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Early settlement of North America position paper
Many traditional theories developed to suggest the movement of many Paleoindian hunters from North Asia having crossed to America about 13,000 years ago. The arrival of these Paleoindian groups saw a retreated of the Pleistocene retreat to the north even though the environmental conditions in those days were way colder than the current conditions. The conditions during the glacial period have improved with modern environment existing. This essay North to compare and contrast the ways of life that the early Paleoindian groups had with those of the late Paleoindian group with a focus on their population distribution and density, their general practices, their environment, mobility, strategy in settlement and also their technologies. The archaeologist over the years North appreciated the enhanced technology and different methods developed to enhance the reconstruction of evolution and development.
The Clovis culture is recognized as one of the first group to enter the now Canada and North America during the glacier periods as Wisconsin is regarded as the latest glacial episode in North America ice sheet complex (Stanford, Dennis and Bradley). The Clovis cultures name was developed from Clovis town in New Mexico whereby the character of the traditional technology and evidence of subsistence was first recorded. Stone tools and sharp-edged blades in these sites for the Clovis culture. The late Paleoindian had more advanced technology with the invention of various modern era tools such as wheels that were used to make work easier. The Clovis group cultures subsistence practices mainly involved hunting whereby they are recorded to have a part in the extinction of animals such as the giant mammoths as their tools have been discovered in relation to bones of the ice age animals (Gates, Lawrence, 1138). The Clovis tools archaeologist of high-quality stone. The late paleo Indian groups relied on other means of subsistence practices as tools found depicting the incorporation of farming and reliance on animals (Stanford, Dennis and Bradley). The early paleoenvironmental conditions that the first settlement groups encountered was completely different from the experience of the late Paleoindian groups who in time had adapted as climate change had begun to take effect (Mosley-Thompson, Ellen, et al,200). With the ice age era that saw the ice age and North America have cooler temperatures that in the late Paleoindian groups saw the retreating of the ice sheets over time causing the global temperatures to increase rapidly as the coastline was moving inland. The interval saw a rapid extinction of animals and plants in the north that gave way to the modern plants and animals in the north.
The Clovis group and migrated as they hunted the now-extinct animals as compared to the late Paleoindian groups who had settled as a result of farming. The settlement of the Clovis group is rather scattered as their remains are found in Mexico and far south to Venezuela and most parts of North America (Stanford, Dennis and Bradley). Their settlement strategies included that of hunters and gathering as the late paleo Indian had embraced the industrialization and farming settling in a specific place and urban centres such as Kentucky localities. The Clovis group travelled in a group of many people and families as compared to the late Paleoindian group that settled with members of the family that were up to 10 in number. The cloves group established early regional population groups as the late Paleoindian groups adapted to this form of settlements (Stanford, Dennis and Bradley). The Clovis culture group mobility was often on foot in small bands of at least twenty people and they travelled over large distance areas. They stayed at camp over a certain length of time with their diet although not fully proven consisting game and other animal meat. The late Paleoindian groups rapidly moved as they exhausted food in a certain region with the use of tools assembled and discarded over time (Buchanan, Briggs, Collard, and Edenborough, 11652)
Paleoenvironmental changes were among the fa influenced the occupation of Paleoindians as rising sea levels were marked to be one of the factors driving the paleoenvironmental changes. Ancient research has suggested a correlation between change in climate and changing culture according to prehistoric united states. Some research supports the shift and changes if environment and climate to be as a result of a sedentary lifestyle and the shift in animals and plants that humans depended on (Haas & Jonathan, 330). The Clovis culture was marked by a subsistence that hunted big games that saw a shift into the hunting of small games and the rise of fishing in the late Paleoindian cultures. The change in environment saw the Paleoindians adapt the new lifestyles in order to survive even the rising temperatures. In the Clovis age and culture human settled and small nomadic bands of around 20 people that were temporary makeshifts which saw them move after exhausting food in a certain area. These settlements changed to semi-permanent structures in the late Paleoindian stage that laid the foundation for agriculture and fully-fledged life of villages that even developed pottery. These cultural transitions also saw to the development of technologies used by these ancient dwellers (Jeter & Marvin,113). In the clovers culture, humans majorly depended on stone tools for hunting big games to the invention of hooks for fishing in the late Paleoindian groups. Stone tools were used by both the Clovis and Paleoindians although in the Paleoindian period stone tools were ground smooth and polished as bones were curved t make tools such as jewelry and fishing hooks. These changes mostly took place as a result of both ecological and environmental-climate changes. As the cloves period was filled with cold-adapted plants such as spruce, the warmer late Paleoindian period saw a decline in these plants like pine and other warm adapted trees grew. The Clovis period saw settlement in territories of large groups 25 to 100 people that have since become smaller although the population was rapidly increasing (Jeter & Marvin,115). The territories were converted to families of a maximum of 10 people. Bothe the Clovis and Paleoindian cultures collected wild plants for food and medicines. The Paleoindian group, unlike the Clovis culture, saw the domestication of plants in subsistence development efforts as the people sought to boost the coming years’ harvests. The Paleoindian culture and groups saw to the development of long-distance trade that helped individuals who stayed away from the beaches to obtain shells for carvings (Haas & Jonathan, 332). The archaeological interpretation of the cultures especially of the late and early Clovis group has often been based on the cultural evidence recorded. The Clovis groups are developed the Clovis culture which is referred to as the Paleoamerican culture whereby these groups are said to be the ancestors of a number of cultures in America (Buchanan, Briggs, Collard, and Edenborough, 11652). The Clovis culture as interpreted from evidence is quite different from the early Paleoindian culture that archaeologists define as the ice age (Gates, Lawrence, 1138). In which the first humans appeared in North America according to the archaeological record. In ecological study and development of late Paleoindian and early Clovis behavior, the recent excavation at Wisconsin suggests that the people from this era employed a generalized foraging strategy that in line with paleoenvironment data utilized the use of a range of animals for development of their subsistence arrays(Mosley-Thompson, Ellen, et al,204).
Works cited
Buchanan, Briggs, Mark Collard, and Kevan Edinborough. “Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105.33 (2008): 11651-11654.
Gates, W. Lawrence. “Modeling the ice-age climate.” Science 191.4232 (1976): 1138-1144.
Haas, Jonathan. “Warfare and the evolution of culture.” Archaeology at the Millennium. Springer, Boston, MA, 2001. 329-350.
Jeter, Marvin D. “Great Towns and Regional Polities in the Prehistoric American Southwest and Southeast Amerind Foundation New World Studies Series.” (2003): 113-116.
Mosley-Thompson, Ellen, et al. “Little ice age (neoglacial) paleoenvironmental conditions at siple station, Antarctica.” Annals of Glaciology 14 (1990): 199-204.
Stanford, Dennis J., and Bruce A. Bradley. Across Atlantic ice: the origin of America’s Clovis culture. Univ of California Press, 2012.
