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First Americans May Have Been European
LiveScience.com ^ | 2/19/06 | Bjorn Carey

Posted on 02/19/2006 9:08:52 PM PST by anymouse

ST. LOUIS—The first humans to spread across North America may have been seal hunters from France and Spain.

This runs counter to the long-held belief that the first human entry into the Americas was a crossing of a land-ice bridge that spanned the Bering Strait about 13,500 years ago.

The new thinking was outlined here Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The tools don’t match

Recent studies have suggested that the glaciers that helped form the bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska began receding around 17,000 to 13,000 years ago, leaving very little chance that people walked from one continent to the other.

Also, when archaeologist Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution places American spearheads, called Clovis points, side-by-side with Siberian points, he sees a divergence of many characteristics.

Instead, Stanford said today, Clovis points match up much closer with Solutrean style tools, which researchers date to about 19,000 years ago. This suggests that the American people making Clovis points made Solutrean points before that.

There’s just one problem with this hypothesis—Solutrean toolmakers lived in France and Spain. Scientists know of no land-ice bridge that spanned that entire gap.

The lost hunting party

Stanford has an idea for how humans crossed the Atlantic, though—boats. Art from that era indicates that Solutrean populations in northern Spain were hunting marine animals, such as seals, walrus, and tuna.

They may have even made their way into the floating ice chunks that unite immense harp seal populations in Canada and Europe each year. Four million seals, Stanford said, would look like a pretty good meal to hungry European hunters, who might have ventured into the ice flows much the same way that the Inuit in Alaska and Greenland do today.

Inuit use large, open hunting boats constructed from animal skins for longer trips or big hunts. These boats, called umiaq, can hold a dozen adults, as well as several children, dead seals or walruses, and even dog-sled teams. Inuit have been building these boats for thousands of years, and Stanford believes that Solutrean people may have used a similar design.

It’s possible that some groups of these hunters ventured out as far as Iceland, where they may have gotten caught up in the prevailing currents and were carried to North America.

“You get three boats loaded up like this and you would have a viable population,” Stanford said. “You could actually get a whole bunch of people washing up on Nova Scotia.”

Some scientists believe that the Solutrean peoples were responsible for much of the cave art in Europe. Opponents of Stanford’s work ask why, then, would these people stop producing art once they made it to North America?

“I don’t know,” Stanford said. “But you’re looking at a long distance inland, 100 miles or so, before they would get to caves to do art in.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: aaas; acrossatlanticice; archaeology; atlantic; beringstrait; brucebradley; clovis; dennisstanford; europe; france; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; northamerica; notmuslims; preclovis; precolumbian; seals; smithsonian; solutreans; spain; tuna; walrus
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So when do we take back the casinos? :)
1 posted on 02/19/2006 9:08:55 PM PST by anymouse
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To: anymouse

Well in that case we can put Columbus back in a position of honor.


2 posted on 02/19/2006 9:09:54 PM PST by Eighth Street (Who do you hate more? Muslims who want to kill you or the Libs who want to sell you out to them?)
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To: anymouse
The politically correct crowd won't like this at all and fully reject it.
3 posted on 02/19/2006 9:10:22 PM PST by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM 53 : 1 The FOOL hath said in his heart , There is no GOD .)
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To: SunkenCiv

ping?


4 posted on 02/19/2006 9:11:58 PM PST by Daralundy
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To: anymouse

I dislike sloppy writing. Of course, the author means "what is now Spain and France."


5 posted on 02/19/2006 9:13:25 PM PST by Ruth A. (we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last)
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To: anymouse

Who were the French running away from way back then?


6 posted on 02/19/2006 9:14:06 PM PST by digger48
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To: anymouse
why, then, would these people stop producing art once they made it to North America?

Because people struggling for survival in the wilderness on an uninhabited continent don't produce art.

7 posted on 02/19/2006 9:18:12 PM PST by LucyT (It's 72 white grapes; it never was 72 virgins: http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=7)
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To: Daralundy; blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; StayAt HomeMother; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; asp1; ...
Thanks Daralundy. Blam posted a topic about this a while back, so this won't be pinged, but will wind up in the GGG catalog. Or, perhaps it's time for another ping. Yeah, sure, why not?

