múltiple waves of migration, out of Asia and into the New World, and quite
possibly by both lañe! and by sea.

Summary and Conclusions

To summarixe, just over 10 years ago, conventkmal views on human evolution sug-
gested that: 1) anatomically modern humans developed independently in scveral áreas of
the Oíd World, descended from ancient Homo erectas popuktions that spread out of
África about a million years ago; 2) coastal adaptations and maritimc voyaging played lit-
tlc or no significant role in human history until about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago; and 3)
the Americas were first settled about 12,000 years ago by small bands of tcrrcstrial
huntcrs who marched relatively rapidly across a Beringian land bridge, down the fabled
¡ce-free corridor, into the heart of North America, and on to the southern típ of South
America.
Today, we still have much to learn and large geographic and temporal gaps to fill,
Nonetheless, data cmerging from a variety of disciplines suggest a very different story,
They suggest that anatomically modern humans probably evolved in África about
150,000 years ago then rapidly spread around the world, largely replacing archaic human
populations. Tf this Out of África model is esscntially correct, we are left \vith only about
5 to 10 percent of the time allowed for in our oíd models to account for the dcmo-
graphic and geographic expansión of Homo sapiens sapiens. It also appears, at least after
about 100,000 years ago, that our anatomically modern ancestors were more sophisticat-
ed intellectually and technologically than previous models gavc thcm credit for.
The new data also tell us that aquatic adaptations and seafaring played a more signif-
icant role in the demographic expansión, the geographic spread, and the phenomenal
success of our species than previously supposed (Erlandson 2001). This notion is sup-
ported by the earliest evidence for relatively cffcctive use of a wider range of marine
resources by AMH in a series of Last Interglacial sites located along the coast of south-
ern and eastern África. It appears to be supported by the use of composite harpoons
associated with abundant freshwater fish remains in Zaire by about 80,000 to 90,000
years ago. Finally, it is clearly indicated by the evidence for Pleistocene seafaring from
 MARIT1ME VOYAGING AND COLONIZATION OF THE AMHRICAS

Australia, New Guinea, Melanesia, Okinawa, and |apan dating between at least 50,000
and 15,000 years ago.
Among the last three major colonmng mígrations undertaken by humans (Australia,
the Americas, and the Pacific Islands), at ieast two appear to have involved planned mar-
itime voyaging. Circumstantial evidence from the eastern Pacific suggests that several
Late Pleistocene Asían populations also had watercraft and the ability to make significant
sea voyages. Given the geography and paleoecology of the North Pacific, Beringia, and
Northwest North America, I have argucd that it is íncreasingly likely that boats played a
significan! role in the colonixation of the Americas. Although it can be argued that such
a migration may well have taken place, more tangible evidence will be required to provc
that such a migration actually occurred (see Yesner 1996).
1 don't know when and how the Americas were first settled, but 1 do know that a
coastal migration thcory recently considered by many to be imponderable has moved
into the realrn of the possible or cvcn the probable. Ironically, the coastal migration thc-
ory that once was considered by many scholars to be marginal now appears relativcly
conservative when compared to media and scholarly accounts of Pleistocene Austraüans
or Polynesians crossíng the open Pacific, or Europeans crossing rhe open Atlantic.
Despite such claims, T believe the earliest occupants of the New World were the ances-
tors of the Nativc Amcricans who lived in the Americas when the Vikings and Columbus
made their pioneering voyages across rhe Atlantic. This "Out of Asia" scenario is sup-
ported by such an ovcrwhelming body of linguistic, biologícal, genetic, and archaeolog-
ical evidence, that its basic prcmisc seems highly unlikely to changc." Thus, if a coastal
migration was involved in the initial colonization of the Americas, the Pacific coastlincs
of North and South America are the logical places to scarch for the evidence.
I believe a compelling case can now be made that we need to increase the levéis of
funding and effort directed towards identifying archaeological evidence for Pleistocene
coastal occupations in North and South America. The difficulties involved in finding
coastal sites older than 11,000 or 12,000 radiocarbon years are serious, but not insur-
mountable. To increase the chances of success, such searches should be focuscd on áreas
with relatively steep continental shelves, on caves or rockshelters and springs (in arid
coastal áreas) or other features that may have drawn maritimc pcoplcs inland from
Pleistocene shorelines, or on submcrgcd semi-protectecl coastlines wherc marine erosión
is least likely to have destroyed drowned terrestrial sites. Such research should be care-
fully planned and conducted within an interdisciplinary framcwork that includes geolog-
ical analysis of paleoshorelines and landscapes, consideration of the sedimentary and
depositional regimes that may affect the preservation and visibüity of ancient sites, and
rhe identification of áreas most likely to have been used by early maritimc pcoples.

