Archaeologists Demonstrate Humans in Americas Long Before Clovis

[Minimalist]

The Clovis-First theory has taken another hit....this one apparently fatal.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/05/americas/...index.html

[color=var(--theme-headline__text-color)]Scientists say they’ve confirmed evidence that humans arrived in the Americas far earlier than previously thought[/color]

When the discovery of fossilized footprints made in what’s now New Mexico was made public in 2021, it was a bombshell moment for archaeology, seemingly rewriting a chapter of the human story. Now new research is offering further evidence of their significance.
While they look like they could have been made yesterday, the footprints were pressed into mud 21,000 to 23,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating of the seeds of an aquatic plant that were preserved above and below the fossils.
This date dramatically pushed back the timeline of humans’ history in the Americas, the last landmass to be settled by prehistoric people. The 61 dated prints, which were discovered in the Tularosa Basin, near the edge of an ancient lake in White Sands National Park, were made at a time when many scientists think that massive ice sheets had sealed off human passage into North America, indicating that humans arrived in the region even earlier.

And fuck Adam and Eve!

[brewerb]

Stop fooling us, god put them there as a test after the dinosaur fossil failure.

[pattylt]

Funny you should post this…I’m currently listening to an Audible book about the various mounds and henges found in both North and South America. The Clovis first idea has been blown out of the water in the last 7-8 years with mound constructions dated to ~7,000 before present. That groups of early Americans were coordinating these large constructions this long ago tends to lead to their obviously inhabiting the area for a long period previous to these mounds.

That there is now evidence from such an earlier date in your article pushes the dates of arrival even earlier than the mounds. In South America there is a tribe that has genetic relation to the native Australians! How did that happen? Unknown yet. The book I’m listening to suggests that migrations didn’t just occur across the Bering land bridge but possibly also sea routes. Nothing concrete as far as I know but interesting as hell!

The book is by Graham Hancock (an amateur) called America Before that presents the evidences of archeologists, astronomers and paleontologists. Had I known he was an amateur enthusiast I might have skipped the book but his data is from all the right sources. Most, if not all, the mounds are aligned with the solstices and many, the equinoxes. A few also have moon cycles. That these mounds are found over such wide areas and date so early shows a society that didn’t yet have agriculture but understood celestial events in exacting detail. These weren’t primitive savages. It took years of coordination to accomplish them…some over several hundred years.

[airportkid]

I just don't know how the archeologists are going to handle it when they discover the first McDonalds franchise predates the first human appearance, and that a fossilized BigMac found in the ruins is just as (marginally) edible as a fresh BigMac manufactured today.

[pattylt]

My college roommate once commented that a Twinkie has the half life of Uranium…

[Minimalist]

Hancock is an interesting character.  He asks some good questions but then he latches on to bizarre ideas to answer them.  His embrace of Earth Crustal Displacement is just insane.  The idea had a brief spin of popularity before plate tectonics was demonstrated.

He asks better questions about Ancient Egypt.

[pattylt]

In this book, it seems he asks questions to the experts and gives their reply. Yes, he still throws in his opinion but, so far, it’s more of just pushing the boundaries rather than going off on some wacky tangent.

I’ve never read any of his other books. He mentions them but not much about any conclusions he made from them. However, I’m not finished yet. We’ll see where he goes.

[Minimalist]

In "Fingerprints of the Gods" Hancock rambles on and on about the Piri Reis map of 1513 which fringe scholars maintain shows an ice-free continent of Antartica long  before it was actually discovered by Europeans.

https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Rea...ap-of-1513

The map is drawn to conform to the shape of the piece of parchment on which it is drawn.  What we actually have is the coast of South America reaching the edge of the parchment and then curving eastward.  It is not "evidence" of aliens in space ships producing curiously hand-drawn maps in their interstellar space ships!

This is why a lot of what Hancock says  has to be taken with a truckload of salt.

[Dancefortwo]

The Clovis-First theory has taken another hit....this one apparently fatal.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/05/americas/...index.html

[color=var(--theme-headline__text-color)]Scientists say they’ve confirmed evidence that humans arrived in the Americas far earlier than previously thought[/color]

When the discovery of fossilized footprints made in what’s now New Mexico was made public in 2021, it was a bombshell moment for archaeology, seemingly rewriting a chapter of the human story. Now new research is offering further evidence of their significance.
While they look like they could have been made yesterday, the footprints were pressed into mud 21,000 to 23,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating of the seeds of an aquatic plant that were preserved above and below the fossils.
This date dramatically pushed back the timeline of humans’ history in the Americas, the last landmass to be settled by prehistoric people. The 61 dated prints, which were discovered in the Tularosa Basin, near the edge of an ancient lake in White Sands National Park, were made at a time when many scientists think that massive ice sheets had sealed off human passage into North America, indicating that humans arrived in the region even earlier.

And fuck Adam and Eve!

What I don't understand is this statement....

  ..."were made at a time when many scientists think that massive ice sheets had sealed off human passage into North America, indicating that humans arrived in the region even earlier."

How could the ice sheets seal off human passage?   I thought the ice sheets were what allowed humans to migrate across the Bering Straight up there in Alaska. Were they too rugged and difficult to climb over, or something??

[Minimalist]

The idea is that when enough of earth's water was tied up in ice there was an actual land bridge across the Bering Straits.  But the ice had to retreat enough so that humans could cross.  In theory, the mammoths and other megafauna got here the same way which might have caused quite a traffic jam on the Beringia Highway.

[Rhythmcs]

Basically because katabatic winds would have made an interior route impossible and the bering land bridge wouldn't have be an option for another 10k so there has to be some open and warmer coastal route or else we're talking about superhumans lugging their infants through nonstop hurricane force freezers over very large distances while also living off of whatever they could find to eat in the permafrost. That trip would have made our early arctic and antartcic exploration trips look like a visit to miami beach in comparison.

I think it's likely that we'll find more than one migration (and more than one means of migrating) - perhaps with the earlier migrations being less successful and so leaving archeaological sites but not much in the way of culture or genetics.

[Minimalist]

Boats is the simple answer.




Look how the Pacific currents would reward the intrepid sailor.