Environment and archeology in Beringia

Abstract

The occupation of Beringia remains one of the most complex problems in human paleoecology. This is because of the wide array of variables that are likely to have affected the timing and character of settlement in the now partially submerged land that lies between the Lena and Mackenzie Rivers. At a minimum, these variables include changing sea levels and coastlines, advancing and retreating glaciers, changing fauna and flora (including trees), and evolving human adaptations to high-latitude environments. Humans occupied Beringia during the interval between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum cold peak (ca. 20,000 cal BP) and the beginning of the Holocene (11,600 cal BP), when all of these variables were in an almost constant state of flux.