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
Gods, Graves, Glyphs PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

8 posted on 02/19/2006 9:20:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv (It's a big planet. We're willing to share. They're not. Out they go.)
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To: anymouse

So does this mean, the next time I fill out a job application, I can refer to myself as a "Native American?"


9 posted on 02/19/2006 9:20:29 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: digger48

Some European names for the first Native Americans?
Big Chief Government
Surren-Deer
Whining Bear

Any others?


10 posted on 02/19/2006 9:22:28 PM PST by TimeLord (A whale fetus is a whale; a human fetus is a blob.)
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To: anymouse
First Americans May Have Been European

No sh$t!!

11 posted on 02/19/2006 9:22:57 PM PST by p23185
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To: SunkenCiv

Oh course they were and the johnny-come-lately Asians, massacred them all and now want to hide that fact!


12 posted on 02/19/2006 9:24:23 PM PST by nopardons
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To: dfwgator
So does this mean, the next time I fill out a job application, I can refer to myself as a "Native American?"

The forms I've seen lately, mostly govt forms, now list "American Indian" or somesuch.

Before, I checked off Native American every chance I got. Hell, I was born here.

13 posted on 02/19/2006 9:25:41 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass
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To: anymouse
for crying out loud, do we have to go through one of these threads every month? Okay, the White Man is smart and did a lot of good (and screw ups too) and discovered the whole world. Now leave it alone.
14 posted on 02/19/2006 9:27:09 PM PST by fish hawk (creatio ex nihilo)
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To: anymouse


Just wait until open minded, accepting and tolerant professors from universities across the country hear this. They're going to be SO PISSED.


15 posted on 02/19/2006 9:28:28 PM PST by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President!)
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To: anymouse

related (mostly in chrono order):

Study: New World Map Is a Forgery
AP | 7-29-02 | DIANE SCARPONI
Posted on 07/29/2002 7:41:39 PM EDT by Pharmboy
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/724295/posts
14 posted on 07/29/2002 9:34:01 PM EDT by crystalk
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/724295/posts?page=14#14

First Americans
Discover | 2-1999 | Karen Wright
Posted on 10/07/2002 12:57:05 AM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/764305/posts

Discovery casts doubt on Bering land bridge theory
Contra Costa Times | July 30, 2003 | Allison Heinrichs
Posted on 08/04/2003 3:50:12 PM EDT by NukeMan
Edited on 04/13/2004 6:31:41 AM EDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/958083/posts

Immigrants From The Other Side (Clovis Is Solutrean?)
CSFA | 11-3-2003 | Dennis Sanford
Posted on 11/02/2003 7:11:21 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1013315/posts

Iberia, Not Siberia
Team Atlantis | 12-6-2000 | Michael A Arbuthnot
Posted on 12/21/2003 12:48:22 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1044449/posts

The Relationship Between The Basque And Ainu
High Speed Plus | 1996 | Edo Nyland
Posted on 06/25/2004 6:44:16 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1160355/posts
72 posted on 12/27/2004 4:59:30 PM EST by peterpanther
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1160355/posts?page=72#72
79 posted on 02/26/2005 8:58:26 AM EST by peterpanther
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1160355/posts?page=79#79

Kennewick Man, Meet Your Distant Cousins
Seattle Times | 11-7-2005 | Kate Riley
Posted on 11/07/2005 6:24:22 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517614/posts


16 posted on 02/19/2006 9:29:15 PM PST by SunkenCiv (It's a big planet. We're willing to share. They're not. Out they go.)
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To: dfwgator

Why not, Ward Churchill did!


17 posted on 02/19/2006 9:29:19 PM PST by fish hawk (creatio ex nihilo)
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To: LucyT

Good answer... Also worth noting is that the people who did the boating, hunting and fishing were not necessarily the same people who made the cave paintings. Specialization had advantages, even in early human societies. Or did they all do everything? Some Americans build jet planes. So, if a small company of American hunters were to be stranded in a remote area, would they be expected to build jet planes there?


18 posted on 02/19/2006 9:31:08 PM PST by Zeppo
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To: SunkenCiv

Thanks. It's too late for me to go looking for those posts.


19 posted on 02/19/2006 9:32:49 PM PST by blam
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To: SunkenCiv
Okay, one more

Vintage Skulls

20 posted on 02/19/2006 9:35:09 PM PST by blam
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