Who were the first Americans? by Cynthia

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

The question of when people first reached the Americas has been ongoing to anthropologists and archaeologists. For a long time, scientists have believed that humans first entered the continent about 14,000 years ago across the Bering Strait in Alaska from Siberia at the end of the last ice age when enough ice had melted to allow passage but before the area was flooded. This Bering Land Bridge theory has been the most upheld belief to date and has a lot of evidence in its favor. The oldest archaeological sites found before recently are scattered throughout the US and all date to about 13,000 years ago. The weapons and tools found at all of these sites are very similar and since the all the people likely shared a common culture, archaeologists have dubbed them the “Clovis” people, after a site in Clovis, New Mexico.

 

Recent research in the eastern US and South America has revealed sites that set the date of human arrival much farther back, possibly as far as 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. Monte Verde, a site discovered in Chile in 1993, dates to 14,700 years. If humans entered North America through Alaska and constantly moved southward everyday, which is not likely, it would take at least a thousand years to get to Chile, most likely more. This site outdates the Bering Land Bridge theory and proves that at least some of the first American people had to arrive another way.

 

A new theory that has arisen due to the findings of these older sites is the Pacific Coastal theory. Anthropologists speculate that sea faring people from Asia sailed up the Asian coast during the Ice Age, following the glacier that covered the northern areas, and around to the Pacific coast. This theory is very plausible; humans used oceanic boats as long as 40,000 years ago. But the theory is not easy to prove. In the past 13,000 years, due the end of the last Ice Age and the subsequent melting of all glaciers, the sea level has risen quite bit, and what were the coastal lands during that time are now sunken deep under water. A few expeditions have pulled tools around 10,000 years old from the ocean around the Pacific coast so we do know that humans were living there. There is little other evidence though to suggest who they were.

 

A new group of scientists have entered research into the investigation of the first Americans: linguists. After studying Native American languages and comparing them to those of Siberians, linguists suggest that the Native Americans’ ancestors left Siberia at least 30,000 years ago. The Atlantic Coastal theory is much the same as the Pacific theory, but that people from Europe sailed around the Atlantic Coast to reach America. The only evidence for this theory is shaky at best, so it’s not accepted yet.

 

Another piece of new evidence has sparked another theory. Archaeologists have found a 13,500 year old skeleton in southeastern Brazil of an African or Aborigine woman. Scientists doubt that people traveled to America directly from Africa, but possibly groups traveling from Africa to Asia went on to America. This proves that America has always been a diverse land, most likely with settlers from many different places and of many different ethnicities. In deed it’s very possibly that all of these theories are true and that America has been a melting pot since the beginning. The question of when people first reached the Americas has been ongoing to anthropologists and archaeologists.

 

For a long time, scientists have believed that humans first entered the continent about 14,000 years ago across the Bering Strait in Alaska from Siberia at the end of the last ice age when enough ice had melted to allow passage but before the area was flooded. This Bering Land Bridge theory has been the most upheld belief to date and has a lot of evidence in its favor. The oldest archaeological sites found before recently are scattered throughout the US and all date to about 13,000 years ago. The weapons and tools found at all of these sites are very similar and since the all the people likely shared a common culture, archaeologists have dubbed them the “Clovis” people, after a site in Clovis, New Mexico.