Late Glacial Northern Landscapes: an Integrative Approach to Paleolandscape and Human Land Use Reconstructions

Organisers

Joshua D. Reuther, François Lanoë

The Late Glacial (about 16,000 to 11,000 years ago) human colonization and population expansion across northern Eurasia and northern North America (Eastern Beringia) occurred during a time of vast climatic and environmental changes. Prior to the Late Glacial, northern landscapes were dominated by a relatively homogeneous biome, characterized by dry and cold conditions, and sparsely or not populated. As temperature rose and humidity increased, glaciers gradually receded, sea level rose, and vegetation and fauna adapted to changing biotopes following complex patterns. Landscapes previously inhabited by humans radically changed in their nature and structure; some land connections such as the Bering Land Bridge began to disminish, while other landscapes opened up to colonization. This session focuses on the reconstructions of north Eurasian and Beringian landscapes and environments, as well as changes in Late Glacial faunal communities and human land use and technological systems.

Contact: Joshua D. Reuther         jreuther@alaska.edu

List of Papers

Heikki Seppä (University of Helsinki), Normunds Stivrins, Oliver Heiri, Siim Veski & Janne Soininen: Rapid Climatic and Biotic Turnover Rates during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

Sam Coffman (University of Alaska Museum of the North) and Jeffery T. Rasic: Landscape Use and Temporal Patterning of Rhyolite Toolstone in Eastern Beringia

François Lanoë (University of Arizona), Joshua Reuther, Charles Holmes: Resource and Landscape Use in Late Pleistocene Beringia: A View from the Shaw Creek Flats

Jason Rogers (Northern Land Use Research Alaska): Late Quaternary Coastal Landscapes in the Alaskan Arctic

Nick Schmuck (University of Alaska Fairbanks): Tracking Coastal Adaptation in Southeast Alaska

Joshua D. Reuther (University of Alaska Museum of the North & Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks), Ben A. Potter, Nancy Bigelow, Charles E. Holmes, Julie A. Esdale, Francois Lanoë & Matthew J. Wooller: Landscape Evolution and Human Occupation of the Middle Tanana Basin: A High-resolution Record of Late Glacial and Early Holocene Environmental Change and Hunter-Gatherer Land Use in Eastern Beringia