Throughout the 20th century, the Coastal Migration Theory, the “Kelp Highway,” suggested that some of the First Americans colonized the New World by navigating along the North Pacific coastlines from Asia into North and South America. This theory was considered highly unlikely by most archaeologists who at the time did not have access to advanced technology that reliably dated faunal remains. Moreover, archaeologists lacked recent discoveries that supported the Coastal Migration Theory. The evidence available at the time supported the hypothesis which proposed Upper Paleolithic hunters followed big game herds from Siberia to Beringia and down a long, narrow ice-free passageway that opened as the vast ice sheets, Laurentide and Cordilleran, …show more content…
The Daisy Cave, Channel Islands is an archaeological site where scores of bone fish hooks, over thirty thousand fish bones, and cordage made of knotted grass, possibly used for making fishing nets, have been dated to thirteen-thousand years ago. Daisy Cave is an important site because it provides strong evidence for the use of boats along the Pacific coast approximately ten thousand-five hundred years ago. San Miguel Island lies approximately forty kilometers off the coast of California, which suggests that it has been separated from the mainland for a much longer period of time than thirteen thousand years. In order for people to have occupied the cave at least ten thousand-five hundred years Before Present, they must have used some form of watercraft to reach the island, which supports the Coastal Route …show more content…
This site is almost forty miles inland from the Pacific Ocean where wood and fibers were preserved in a bog. Stone tools that consisted of mostly simple flakes indicated an earlier settlement than suggested by the Beringia Standstill Hypothesis, which identified with newer Clovis tools. Also found there were twelve dwellings covered by animal skins with a wide variety of forty-five different edible plants. Seaweed was found in their hearths which connected them to the Pacific Ocean. Monte Verde is an important site because it provided evidence that the area was populated more than one thousand years earlier than any other reliably dated human settlements in North and South America, which supports the Coastal Route Hypothesis, as it opened pre-Clovis potentialities for North and South
It all started when the first Neanderthal fossil to get a lot of attention was found in 1856 in Dusseldorf, Germany, due to it being the full being, rather than a few scattered bones (Walter, 102). Another skull soon after was found in Maba, China that had the same Neanderthal similarities. However, not much archaeological work has been done in the Far East. Aiello, an Archaeologist, states, “[He has] no doubt that Neanderthals could have migrated farther to the east— To Mongolia or China… There would have been nothing to stop them.” The Neanderthals took advantage of a warm period 125,000 years ago while migrating. They ended up getting as far as Siberia. During that warm period 125,000 years ago the Caspian Sea was reduced in size dramatically (Than, 1). The remains of cave drawings of Neolithic peoples and human-shaped figures have been discovered that date back to around 41,000 years ago (Hammer, 66).
Alan Taylor is trying to prove that the story of America does not begin with the American Revolution. When, humans first encountered America between 12, 000- 15,000 years is where the story of American first starts. Alan Taylor's thesis is true because, prior to the American Revolution the Siberians arrived in America and settled from the tip of South America to as high as Alaska. Later European empires invaded and conquered several regions of America. Alan Taylor proves that the settlement of America does not begin in the 1492 but rather about 12,000 to 15,000 years earlier. The early Americans migrated from North Eastern Asia and entered in small boats along the coast. Some other hypothesis is that the earliest humans walked along a land
There are three parts in West’s book; the first part focuses on the sociological, ecological and economic relationships of the plains Indians, starting with the first establish culture of North America, the Clovis peoples. Going into extensive detail pertaining to early geology and ecology, West gives us a glimpse into what life on the early plains must have looked to early peoples. With vastly differing flora and fauna to what we know today, the early plains at the end of the first ice age, were a different place and lent itself to a diverse way of life. The Clovis peoples were accomplished hunters, focusing on the abundance of Pleistocene megafauna such as earlier, larger forms of bison. Though, little human remains were found, evidence of their s...
Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took the risk of life, limb, and liberty to bring back the precious and valuable information of the Pacific Northwest of the United States territory. Their accomplishments of surviving the trek and delivering the data to the U.S. government, have altered the course of history, but have some Historian’s and author’s stating, “It produced nothing useful.”, and having “added little to the stock of science and wealth. Lewis and Clark’s expedition is one of the most famous and most unknown adventures of America’s frontier.
Milanich, Jerald T. and Susan Milbrath., ed. First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and the United States1492-1570. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 1989.
