Key Takeaways

History textbooks often claim Christopher Columbus discovered America . While Columbus was among the first Europeans ( the Norse before him , and possibly theChineseand anIrish monk ) to search the New World , he found that the Americas were already inhabited . Columbus barely made it to the American continents first .

There ’s trivial room to reason that Europeans tap this New World . But had it not been for the fashionable European pursuit ofarchaeology , some question that come up may never have been answered : Who go far at the Americas first , and for how long had they lived there ? While there ’s no tangible value in rule out who get to the Americas first ( certainly none of these people come through these thousands of years to accept the honor ) , then perhaps it ’s the by-line of knowledge ( and our affinity for ascribing firsts ) that has driven scientists to uncover the answer .

The most curious scene of American colonization is the matter of how the first inhabitants get to the Am­ericas . fundamentally , the continent are an island . The massive North and South American dry land masses are n’t connect to any other part of the worldly concern , and they ’d been sequestrate by the seas for quite some time . So where did these early inhabitants come from ?

­Early archeologist could evidence pretty easily that some ancient civilization lived at sure site – these places were full of honest-to-god relic . But it was n’t until the 1950s thatradiocarbon datingwas refined enough to dependably see these artifacts . ( carbon 14 dating evaluates the historic period of C-14 carbon isotopes found in the deposit surrounding artifacts at archaeological sites . )

One site in particular already had fascinated research worker for year . In 1932 , artifacts and the bone of foresighted - nonextant metal money were find near Clovis , N.M. They appear to be very onetime , but they also disclose an modern technology . Projectile crown were fluted and bevel in sophisticated designs . Archaeologists deduced from the castanets at these sites that these mass hunted large animate being , which would ’ve require a great deal of planning , administration and cooperation . The acculturation that left behind these artifacts was named Clovis , after the nearby town .

Radiocarbon dating revealed that the Clovis had live in North America as ahead of time as 11,200 years ago . The escort lay out off a flurry of theories about how they ’d come to the plains of the North American continent . Read about where the Clovis people came from on the next varlet .

The Clovis-First Theory

On the timeline of history , the Clovis the great unwashed appeared out of nowhere and disappear in the blink of an eye . Clovis I internet site were find throughout the southern and eastern United States . Radiocarbon date revealed that the Clovis had a somewhat scant existence : They first appeared in America around 9,200 B.C. and vanished 500 twelvemonth after , around 8,700 B.C.

So where did the Clovis get along from – and where did they go ?

Intense investigation into hint the Clovis entrust behind was launched as more artifacts were discovered . TheClovis - First theoryproposes that these people came from Siberia , where hunter - gatherer folk lived . Around the time the Clovis lived in the Americas , the macrocosm was in the middle of an Ice Age . The Ice Age lowered ocean levels because so muchwaterwas frosty solid ; as a result , land that ’s now under water was disclose . The Bering land bridge deck , which connects Alaska to Siberia and is now under the Bering Strait , is supposedly the passage the Clovis crossed from Siberia to Alaska . In the time of the Clovis migration , the land span would have been about a mile wide-cut .

Much of Alaska and Canada were covered by a huge ice sheet , but geological grounds shew there was a corner in the ice ( called theice - devoid corridor ) that would have allow the Clovis to transmigrate through to the northerly component of the United States . From there , they traveled south and spread across the continent .

But why would the Clovis go out home for a strange , fresh human beings ? The reply to this question ties into the result about the Clovis ' disappearance .

The Clovis , like other prehistoric culture , were hunter - gatherers . They foraged for plants and hunted animal forfood . There ’s evidence at Clovis sites that they slaughtered tremendous game like mastodon and mammoth with their unique projectile points . These big game specie had far - flung migrant patterns . The Clovis would ’ve been dependent on these animals , and where the mastodon and mammoth migrated , the Clovis followed . So it ’s possible that the Clovis ' intellectual nourishment sources led them into North America .

