First Half

• theories of migration
• early cultures of North America
• race & research

BERING LAND BRIDGE

• 300-400 year window: if that!
• glaciers and sea level recede at the same time
• very inhospitable to people and animals
• oral history evidence
• short chronology: 19,000 years ago or more recent
• long chronology: 40-21,000 years ago

THEORIES OF MIGRATION

• Bering interior route
• Bering coastal migration
• Pacific coastal route
• Polynesian migration

Discovery of CLOVIS

George McJunkin

CLOVIS First?

• Clovis: 13-14,000 years ago
• Clovis First/Single Origin = Bering interior route
• Anzick baby's DNA (1968-2014)
• Anzick baby's relations in Siberia and South America

Clovis first?

• Pedra Furada: 19-30,000 years ago
• Multi-Origin = coastal + interior migration
• Possibly 20 sites pre-Clovis
• Meadowcraft Rockshelter, PA 19,000 yrs ago

End of CLOVIS

• megafauna overhunting (debunked): declining megafauna populations ~1000 years before end of Clovis
• cultural dispersal throughout North America
• Younger Dryas cold phase

Clovis vs Folsom points

Younger Dryas cold phase

SOULTREAN HYPOTHESIS

• supposed similarity between French & Clovis stone points
• haplogroup X found in Eastern Native groups & some modern Europeans: Atlantic coast migration?
• 2014 Siberian haplogroup X study
• not widely accepted due to chronology and glaciation of Europe
• white supremacist investment: Native Americans as illegitimate late-comers

KENNEWICK MAN

KENNEWICK MAN

• died 7200-7400 BCE, found 1996
• Smithsonian v Army Corps of Engineers 2000-2013
• pre-6000 BCE skull diversity
• facial reconstruction issues
• June 2015 DNA similarities & 2016 return

Second half

• plant domestication
• climate change
• political and social change in Puebloan, Mississipian and Iroquoian cultures

Domestication of maize

Domestication of maize

• ~10000 years ago in Guatemala, wild ancestor is not edible
• 4-5 x as many calories and volume of food per acre (monoculture vs polyculture agriculture and nitrogen renewal)
• lower maternal and child mortality rates
• domestication is weird and difficult
• slow spread in North America 2100BCE-900CE

Domestication

MEDIEVAL WARM PERIOD & LITTLE ICE AGE

• Medieval Warm Period: 950CE-1250CE
• Little Ice Age: 1250CE-1800CE
• climate change affects political change
• widespread droughts, wildfires, flooding, and cool summers
• global nadir circa 1600-1650

MEDIEVAL WARM PERIOD & LITTLE ICE AGE

MEDIEVAL WARM PERIOD & LITTLE ICE AGE

North American Trade

Puebloan Interaction Sphere

• Basketmaker era: 7000BCE-750CE
• Pueblo era: 750CE-present
• landscape and irrigation predating agriculture
• maize agriculture ~1000BCE

Chaco Phenomenon

• 850-1150CE "Great Houses" imperialism
• physical and spiritual realignment
• oral history of the Great Gambler and katsina abandonment
• Reformation era: 1200-1400CE
• period of violence followed by egalitarian rejection of hierarchy

Mississipian Interaction Sphere

Cahokia

Mississipian Interaction Sphere

• Hopewell: 100BCE-500CE
• Mississipian: 800CE-1600CE
• Cahokia: 40,000-60,000 metro area pop
• Largest city in NA until 1800
• Larger than London and Paris at same time

Mississipian Interaction Sphere

• aka "Southeastern Death Cult" & "Buzzard Death Cult"
• widespread circulation of luxury, prestige or ceremonial goods: copper, obsidian, feathers, turquoise, people
• 1300-1400CE: breakdown of continental exchange networks, rise of regional variations
• spread of maize & Maya cultural influence?

Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy

• formed pre contact or post contact?
• is the founding a response to colonialism? (no)
• is oral narrative a legitimate form of evidence?
• oral and archaeological evidence: 1420-1460CE
• Deganawidah Epic astronomical evidence

Iroquois In Situ vs Migratory HYPOTHESeS

Iroquois captive bride vs. women traders HYPOTHESeS