By roughly 10,000 years ago, the four modern northern Channel Islands had become distinct — and the crossing from island to island, or from any island to the mainland, required more sophisticated watercraft than the initial crossing to the terminal Pleistocene superisland may have required.

The technology rose to meet the challenge.

Shell beads, fishing technology, and sea-grass cordage appear in early Holocene sites at dates around 10,500 years before present.

The evidence of more elaborate maritime technology becoming more prominent as the islands became more isolated is consistent with the expectation that watercraft sophistication would increase in response to increasing water gaps.

The people of the early Holocene Channel Islands were building on a maritime tradition that the Arlington Springs individual represents at its terminal Pleistocene beginning.

What The Site Means For Other Early American Discoveries