81
 ••RLANDSON

A bstract
After //.a1 appecirance of anatomically modern humans aboitt 150,000 years
ago, evidence for technological innovation, marine re so urce //se, and seafarins a//
¿aerease dramatically, intentional maritime voyaging appears to bai>e develobed
sometime aj'ter aboitt 75,000 years ttgo, contñbuting to same of the mosl impor-
Ituit migrations In human b/slory, induding (he peopling of Australia, western
Melanesia, <ind /he Pac/fie Islands. tLvidence for Pletstocene seajaríng in
Southeast Asia and Australia — tilon^ iritb receñí archasological and paleoeco-
logical evidence fro/a hoth Kor/b and So/tlb America —- bits helped revive the
notion íbíi/ fbe A Me ricas ii/so /naj ha ve heen settled h}< itiuritiwe peoples.
Mvidence that Pleistocene voyaging ctintributed to the itiilial coloni^ation of thc
New World is sltll largelj circumsíantini, bul ti variety of data saggest thal // is
increasingly ¡ike/y that sucb u maritime i/ii^ratioii took place. ! si/spect, in fací,
tbiit the Pleislt/ccne coloni^ation of ¡be An/ericas may have included both land-
basvd migrations througb ihe \\eringian interior and marifime voyaging around the
Norih Pacific K/'///.

A cknowledgments
First and forcmost, 1 wish to thank Mrs. Phyllis Wartis for her gcncrous support of
the California Acadcmy of Sciences (CAS) symposium in which an early versión of this
paper \vas first prescntcd. Participating in thc Wattis symposium fírst provídctl me with
the opportunity to crystallixc my thoughts on the possiblc relationships betwcen some
global problema and thc peopling of thc New World. T am also grateful to Nina
Jablonski, program chair and organi/cr of the symposium, Nancy Gee and thc staff of
fiAS for administrative and logistical support, and my fcilow participants in the Wattis
symposium for their stimulating prcsentations and discussions. I am also indebted to
Nina [ablonski, Madonna \toss, (ames Richardson, and an anoiiymous revíewer for edi-
torial comments that signifícanth' ¡mproved this paper, and to Ruth Gruhn, Alan Bryan,
and ]. Mithun for providing copies of papers hclpful in rcvising my papcr. Ovcr thc years,
my views on the peopling of the New World have been influenced by discussions with,
among others, Mel Aikens, Jim Dixon, Jim Ilaggarty, Richard Jordán, Rick Knecht,
Madonna Moss, Roger Powers, Jim Richardson, Dermis Stanford, and David Yesner.
Noncthcless, the opinions and conclusions expressed in this paper are pcculiarly my own.

82
 MARITIMli VOYAGINC; AND COLONIZATION OF TUR AMIÍR1CAS

Yin anotes

1 Recent redating of Homo erectas specimens from Java suggests that thesc hominids

rnay have reached Southeast Asia as early as 1.6 ro 1.8 million years ago (Swishcr rí ni.
1994).
- Krings and colleagues (1997) ¡solated a small segment of DNA from a sample of
Neanderthal bone from a site ¡n Germany. They found that thc Neanderthal DNA was
three times as different from modern standards as the genctk diversity evident among
modern humans, suggcsting that Neanderthals represented a species sepárate from our
o\vn.
• Recent discussions of the Chatelperronian complex in southwest Kurope, long
regarded as an Upper Paleolithic cultural tradition, suggest that Neanderthals may have
made some ornaments, formal bonc tools, and blatles about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago
as anatomically modern humans were moving into the región. However, it is still not
clcar that the Neanderthal remains found in two Chatclpcrronian sites represent the
makers of these typically l'pper Paleolithic objects. The Neanderthal remains could have
been depositcd by AMH occupants of the sites, Middlc and Upper Paleolithic materials
may have becn mixcd wíthin a single stratum by trampling or other disturbance process-
es, more advanccd materials could have been traded or given ro Neanderthal by AMH,
or they could result from Neanderthal mimicry of the material culture of a more sophis-
ticattxl sociery.
4 Although space docs not permit me lo discuss these in detail here, it has long becn
known that scrcening of excavated archaeological scdiments, especially screcning over
mesh si/es of 1/8—inch (cu. 3 mm) or smaller, ¡s usually necessary to recover a repre-
stntarive sample of the remains of many aquatic animáis, including small fish and shell-
fish. The fact that faunal remains wcre not systematically collected from many early
coastal or riverine sites raiscs thc possibility that our understanding of early aquatic
rcsourcc use patterns may be seriously biased (see Krlandson 2001).
5 Fish bones from Hoxne in Hngland, probably dated to cu. 300,000 years ago, may

be ;m exception. In dístriburions that correlate well with thosc of arrifacts and terrcstri-
al fauna, numerous frcshwater fish bones were recovcrcd by sieving the site sedimcnts
(Stuart c/ ni. 1993:163, 198). Tt is uncertain, however, íf the fish remains were of cultur-
al or natural origin.
'' Despite relatively intensive research, there currently is no evidence for occupation
of any Pacific Islands outsidc of western Melanesia, Okinawa, and (apan earlier than
about 5,000 years ago. Although coastal migrants around the North Pacific could have
slwred common ancestors with Austronesian peoples, the ¡dea that Polynesians reached

83
 ERLANDSON

the Amerícas in the Pleistocene makes iírtle sense, because dístinctive Polynesian culrurcs
did not emerge until about 3500 ycars ago. Despite somc in teres ting technological paral-
lels, the idea rhat Europearis crosscd the Atlantic to colonice the Americas during the
Pleistocene (see Stanford, this volume) cofltradicts a vast body of genetic, linguisric, bio-
logical, and archaeological cvidcnce and currently seems unlikely

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