Paleo-Indians

As Paläoindianer the first human inhabitants of the Americas are called (referred glaciation in North America as Wisconsin) the continent at the end of the last Ice Age populated. The exact process of the settlement of America is controversial and the subject of research. The first people arrived after the current scientific doctrine on the continent at that time still existing Beringia land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. The inception date of about 11,000 BC was adopted. Was disputed whether they were advancing Canada from Alaska on the Pacific coast or inland through an ice-free gap between the Laurentide ice sheet and the glaciers of the Coast Mountains in what is now Yukon Territory, in the continent. Remains of human DNA in the Paisley Caves, Oregon that have been made and published in the 21st century, suggest a migration route along the coast. Their age was determined to be 14,300 years Before Present, which would further delay the start of colonization in the past, but confirm the theories about the direction of the settlement movement. One finds in Monte Verde ( Chile) or Meadowcroft (Pennsylvania) with partly much older datings may postpone the settlement even further or have to be classified as a measurement error.

Definition

The term Paleo- Indians ( Paleoindians ) Man was coined in 1957 by Hannah Marie Wormington in her book Ancient in North America to refer to the first inhabitants of the Americas. She described the Paleo- Indians as " people who are now hunted extinct species, the western North America more than 6,000 years ago inhabited and which manufactured the fluted bifaces of the eastern United States. " She was referring to the so-called Quaternary extinctions in the at the end of the Ice Age megafauna of the Americas from mammoth and mastodon, Hirschelch, Canis dirus and the giant sloth disappeared. The extent to which hunting by the first man was the cause of the extinction of the continent, is still controversial.

The term was immediately added to the literature, however, considered critical, since the known cultures of North America at this time this period, regionally and over time differed greatly. Other authors proposed Lithic stage or Big- Game Hunting tradition before. Since the mid- 1970s, but the term has prevailed despite all the difficulties of demarcation.

Individual cultures

In the Buttermilk Creek Complex, Texas, 2011, the previously oldest finds of artifacts in America were made. In addition to around 50 elaborate stone tools hundreds of thousands of small haircuts and fragments were found by the manufacture of the devices. The projectile points are recognized as precursors of the Clovis points, which is proved that the technique of characteristic stone tools developed in America and has not already been brought from Asia.

Clovis culture

The first large area popular culture of America was the Clovis culture (also Llano culture), named after the eponymous locality in Clovis, New Mexico. They can be dated before our time at about 11000-10800 and is characterized by distinctive projectile points made ​​of flint and chert with a fluted base and double-sided surface retouching. People moved in small family groups as hunters and gatherers through North and Central America from Alaska to Panama, a room which was still strongly influenced partially by the melting ice. South of Panama, the Clovis points are replaced by the assumed to be the same fish tail tips. You are not grooved, but have near the bottom of a catchment, which itself fails again at the end and so reminiscent of a fish tail.

Folsom culture

It was followed by the Folsom culture ( rarely Linde Meier culture), also named after a location in New Mexico. It lasted approximately 10900-10200 BC and is characterized by a larger range of prey of hunters, probably in response to the extinction of the still shaped by the Ice Age megafauna. The spearheads of the time were much smaller and shallower than the work of the previous culture.

Late Paleo- Indian Cultures

The following cultures differed regionally. They have in common is that the projectile points were usually no longer tongued and they were again greater than that of the Folsom culture. They include the Dalton culture and the San Patrice culture in the southeast of North America and the Plano culture ( also Plainview culture) in the southwest and the present-day Mexico.

End and transition

The paläoindische period typically ends around 8000 BC, followed by the Archaic period, which is characterized by incipient elements of sedentism and beginnings of pottery. The limit is 8000 BC applies to the eastern North America and Mesoamerica. In the north of South America, parts of the Caribbean and on the Great Plains of North America, the developments set a later date. In western North America, no clear age limit longer reveals himself to Clovis, the individual cultures run in individual regions and small-scale parallel offset or there are huge regional interruptions in the finds. In Central America and most of South America the comparability ends with the rest of the continent about the end of the Folsom culture.