COASTLINES AND KELP BEDS: AN ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT FOR MARITIME MIGRATIONS TO THE AMERICAS

The possibility that coastal migrations contributed to the colonization of the Americas has received increased scholarly attention. This interest has been fueled in part by archaeological evidence that maritime peoples settled Australia and islands in western Melanesia, Japan, and California during the late Pleistocene. Early coastal sites continue to be difficult to locate, however, because of post-glacial sea level rise and coastal erosion. In this paper we discuss the marine ecology of coastal migration routes, focusing on the (1) general productivity of coastal resources for early humans (H. sapiens sapiens); (2) evolution of North Pacific coastlines over the past 18,000 years; and (3) distribution of kelp forests along Pacific coastlines and the role they may have played in facilitating maritime migrations. Because they support a wide range of organisms from both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, coastal zones generally provide a diversity of resources for coastal cultures. Pacific Coast kelp forests are particularly productive and may have provided maritime peoples with a generally similar suite of marine foods (sea mammals, fish, shellfish, sea birds). Because they tend to dissipate wave energy, kelp forests also provide relatively protected habitats for boat users. Kelp forests of broadly similar character and structure are currently found around the Pacific from Japan to the Aleutians and Baja California, as well as the coasts of Peru and Chile. Some of the earliest coastal sites in the Americas are associated with shorelines where kelp forests are common. To explore their potential role in early coastal migrations from Asia to the Americas, we discuss the possible extent and nature of Pacific Rim kelp forests after the last glacial. No clear evidence yet exists that a coastal migration contributed to the Pleistocene colonization of the Americas, but research on this topic has been relatively limited. Detailed paleoecological research is needed to document the specific nature of Beringia's south coast environments. The search for early coastal archaeological sites should be interdisciplinary in nature and focus on areas of steep bathymetry, raised or submerged shorelines between about 16,000 and 12,000 years old, and specific locations that would have been attractive to late Pleistocene maritime peoples.