First Americans from Europe?
abcnews.go.com
Study Clouds Asian Land Bridge Theory
By Joseph B. Verrengia
The Associated Press
S A N T A F E, N.M., Nov. 1 ? In a radical twist
to pre-history, two
prominent archeologists say
North America?s first
inhabitants may have
crossed the icy Atlantic
Ocean some 18,000 years
ago from Europe?s Iberian
Peninsula.
The theory, presented at a
weekend conference, is at odds
with the long-held notion that the
continent?s first settlers came
across a land bridge from Asia.
The conventional view is the
stuff of college entrance exams
and Far Side cartoons ?
wandering cavemen wrapped in
animal hides and lugging enormous
spears, crossing the land bridge from Asia to hunt woolly
mammoths.
Land Bridge Likely Still Existed
Archeologists say some nomads almost certainly made
their way into Alaska and found an ice-free highway down
into the continent some 13,500 years ago. Their culture
has been named Clovis for their distinctive weapons that
have been found in digs nationwide.
But according to the new theory, the continent?s first
inhabitants may have crossed the Atlantic more than
18,000 years ago from Europe?s Iberian Peninsula ? the
area that is now Spain, Portugal and southwestern France.
Belonging to a group known as the Solutreans, these
pre-modern explorers are believed to have originally
settled the Eastern Seaboard, according to the
researchers. Over the next six millennia, their hunting and
gathering culture may have spread as far as the American
deserts and Canadian tundra, and perhaps into South
America.
The researchers, Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley,
concede the Solutreans may not have been the only
paleo-explorers to reach the Western Hemisphere.
First to Bring Clovis Culture
But judging by their distinctive style of projectile points
and other clues in the archeological record, they may have
been the first settlers who brought to North America
what, until now, has been considered the Clovis culture.
?There is very little in Clovis ? in fact, nothing ? that
is not found in Solutrea,? said Stanford, who is
anthropology curator at the Smithsonian Institution. ?Their
blades are virtually indistinguishable.?
Stanford and Bradley, an independent researcher from
Cortez, Colo., offered their stunning reinterpretation of the
standard settlement theory at an archeology conference in
Santa Fe.
The meeting was devoted to re-examining Clovis
research seven decades after it was accepted as historical
bedrock.
Comparison of Artifacts
Other scientists say the Solutrean alternative is such a
radical departure that it might take years to adequately
evaluate. Stanford and Bradley?s new explanation, they
noted, is based primarily on comparisons of projectile
points and other artifacts already discovered on both sides
of the Atlantic.
No unequivocal Solutrean settlement remains have
been found in North America, they said.
Researchers who believe Clovis and the Bering Sea
land-bridge theory is outdated point to sites at Monte
Verde, Chile as well as Pennsylvania, Virginia and South
Carolina as being settled in 12,500 B.C. to 16,000 B.C.
But Clovis defenders say many artifacts from those
digs are so crude that they may be rocks that have broken
naturally rather than actual stone tools fashioned by
prehistoric hands.
?Out of Iberia?
Still, observers said, the older Solutrean projectile points
from Europe and the more recent Clovis points from the
Americas closely resemble each other. That?s what makes
the new ?Out of Iberia? theory so tantalizing.
?There is no question about it,? Kent State University
archeologist Kenneth Tankersley said. ?There are only
two places in the world and two times that this technology
appears ? Solutrean and Clovis.?
How seafaring Solutreans could have arrived in North
America is unknown.
Based on his knowledge of modern native cultures
above the Arctic Circle, Stanford said it is not farfetched
to imagine Solutreans sailing to the New World in skin
boats. With a strong current and favorable weather, the
trip might have taken as little as three weeks, he
calculated.
By this time in pre-history, he said, South Pacific
islanders had been sailing open waters for at least 20,000
years. |
