Archaeological sites ae now yielding evidence for a “pre-Clovis” population in the Americas.
Radiocarbon dates from the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and the Cactus Hill site in Virginia indicate that these sites were occupied more than 14,000 years BP.
Pedra Furada in Brazil has yielded even earlier dates in the range of 31,000 years BP.
The most convincing and widely accepted “pre-Clovis” site is Monte Verde, a streamside habitation site located in south-central Chile. The remains of wooden structures, hearths, as well as three footprints preserved in clay attest to a human presence near the southern tip of South America.
It can be difficult to demonstrate definite links between ancient groups of people based on the limited information contained in the archaeological record. This is especially true of the generally sparse archaeological remains found at early American sites.
Between about 25,000 and 10,000 years BP, much of the North American continent was buried beneath tonnes of glacial ice. How did people find their way across or around this massive barrier to settle in the unglaciated regions south of the ice sheets? Which route did they take to travel to the Americas? A number of hypotheses have been proposed to answer these questions. The ice-free corridor route from the south and the coastal route are the two that have garnered the widest new speculations within the archaeological community.
Coastal route advocates, on the other hand, suggest that people migrated by boat up and down the Pacific coast, from Chile all the way north to Alaska, inhabiting small pockets of unglaciated land along the outer coast, and relying on marine resources such as fish, shellfish and sea mammals.
Archaeologists continue to search for these early sites, but also rely on evidence from other researchers to determine whether these ancient environments were habitable and capable of supporting plants, animals and people.
Geologists, for example, can determine the characteristics of the past physical environment, including the location of coastlines and the presence and extent of ice sheets and glacial lakes. Paleobiologists study ancient plant and animal remains to establish the type of climate and vegetation that people might have encountered, as well as to identify possible food sources for human populations. This research can be used to identify environments that people could have lived in, as well as those that were uninhabitable, and can assist archaeologists in determining where to look for archaeological remains.
Radiocarbon dates from the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and the Cactus Hill site in Virginia indicate that these sites were occupied more than 14,000 years BP.
Pedra Furada in Brazil has yielded even earlier dates in the range of 31,000 years BP.
The most convincing and widely accepted “pre-Clovis” site is Monte Verde, a streamside habitation site located in south-central Chile. The remains of wooden structures, hearths, as well as three footprints preserved in clay attest to a human presence near the southern tip of South America.
It can be difficult to demonstrate definite links between ancient groups of people based on the limited information contained in the archaeological record. This is especially true of the generally sparse archaeological remains found at early American sites.
Between about 25,000 and 10,000 years BP, much of the North American continent was buried beneath tonnes of glacial ice. How did people find their way across or around this massive barrier to settle in the unglaciated regions south of the ice sheets? Which route did they take to travel to the Americas? A number of hypotheses have been proposed to answer these questions. The ice-free corridor route from the south and the coastal route are the two that have garnered the widest new speculations within the archaeological community.
Coastal route advocates, on the other hand, suggest that people migrated by boat up and down the Pacific coast, from Chile all the way north to Alaska, inhabiting small pockets of unglaciated land along the outer coast, and relying on marine resources such as fish, shellfish and sea mammals.
Archaeologists continue to search for these early sites, but also rely on evidence from other researchers to determine whether these ancient environments were habitable and capable of supporting plants, animals and people.
Geologists, for example, can determine the characteristics of the past physical environment, including the location of coastlines and the presence and extent of ice sheets and glacial lakes. Paleobiologists study ancient plant and animal remains to establish the type of climate and vegetation that people might have encountered, as well as to identify possible food sources for human populations. This research can be used to identify environments that people could have lived in, as well as those that were uninhabitable, and can assist archaeologists in determining where to look for archaeological remains.
