Abstract: The history of entry of early man into North America and subsequent dispersal are reviewed and interpreted within the framework of late glacial chronology of northwestern North America. From available evidence, it is hypothesized that earliest man must have crossed the Bering land bridge earlier than 35,000 years ago in order to move southward through the ice-free corridor between the Cordilleran and Keewatin ice sheets before it closed about 25,000 years ago, as the land bridge was submerged between 35,000 and 25,000 years ago. All American bifacially flaked stone projectile point traditions evolved south of the coalescent ice sheets, from the Large Leaf-Shaped Biface tradition; as the ice receded, these traditions moved northward east of the Rockies. About 8,000 years ago, microblade traditions related to the Arctic began expanding southward from unglaciated Yukon and Alaska.

Authors: Bryan, A.L.

Citation: Bryan, A.L., 1969. Early man in America and the late Pleistocene chronology of western Canada and Alaska. Current Anthropology, Vol. 10, p. 339-365

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