Alaska Site Reveals Trans-Beringian Cultural Link in Late Pleistocene

New archaeological discoveries at Shég' Xdaltth'í', a 13,800-year-old base camp site in interior Alaska, may provide evidence for a trans-Beringian cultural link with other sites to the west, according to Kelly Graf and colleagues. Their research helps to clarify how and when people traveled across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia to the Americas, as New World archeologists continue to debate the details of this dispersal. Graf et al. provide a first description of the stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, animal and plant remains, and more than 80,000 artifacts from the oldest layer at Shég' Xdaltth'í, a name that means "they were there" in Alaska Native Athabascan. The evidence demonstrates how the site became a settled base camp that saw more than two centuries of sustained use. Its tools, including a distinct hafted-biface form, resemble those from Beringian sites further to the west, possibly suggesting a trans-Beringian cultural connection. Other artifacts at Shég' Xdaltth'í resemble those found at pre-Clovis, Clovis, Folsom, and Late Paleoindian sites further south in temperate North America. In a related Focus, Spencer Pelton discusses why sites like Shég' Xdaltth'í are bringing back an old idea in New World archaeology: that Beringian explorers who entered the North American continent between 20,000-15,000 years ago were halted until the retreat of the ice sheets allowed them to continue journeying to the south.