Across Beringia: The Palaeolithic Peopling of Canada

Pleistocene peopling of the American continent has been one of the most discussed and controversial issues of human beginnings for over a century. The western coastal and interior Canada is the key area as far as the search for evidence of the earliest paleo-American dispersals from NE Asia. The territory experienced multiple glaciations, each leading to changes in palaeo-landscape and erosion with massive continental accumulation of glacial/glacigenic deposits, most extensive of which occurred during the early and late Last Glacial stages at the end of the Pleistocene (74-56 ka BP and 24-12 ka BP, respectively). The moderate mid-Last-Glacial interstadial (55-24 ka BP) climates generated mosaic and biotically rich habitats of boreal forests and parklands comparable to those of today, with a vital potential to support early prehistoric occupations. The related non-glacial (MIS 3) geological formations of the former riverine and open prairie settings are believed to have represented the principal culture-bearing contexts of the pre-Last Glacial (>24000 yr BP) palaeo-Canadian / pre-Clovis peopling. The regional geological history and geomorphologic configuration predetermined the temporal and spatial framework of the pre-Holocene archaeological records buried under the present surface. This logical assumption is confirmed by patterned discoveries of the "pre-glacial" sites along the eastern (Alberta) foothills of the Rocky Mountains sealed by massive (10-80 m-thick) Cordilleran and Laurentide tills and associated glacial lake beds that provide a definite proof of the Native Canadian settlements of the western prairies prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. The associated cultural records are defined as Palaeolithic given their geo-chronology and the uniformity of the lithic industries found in Siberian traditions of the same period that were the cultural substrate of the initial New World migrations.