Late-Glacial Hunter-Gatherers in the Central Alaska Range and the Role of Upland Ecosystems in the Peopling of Alaska

ABSTRACTThis review details the late-glacial paleoecological and archaeological record of the Alaska Range Ecoregion (ARE), highlighting its role in late-glacial settlement systems. The ARE was continuously occupied throughout the late glacial primarily by small groups on seasonal logistical forays in a low-mobility land-use system, with evidence for a shift to a high-mobility system in the Younger Dryas and early Holocene at some sites. The earliest settlers of Alaska procured resources in the ARE and continued to do so throughout the late glacial. Long-distance transport of lithic material over hundreds of kilometers suggests that seasonal occupation of the ARE was just one facet of a wide-ranging, seasonally variable land-use strategy. These data provide an important counterpoint to studies suggesting that late-glacial settlement systems were focused in the lowlands, and indicate that the earliest settlers quickly mapped on to widely dispersed resources in lowland and upland settings.