News Release

Understanding the Earliest Human Migrations to North America

Date: May 22, 2019
Contact: Yvonne Menard, 805-658-5725

During a special lecture on Monday, June 3, 2019 at 7:00 pm, Dr. Todd Braje will discuss how his latest research at Santa Rosa Island, both on land and undersea, informs us of the earliest human migrations into the New World.

California’s Northern Channel Islands have emerged as one of the best places to uncover the history of New World colonization, as they contain the most significant density of ancient sites ever recorded.

Braje’s research indicates that the earliest migrants to the Channel Islands were maritime hunter-gatherers who travelled via vessel following the shorelines of the Pacific Rim likely 15,000 to 18,000 years ago. These early people used distinctive chipped stone technologies to make tools they used for fishing, and hunting marine mammal and seabirds.

Braje, currently the Irvine Chair of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences, has worked on the Channel Islands studying the archaeology of maritime societies  for over a decade. He has conducted research on a variety of archaeological sites, ranging from 12,000-year-old shell middens and stone tool scatters to nineteenth-century fishing camps. His recent field work includes a large, interdisciplinary project to understand the earliest human occupations of the Northern Channel Islands and to map the submerged landforms of the Northern Channel Islands. 

Brajes’s lecture will be held on Monday, June 3, 2019, at 7:00 pm at the Channel Islands National Park Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center, 1901 Spinnaker Drive in Ventura Harbor. The program is free and open to the public.

This lecture can also be viewed live online, at: Channel Islands Live 

Lectures are recorded and posted at: Shore to Sea Lecture