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Out of the Plains and Across the Prairie: Toward an Explanation of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Demographic Expansions From the West to the East

Event Type
Lecture
Sponsor
Illinois State Archaeological Survey
Date
Feb 26, 2021   4:00 pm  
Speaker
Andrew A. White, Research Archaeologist, Illinois State Archaeological Survey
Registration
Register for the Zoom webinar
Views
432
Originating Calendar
Illinois State Archaeological Survey Calendar

Projectile point forms such as Folsom, Agate Basin, and Eden/Scottsbluff are most closely associated with the early hunting-gathering societies of the Great Plains. The occurrence of these distinctive tools in different parts of the Midcontinent east of the Mississippi River has been noted for decades but never adequately explained. In this talk ISAS Research Archaeologist Andrew White will discuss the importance of understanding how and why populations from the Great Plains moved into the Eastern Woodlands during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene and how further investigations will require (1) gathering sufficient data to describe the archaeological patterns left by these demographic expansions and (2) development of a model-based framework for interpreting those patterns. This will allow us to craft explanations that are consistent with the Paleoindian and Early Archaic records of both the east and west.  

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