The Clovis–Cumberland–Dalton Succession: Settling into the Midsouth United States during the Pleistocene to Holocene Transition

Considerable debate has recently focused on understanding the effects of the Younger Dryas (YD) on human behavioral adaptations throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It has been proposed that adverse paleoecological conditions in southeastern North America triggered a decline or substantial reorganization in human populations. The Tennessee Paleoindian biface data in the Paleoindian Database of the Americas is used here to assess transitions in behavioral adaptations during the Pleistocene to Holocene transition. Patterns in technological organization, land use, and toolstone selection do not support the hypothesis that paleoecological changes during the YD adversely affected human populations in the Midsouth. An alternative hypothesis is proposed and contends that changes in behavioral adaptations were a result of settling in processes associated with initial regional colonization and increased regionalization throughout the Pleistocene to Holocene transition.