Finding the Americas
There have been severaltheories about how mankind found their way to the Americas. I’m not going to gothrough all of them in this blog post. But a couple theories keep gettingtweaked as scientists find new evidence.
Two theories postulatethat mankind made its way to Alaska by way of following a land bridge fromSiberia into Alaska. The land bridge existed due to a much lower sea levelduring the last ice age. There are two theories because some scientists believethe people followed the edge of the land bridge by boat, keeping the land intheir sight all along the way. Another group of scientists believe the peoplefollowed game animals as they walked across the land bridge. Which groupreached Alaska first? I don’t think anybody knows.
According to data gleanedfrom sediment and fossilized marine life, the first Siberians might havetraveled to the New World more than 10,000 years before the First Nationspeople are thought to have arrived. Such an early migration would have been alot easier because of sea ice. It’s been suggested that expanses of winter icemay have facilitated travel by foot when passage by boat would have beentreacherous.
For about five decades,archaeologists thought the Clovis people as the original pioneers of the NorthAmerican continent. This theory stated that families trekked across the landbridge around 13,000 years ago.
Yet recent discoverieshave pushed back the arrival of humans in the Americas to more than 25,000years ago.
But could they reallyhave walked all that way? The sea level was probably low enough to expose asolid bridge as far back as 36,000 years ago. However, the rugged cap of snowand glacier covering the bridge might not have been traversable.
However, once glaciersbegan to retreat, a thin strip of coastal ecosystems could have providedresources for traveling by boat. A 14,000-year-old settlement on Canada’swestern coast implies that pre-Clovis people were inching their way along thewater’s edge.
However, windows ofopportunity may have closed during warm periods, when melting snow and icewould have sent currents swirling in the wrong direction for migratingpaddlers. An analysis of climate models says high winds and lower sea levelswould have made ocean currents 20,000 years ago twice as strong as they aretoday.
Records also suggestthat winter sea ice would have been present until 15,000 years ago, whichmigrants could have walked across, or even sledded. Researchers identified 24.5to 22 thousand years ago and 16.4 to 14.8 thousand years ago as the most likelyperiods for early migration along the Alaskan coast, possibly aided by a“Sea-ice Highway.”
Emerging signs thathumans ventured as far south as New Mexico more than 20,000 years ago implythere may have been a relatively safe and open path for them to get there.
