Abstract
Understanding the archaeology of the Bering Land Bridge and adjacent regions is essential to reconstruct past cultural relationships and exchanges between Asia and North America. It is in this region the two continents come closest together, and where they were connected in the past by a land bridge. During the last Ice Age when sea level was lower, plants, animals, and people inhabited the continental shelves that are now below sea level. Beneath the cold ocean water is a “lost world” that may contain the tangible evidence of ancient human habitation. However, underwater archaeology in this vast area is preliminary with only three scientific studies conducted in 35 years. Since the first underwater survey was conducted in the Bering Sea in 1976 (Dixon, A predictive model for the distribution of archaeological sites on the Bering Continental Shelf, 1979), there have been significant improvements in technology, geologic data essential for modeling, and navigational aids for underwater archaeological survey.
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Acknowledgments
This Gateway to the Americans research project was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Polar Programs award numbers 0703980 and 1108367, and CH2M HILL Polar Services (CPS) the arctic logistics to NSF funded researchers. The authors would also like to thank Sealaska Heritage Institute and the two anonymous reviewers of an earlier draft of this manuscript.
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Dixon, J., Monteleone, K. (2014). Gateway to the Americas: Underwater Archeological Survey in Beringia and the North Pacific. In: Evans, A., Flatman, J., Flemming, N. (eds) Prehistoric Archaeology on the Continental Shelf. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9635-9_6
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