The prevailing hypothesis among Clovis - First adherents is that the Clovis ' dependance on mammoth and mastodons lead to their downfall . idealogue believe that the Clovis people either overvalue the abundance of their food sources or were n’t diversified enough in their diet . The Clovis may have overhunted mastodons and mammoth , lead to both species ' experimental extinction in North America and the eventual extinction of the Clovis .

But evidence from around the world pokes holes in the Clovis - First theory . At least one situation suggests there ’s another account for the presence of the first humans in the Americas . In 1998 , a final field of a website excavated near Monte Verde , Chile , get out through the Clovis roadblock . Find out about the Monte Verde site and how it modify the mentality of American prehistoric culture on the next page .

Monte Verde: Usurping the Clovis?

Although the Clovis - First hypothesis provides a summary and hefty explanation of human colonization in the Americas , it leave questions unanswered . For model , why have n’t Clovis I artifacts been break along the transit they would have ingest from Siberia to North America ? Some grounds has been base in the northerly United States and Canada . However , thetimeframe for these artifacts is n’t definitive [ source : University of Calgary ] .

And the Canadian grounds does n’t excuse other evidence find in the Americas . Theradiocarbon datingof archaeological sites advise that the Clovis actually migrate south to Second Earl of Guilford rather than north to south [ origin : Smith ] . This implies that the Clovis would have occur from South America , not from Siberia .

Clovis - First adherents discounted the idea of south - to - compass north migration until 1998 , when the final account on a website in Monte Verde , Chile , was established as the oldest grounds of human abode in the Americas . Monte Verde is locate in the southwestern part of South America , not far from Antarctica . At the site , hearths and Natalie Wood with knotted strings seize were base . The artefact were dated about 12,500 years honest-to-god , some 1,300 year before the Clovis showed up in the archeologic record of North America [ source : New York Times ] .

Where did the Monte Verde multitude come from ? Antarctica and South America have n’t been connect for about 80 million years [ source : Dutch ] . How would anyone have traveled to the Americas ? It ’s not entirely out of the question that boat conveyed betimes prehistoric American colonist .

Aboriginal Australiansare believed to have know on their island continent for as retentive as 60,000 years . And Australia break free from Antarctica around 50 million years ago [ source : Dutch ] . The earliest Australians are believed to have migrate to the continent by gravy holder , island - hopping in Polynesia along the way . It ’s potential a similar scenario explain the settlement of South America . This , however , is a speculative theory and is n’t back up by any evidence found by archaeologist .

The Monte Verde site represent a gelid transmutation in the way archaeologists seem at human settlement in the Americas . Were these people the ascendant of the Clovis hoi polloi ? Did humans transmigrate northward , from South America up to the North American champaign ? alas , the Clovis did n’t appear to pass on a track of grounds behind them . It ’s almost like they all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere in North America . There ’s no trail of artifacts showing the evolution of the Clovis rocket artillery in either a northern or southerly direction . In the end , neither hypothesis of where the Clovis came from is defend by their projectile , the most telling artifact .

The Clovis stay a secret , and the question of the earliest Americans ' origins stay . Other fields of study are turning up even early date for human settlement in the Americas . DNA grounds hint that migration take place as early as 20,000 years ago [ author : San Francisco Chronicle ] . lingual interrogatory of the solution of aboriginal American languages corroborate the estimate that humans have been in North America for 12,000 to 50,000 year [ source : Bernard , et al ] .

Perhaps the settlement of the Americas did n’t take place by one chemical group of dauntless travelers who gave procession to all other cultures . And it may not matter who made it to the Americas first . One researcher suggests the earliest settlement may have do in waves from unlike areas [ source : Live scientific discipline ] . It may be that a human comportment in America could n’t have demand cargo hold without all of these groups – the contributions of each are finally more important than who came first .

For more information on migration and related topics , visit the next page .

Lots More Information

Sources

FAQs

The Monte Verde hoi polloi were locate in the southwestern part of South America , not far from Antarctica . They were believed to have come from Antarctica or South America .

It ’s possible that boats conveyed early on prehistoric American settlers . Aboriginal Australians are think to have migrate to Australia by boat , island - hopping in Polynesia along the way .