First Peoples > An Aboriginal Presence > Our Origins > Archaeology > At the Edge of the Ice
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An Aboriginal Presence

Our Origins

Archaeology - At the Edge of the Ice

About 18,000 years ago, at the height of the last Ice Age, almost all of northern North America lay under a heavy mantle of glacial ice. The land was uninhabitable, and by modern standards, unrecognizable. Only the far northwest - a region known as Beringia - was unglaciated and open to human occupation. The early history of First Peoples in Canada begins with the fact of this glacial ice, and its subsequent melting.

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Beringia

Full Glacial: 18,000 years ago

Late Glacial: 11,000 years ago

Early Postglacial: 8,000 years ago

Middle Postglacial: 5,000 years ago

Late Postglacial: 1,000 years ago

 
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