Alaska Camp Suggests 13,800-Year-Old Beringian Cultural Link

Archaeologists at Shég’ Xdaltth’í’, a site overlooking Alaska’s Tanana River, found more than 80,000 artifacts and animal remains documenting occupations around 13,800, 13,000 and 12,700 years ago. Hearths, a dwelling area, tools and clustered artifacts suggest people repeatedly used the ridge as a base camp to process food and carry out daily activities, rather than stopping there only briefly while migrating. Distinctive stone tools and other finds offer evidence of cultural connections between communities in eastern Beringia and populations farther west in Asia, adding to research on how people settled the Americas. The animal remains also show that inhabitants hunted large game, including mammoth, bison and horse, as well as caribou.