![]() ![]() These models favor either in situ cultural development or population replacement and expansion. Scholars posit contrasting models of the ethnic identity and language / population movements of prehistoric peoples in the southwestern Great Basin and far southern Sierra Nevada. In reviewing the implications of these two data sets, we consider whether the early but discontinuous Younger Dryas archaeological record from the West Coast might result from a migration of maritime peoples from Northeast Asia into the Americas. A small number of fluted points found in coastal areas may also date to the Younger Dryas, but their context and chronology is not well defined. Examining the regional record of human occupation dating to the Younger Dryas, we found that well-dated coastal sites are limited to California's Northern Channel Islands and Isla Cedros off Baja California. In this paper, we review the evidence for ecological change in this 'West Coast' region, including shoreline changes that may have submerged or destroyed archaeological sites from this time period. Changing climate, sea level rise, and shifting shorelines created ecological challenges for ancient coastal peoples and daunting challenges for archaeologists searching for early coastal sites. On the Pacific Coast of the United States and Baja California, the Younger Dryas was one component of dynamic Late Peistocene and Holocene environmental changes.
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