Prehistoric demography of North America inferred from radiocarbon data

Journal of Archaeological Science

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 656-664

  Peros, Matthew C ^a   Munoz, Samuel E ^a   Gajewski, Konrad ^a   Viau, André E ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Prehistoric demography; Radiocarbon dating; Taphonomic bias; Temporal frequency distributions

Indexed keywords

DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY; HOLOCENE; POPULATION DECLINE; POPULATION DENSITY; POPULATION ESTIMATION; PREHISTORIC; RADIOCARBON DATING; TAPHONOMY;

NORTH AMERICA;

EID: 72649101453     PISSN: 03054403     EISSN: 10959238     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2009.10.029     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Bartlein P.J., Edwards M.E., Shafer S.L., and Barker Jr. E.D. Calibration of radiocarbon ages and the interpretation of paleoenvironmental records. Quaternary Research 44 (1995) 417-424
2. Birdsell J.B. Some population problems involving Pleistocene man. Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology 22 (1957) 47-69
3. Braun M., Cook D.C., and Pfeiffer S. DNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex identified in North American, pre-Columbian human skeletal remains. Journal of Archaeological Science 25 (1998) 271-277
4. Bryson R.U., Bryson R.A., and Ruter A. A calibrated radiocarbon database of late Quaternary volcanic eruptions. eEarthDiscussion 1 (2006) 123-124
5. Buchanan B., Collard M., and Edinborough K. Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis. PNAS 105 (2008) 11651-11654
6. Denevan W.M. Epilogue. In: Denevan W.M. (Ed). The Native Population of the Americas (1976), University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 289-292
7. Dobyns H.F. Their Number Became Thinned: Native Population Dynamics in Eastern North America (1983), University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee
8. Dyke A.S. An outline of North American deglaciation with emphasis on central and northern Canada. In: Ehlers J., and Gibbard P.L. (Eds). Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology, Part II. Developments in Quaternary Science vol. 2 (2004), Elsevier, Amsterdam 373-424
9. Fiedel S.J. Older then we thought: implications of corrected dates for Paleoindians. American Antiquity 64 (1999) 95-115
10. Fiedel S.J. What happened in the early Woodland?. Archaeology of Eastern North America 29 (2001) 101-142
11. Gamble C., Davies W., Pettitt P., and Richards M. Climate change and evolving human diversity in Europe during the last glacial. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 359 (2004) 243-254
12. Gamble C., Davies W., Pettitt P., Hazelwood L., and Richards M. The archaeological and genetic foundations of the European population during the late glacial: implications for 'agricultural thinking'. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 15 (2005) 193-223
13. Guthrie R.D. New carbon dates link climatic change with human colonization and Pleistocene extinctions. Nature 441 (2006) 207-209
14. Hassan F. Demographic Archaeology (1981), Academic Press, New York
15. Haynes G., Anderson D.G., Ferring C.R., Fiedel S.J., Grayson D.K., Haynes Jr. C.V., Holliday V.T., Huckell B.B., Kornfeld M., Meltzer D.J., Morrow J., Surovell T., Waguespack N.M., Wigand P., and Yohe R.M. Comment on "Redefining the age of clovis: implications for the peopling of the Americas". Science 317 (2007) 320b
16. Hey J. On the number of new world founders: a population genetic portrait of the peopling of the Americas. PLoS Biology 3 (2005) e193
17. Hughen K.A., Baillie M.G.L., Bard E., Bayliss A., Beck J.W., Bertrand C.J.H., Blackwell P.G., Buck C.E., Burr G.S., Cutler K.B., Damon P.E., Edwards R.L., Fairbanks R.G., Friedrich M., Guilderson T.P., Kromer B., McCormac F.G., Manning S.W., Bronk Ramsey C., Reimer P.J., Reimer R.W., Remmele S., Southon J.R., Stuiver M., Talamo S., Taylor F.W., van der Plicht J., and Weyhenmeyer C.E. Marine04 marine radiocarbon age calibration, 26-0 ka BP. Radiocarbon 46 (2004) 1059-1086
18. Kelly R.L. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-gatherer Lifeways (2007), Percheron Press, New York
19. Kuzmin Y.V., and Keates S.G. Dates are not just data: paleolithic settlement patterns in Siberia derived from radiocarbon records. American Antiquity 70 (2005) 773-789
20. Lanata J.L., Martino L., Osella A., and Garcia-Herst A. Demographic conditions necessary to colonize new spaces: the case for early human dispersal in the Americas. World Archaeology 40 (2008) 520-537
