The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World (Wattis Symposium Series in Anthropology)

About this book

As modern humans spread around the globe the Americas represented the final continental frontier. These first colonists were modern in appearance and technology but who were they and when did they arrive? Traditional answers to these questions have come under increasing scrutiny in the face of new findings from artifacts skeletal remains genes and languages. The peopling of the Americas has become one of archaeologys most compelling and contentious subjects as these new lines of evidence reveal a more complex solution. In this volume distinguished scientists from the fields of archaeology physical anthropology paleoecology genetics and linguistics assess the latest evidence from Siberia to Chile and offer provocative ideas for how when and where humans entered the Americas. Contributors: Bruce Bradley Linda Brown Scott A. Elias Tom D. Dillehay John Douglas Jon M. Erlandson Nina G. Jablonski David J. Meltzer D. Andrew Merriwether Johanna Nichols Joseph F. Powell Anna C. Roosevelt Jack Rossen Dennis Stanford D. Gentry Steele Christy G. Turner II Distributed for the California Academy of Sciences