“The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him, whether he is part of the surplus population; or if not, how he knows he is not.” [1925]
~~G. K. Chesterton
Ping
My lowly two cents worth ... is, that the ancients trekked in both directions across the top, entering/leaving present day North American around both sides of present day Hudson Bay.
Some time later, some ancients trekked east/west across present day Alaska.
The preceding groups were prone to be *both* nomadic and semi-agrarian hunter-gather-er.
Other ancients were trekking north/south between present day North American and present day Central America.
These groups were prone to be less nomadic than the above groups; and these groups were more agrarian, also building longer-lasting towns and cities - many constructed on mounds (these were “the mound builders”).
The notion that any of these peoples were innocent, peace-loving agents working for old EPA regimes in order to preserve the planet for posterity ... is wrong.
When more often, they were inclined to “rub out” their enemies, though saving some as slaves and adopting fewer numbers.
I suspect that the “mound builders” became physically, relatively weaker than the more nomadic-prone (willing to hunt over great distances), which is how the “mound builders” lost many struggles between the 14th - 16th centuries ... eventually being replaced almost completely by the 17th century.
Leaving the many clans, families, and tribes encountered by settlers, starting with the 17th century.
Something like that.
Peopling is way over-rated.
How then do they account for the age of places like Monte Verde in southern Chile, a site dated to 14,000 years ago, and at the END of any possible land migration in the Americas?
No, some people had boats, probably made of whale ribs and sealskin, and hunted marine animals close along the ocean shore. Starting immediately off the coast of northwestern Asia, just north of Japan, they could have followed the coast north and eastward until reaching the Aleutians.
Once to the Aleutians, they are basically in the Americas. Continuing eastward, and then southward from the bight of Alaska, puts them off the Pacific coast of North America, a region rich in marine mammals and fish in the millions. Following these creatures, say, only a hundred miles or so a generation, which for a marine mammal hunting culture in boats is nothing, puts them at Southern Chile with 2000 years.
Of course, during the height of glaciation, the coast was many miles out to sea from where it is now, and sea levels were about 300 feet lower than today. That means most of the camp sites, fishing villages and places to butcher and dry the catch are now under water, perhaps miles off-shore.
Someone needs to look here, using sonar to spot likely places like river mouths and formerly sandy broad beaches close to woods (for fish drying and smoking camps).
“The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him, whether he is part of the surplus population; or if not, how he knows he is not.” [1925]
~~G. K. Chesterton
peopling of a continent... interesting grammar and interesting intellectual position.