ABSTRACT
Several islands in the Mediterranean appear to have been colonized during the Younger Dryas, as well as the first secure evidence for human settlement on California's Channel Islands, Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, and Isla Cedros in Baja California. The earliest dates for humans and latest dates for mammoths overlap statistically, but some of these dates still await accurate corrections and calibration. Although the available data from these sites is still limited, they include some of the earliest shell middens in North America and provide a rare opportunity to examine human adaptations in a coastal setting during the dynamic Younger Dryas period. Recent research at Arlington Springs has produced no additional human remains or diagnostic artifacts, although a few small fragments of chipped-stone debitage were found in Orr's soil block and the paleosol from which the bones appear to have been removed. Archaeological data from California's Channel Islands document a human occupation extending back at least 13,000 calendar years.
