1 Early Maritime Adaptations and the Peopling of the Americas Marjolein Admiraal 1 Introduction When did anatomically modern humans irst enter the Western Hemisphere and where did they come from? he general view is that around 13,500 BP (calibrated years before present) humans coming from Asia entered the American continent via the Bering Land Bridge and moved further south through an Ice-free corridor in be- tween the two ice sheets covering North America. People must have spread rapidly across the continent and they developed a distinguishable biface technology. he re- mains of these people are referred to as the Clovis cul- ture, named after the site where the culture was irst dis- covered in New Mexico. Many archaeologists since the 1920s have believed that Clovis was irst (Haynes, 1964; 1969; Martin, 1973). his theory is challenged by the Coastal Migration Model. It explains the occurrence of pre-Clovis sites south of the ice sheets by suggesting an earlier migration along the west coast of the American continent with the use of watercraft. he debate following the introduction of this theory has centred on the lack of evidence of both the early use of watercraft and coastal sites. his paper addresses the notion that a maritime adaptation is re- garded to be of Holocene age. he Monte Verde site of Chile will be examined more closely because this site re- sulted in a change in thought about both pre-Clovis oc- cupation of the Americas as well as pre-Holocene coastal migration. Special attention will be given to the idea that modern-day worldviews (maritime versus terrestrial) structured the debate on the Coastal Migration Model. Construction of the Coastal Migration Model As early as 1590 AD the Spanish Jesuit chronicler Padre José de Acosta proposed the idea of a land bridge con- necting the continents providing a migration route for the irst Americans (Fiedel, 2000). In 1728 Vitus Bering discovered the separation of the two hemispheres by the Bering Strait. As a result, one of the earliest thoughts about the peopling of the Americas included the use of watercraft, needed for the crossing between continents (see further Easton, 1992). During these early times the biblical belief in a young earth of approximately 6000 years old was still deeply rooted. As a result, the belief that America’s archaeol- ogy could not exceed the age of 5,000 years persisted up to the discovery of the Folsom site in 1926 dated to approximately 9,000 BP. In 1935 the Clovis site proved even older human occupation (13,500 BP). Eric Hulten proved in 1937 that lower sea levels had exposed the Bering Strait during the LGM allowing people to walk from Asia to America. For the 20 following years most New World archae- ologists believed that around 13,500 BP humans from Asia entered the American continent via the Bering Land Bridge. After passing through the Ice-free corridor in between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets, they stumbled upon the tame megafauna of the North American interior. he lack of fear for humans caused the extinction of the megafauna by human overkill. In return the abundance of easy prey caused a human population explosion. Humans spread rapidly across the continent and developed a distinct biface technology that we refer to as Clovis. his is a brief description of the Clovis-irst, Ice-free corridor and Overkill models. Archaeological proof for any of these theories has remained absent up to this day (Easton, 1992; Klein & Schifner, 2003; Mandryk et al, 2001; Fiedel, 2000). At the same time, this narrative of related models oppressed any coastal migration proposals or the involvement of watercraft concerning the peopling of the Americas (Easton, 1992; Fiedel, 2000). he Ice-free corridor, Clovis irst and Overkill models suited each other perfectly. However, some archaeologists were convinced of a human presence before Clovis. Even before the archaeological proof of an earlier presence was unearthed the idea of a coastal migration arose. In 1960 Heusser suggested the idea anew. He sketched the sce- nario of a southward migration along the coast instead of through the conventional interior ice-free corridor. Fladmark (1978, 1979, 1983, 1986) further developed the theory. Fladmark based his theory on the occurrence of pre-Clovis sites located south of the ice sheets. he oc- currence of these sites proved that people inhabited areas south of the ice before an ice-free corridor migration was possible. He examined the glaciological evidence on the extent of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during its last ad- vance along the North Paciic coast of North America (after 23,000 14 C BP) and discovered the presence of multiple ice-free refugia (Fladmark, 1979). Heusser (1960) already proposed six refugia (ig.1) on the basis of