Not long ago I blogged about some very important Paleo-Indian finds on Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands. This morning I got to hear Todd Braje speak a little about that during a symposium on the archaeology of the Channel Islands. Yesterday Jon Erlandson discussed it during a session as well. They both speculated that there may be a connection between the barbed projectile points they’ve been uncovering and earlier Jomon points from Japan. That’s not as bizarre an idea as it might seem at first, given the very real possibility that the first people to reach the Americas came along the coast instead of through an ice-free corridor inland. Unfortunately, most of the route that coastal travelers would have taken is under water now, which makes it very hard to find any evidence they might have left behind.
On a different note, I may not be a grad student at the moment, but you’d sure think I was from the way I’ve been snapping up freebies in the vendor room.