21. Mulligan C.J., Kitchen A., and Miyamoto M.M. Updated three-stage model for the peopling of the Americas. PLoS ONE 3 (2008) e3199
22. Pennington R. Hunter-gatherer demography. In: Panter-Brick C., Layton R.H., and Rowley-Conwy P. (Eds). Hunter-Gatherers: an Interdisciplinary Perspective (2001), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 170-204
23. Reimer P.J., Baillie M.G.L., Bard E., Bayliss A., Beck J.W., Bertrand C.J.H., Blackwell P.G., Buck C.E., Burr G.S., Cutler K.B., Damon P.E., Edwards R.L., Fairbanks R.G., Friedrich M., Guilderson T.P., Hogg A.G., Hughen K.A., Kromer B., McCormac F.G., Manning S.W., Ramsey C.B., Reimer R.W., Remmele S., Southon J.R., Stuiver M., Talamo S., Taylor F.W., van der Plicht J., and Weyhenmeyer C.E. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 26-0 ka BP. Radiocarbon 46 (2004) 1029-1058
24. Rick J.W. Dates as data: an examination of the peruvian preceramic radiocarbon record. American Antiquity 52 (1987) 55-73
25. Royal Canadian Mint. Circulation Currency: Mintages. Available from (2009). http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/learn/circulation-currency-1100028#1_2 (accessed 17.07.09)
26. 2 emissions. Quaternary Science Reviews, in press.
27. Sattenspiel L. Modeling the spread of infectious disease in human populations. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 33 (1990) 245-276
28. Schacht R.M. Estimating past population trends. Annual Review of Anthropology 10 (1981) 119-140
29. Shennan S., and Edinborough K. Prehistoric population history: from the late glacial to the late neolithic in Central and Northern Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 34 (2007) 1339-1345
30. Signor P.W. The geological history of diversity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 21 (1990) 509-539
31. Smith A.B. Large-scale heterogeneity of the fossil record: implications for Phanerozoic biodiversity studies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 356 (2001) 351-367
32. Snow D.R. Disease and demography in the Americas: changing patterns before and after 1492. In: Verano J.W., and Ubelaker D.H. (Eds). Disease and Demography in the Americas (1992), Smithsonian Institution, Washington
33. Strickland L.E., Thompson R.S., and Anderson K.H. USGS/NOAA North American Packrat Midden Database Data Dictionary. Open-File Report 01-022 (2001), USGS, Denver
34. Steele J., Adams J., and Sluckin T. Modelling paleoindian dispersals. World Archaeology 30 (1998) 286-305
35. Stuiver M., Reimer P.J., and Reimer R. CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration Version 5.0.2. Available from (2009). http://calib.qub.ac.uk/calib/ (accessed 17.07.09)
36. Surovell T.A., Waguespack N., and Brantingham P.J. Global archaeological evidence for proboscidean overkill. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (2005) 6231-6236
37. Surovell T.A., and Brantingham P.J. A note on the use of temporal frequency distributions in studies of prehistoric demography. Journal of Archaeological Science 34 (2007) 1868-1877
38. Surovell T.A., Finley J.B., Smith G.M., Brantingham P.J., and Kelly R. Correcting temporal frequency distributions for taphonomic bias. Journal of Archaeological Science 36 (2009) 1715-1724
39. Thorton R. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: a Population History since 1492 (1987), University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma
40. Thorton R., Miller T., and Warren J. American Indian population recovery following smallpox epidemics. American Anthropologist 93 (1991) 28-45
41. Ubelaker D.H. Patterns of demographic change in the Americas. Human Biology 64 (1992) 361-379
42. Ubelaker D.H. Population size, contact to nadir. In: Ubelaker D.H. (Ed). Environment, Origins, and Population. Handbook of North American Indians vol. 3 (2006), Smithsonian Institution, Washington 694-701
43. Warrick G. A Population History of the Huron-Petun A.D. 500-1650 (2008), Cambridge University Press, New York
44. Waters M.R., and Stafford Jr. T.W. Redefining the age of clovis: implications for the peopling of the Americas. Science 315 (2007) 1122-1126
45. Wendland W.M., and Bryson R.A. Dating climatic episodes of the Holocene. Quaternary Research 4 (1974) 9-24
46. Zielinski G.A., Mayewski P.A., Meeker L.D., Whitlow M.S., Twickler M.S., Morrison M., Meese A.J., Gow J., and Alley R.B. Record of volcanism since 7000 BC from the GISP2 Greenland ice core and implications for the volcano-climate system. Science 264 (1994) 948-952