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The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition on the Plains and Rocky Mountains of North America

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Humans at the End of the Ice Age

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

Abstract

Throughout the last decade, a main focus of Pleistocene—Holocene New World archaeology has been the peopling of the New World. Much controversy has centered around the problem of pre-Clovis or ancestral Clovis or both (e.g., see Adovasio 1993; Marshall 1990; Morlan 1988). Twocontrasting models have been developed to explain the initial peopling of the Americas. They can loosely be called the “Clovis-first” and the “Early-entry” models. Many specialists use the term “pre-Clovis” to refer to pre-12,000-year-old populations in the Americas. We prefer not to use the term “pre-Clovis” as it implies that there are only two stages of cultural development in the Americas: Clovis and Pre-Clovis. Clovis does not occur in every region of the New World, however, and clearly is not appropriate as a descriptive term for all of North America and South America. Accordingly, we prefer to use the term “pre-12,000” as a descriptive chronological term that has neither technological nor cultural implications (Bonnichsen and Schneider no date).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, 8207l, USA

    George C. Frison

  2. Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 9733l, USA

    Robson Bonnichsen

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  1. George C. Frison
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  2. Robson Bonnichsen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    Lawrencs Guy Straus

  2. University of Aarhus, Højbjerg, Denmark, USA

    Berit Valentin Eriksen

  3. University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA

    Jon M. Erlandson

  4. University of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, USA

    David R. Yesner

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© 1996 Plenum Press, New York

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Frison, G.C., Bonnichsen, R. (1996). The Pleistocene—Holocene Transition on the Plains and Rocky Mountains of North America. In: Straus, L.G., Eriksen, B.V., Erlandson, J.M., Yesner, D.R. (eds) Humans at the End of the Ice Age. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1145-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1145-4_15

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