-New Evidence Puts Man in North America 50,000 Years Ago. Sciencedaily. 2004. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm
The Kennewick man was a monumental find to further our understanding of the history of the migration patterns of the people that culture sees today. The Kennewick man being a 9200 to 9600 year old skeleton made him one of the oldest nearly whole skeletons found in North or South America. The Kennewick man was found on July 28th 1996 by two college students whose names were Will Thomas and Dave Deacy while they were walking along the Columbia River near Kennewick Washington trying to get a better view into the local hydroplane races (Chatters, 23). These college students stumbled upon something that has caused a series of serious debates that have lasted for over ten years. After the students fell upon “the rock with teeth” (Powell 2005:6) they took it to the local police forces that were in the area.
"Early Explorers of the Western Hemisphere." World Almanac & Book of Facts 2000, 1999, p456.
Many people think that Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot in America, but this conventional belief is wrong; Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer set foot in Newfoundland almost 500 years before Columbus was even born. This paper will cover everything about Leif Erikson’s life including his grandfather’s banishment from Norway, and Leif’s father’s exile from Iceland. Leif Erikson’s early life, his family, and his visit to Norway to serve under the king. The first recorded European to see North America, Bjarni Herjólfsson, and Leif Erikson’s voyage to America. This paper is also going to talk about Leif Erikson’s brother, Thorvald Erikson’s voyage to Vinland because his tale is interesting. Near the end of this research paper, it will have a paragraph on Leif Erikson’s later life. Finally at the end of this paper it is going to talk about the unknown reason why no other Europeans sailed to Vinland, and Leif’s impact on modern day North America.
Published in 1493, Luis Santangel received the embellished journal of Christopher Columbus as validation for the much-promised riches in the Indies. Centered around an era of power and conquest, Columbus tapered his writings and findings to pacify his Royal sponsors for the voyage. Santangel was also one such wealthy sponsor. Although the tone of the letter was vastly hyperbolic, Christopher Columbus still managed to document the labeling of the numerous islands and its topography. Yet even the size and measurement is a bit exaggerated as well referring to one island being twice as large as that of Great Britain and Scotland. Columbus did his best to acknowledge various “thousands upon thousands” in this letter with that of spiceries and gold mines with mountains in a “thousand shapes...full of trees of a thousand kinds” as well as deeming the exotic islands incomparable to any other islands that “there could be no believing without seeing” firsthand. Colu...
In this ancient place there were all different kinds of remnants from what looked to be a permanent settlement, which led us to believe that it was formed in the Neolithic period. Scientists also believe from the skull fragments found that the Cro-Magnons were the hominid type that inhabited the area. Some of the fossils found helped to prove that the settlement was immobile because the fossilized plants were apparently in a specific arrangement, showing that they were planted purposefully. Some of the cotton grown in this area was apparently used to make woven cloth. Remnants of corn meal were used to make some of the mortar for their establishments, along with mud and sand. They also made their bricks, which were much larger than today’s, from mud. Some of the teeth from the Cro-Magnons were found to be stained. They were thought to be from the coffee ingested due to the high amounts of caffeine deposits in the bones.
Quinn, David B. North America From Earliest Discovery to First Settlements. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.
The four factors that contribute to challenging the viability of the Bering land bridge theory is that the first americans did not cross the bering land bridge at all but cross the atlantic ocean by using boats. Another factor is the striking resemblance between the cultures of South America, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The discovery of the archeological site in Monte verde, chile, dates back to 14, 500 years ago which is a full millennium older that the previously thought of the first people challenges the viability of the theory.
The going theory of the First Americans is the ever-popular land bridge hypothesis, which connected Siberia and Alaska. This is believed to have happened at least twice during the ice ages between 32,000 and 36,000 years ago and, again between 13,000 and 28,000 years ago. This repeated connection took place where the eastern and western hemispheres come the closest to one another. The best illustration that I found explaining the land bridge was the analogy made to a seesaw. On one side being the glaciers and on the other side is sea level. When the glaciers get bigger or "go up" the sea level withdraws or "goes down". Basically when all the earth's water is in the form of snow or ice sea level is lowered. At least 180 feet lower to form that Siberian land connection. Direct proof of this...
Larry Benson et al. (2006) Anasazi ( Pre- Columbian Native –Americans) Migrations During the Middle -12th and late 13th Centuries –were they Drought Induced? U.S Geological Survey.