Discovery casts doubt on Bering land bridge theory

Contra Costa Times ^ | July 30, 2003 | Allison Heinrichs

[NukeMan]

An archaeological site in Siberia, long thought to be the original jumping-off point for crossing the Bering land bridge into North America, is actually much younger than previously believed, shaking the theory that the first Americans migrated overland during the final cold snap of the last great ice age.

[HamiltonJay]

New evidence can always change what we know, however we do know this, tribes tend to grow to about 30 members, when they get above this size, new tribes branch off and form, and move away to set up new encampments not very far from the original territory in agregarian societies.

Nomads follow food, not exploration, moving with the animals they hunt migrating over distances through the seasons.

At this point there is no evidence that humans conquered the americas in weeks or decads. Could it have happened that way? Sure, but right now there isn't.

I think you may have misread something, the land bridge was believe crossed during last ice age about 10-15k years ago, if I am not mistaken, and once in the americas took about another 1000 years to spread throughout the land, that would mean that people were in the amazon 9000-14000 years ago... which is more than enough time to have millions of inhabitants in a tropical rain forest basin where food is plentiful and temperature is moderate.

[RightWhale]

I think you may have misread something

Always. However, I do not believe the Bering land bridge was the primary means of access to America. Why trudge through endless miles of muskeg when you can paddle along at a much faster pace with a lot more provisions in a boat. If the aborigines, relatives of those in Australia, arrived 50,000 years ago, they would leave little sign of an archaeological nature. There is not enough data for more than a tentative timeline, although we are finally starting to dig in America and letting somebody else dig in Egypt, Babylon, and elsewhere, and should be ready for some assumption-exploding discoveries.

[ASA Vet]

Yeah, but how did they cross the Panama Canal?

Simple, they just paid the toll at the Chinese owned bridge.

[HamiltonJay]

Have you ever seen what the land bridge was? It wasn't some thin strip ot muck. It was planes and massive, and allowed a coastal migration across to north america that we know was typical expansion used throughout the asian expansion.

It wasn't a one day, hey there is this little thin chunk of land spaning 50 miles, lets walk across. It was a very large piece of land that connected the continents and could have been slowly expanded over over thousands of years.... there was no route to paddle that was shorter than walking.... it extended half way across canadas northern border and from siberia all the way to china on the asian side.... the idea it was this little sliver and only 50 miles wide is not a correct assumption.

There was no, hey I stand on this shore I see the other shore, it was one large piece of land.. in fact if one was to sail from asia to the americas the trip would have been largely the same as it is today once you were far enough south to have ocean. Take a look at some photos here

[HamiltonJay]

Whoops, try this one...

[RightWhale]

I don't know a lot about the Bering land bridge, except that I live on the Alaskan side of that structure. If conditions are the same now as they were then, no one but a few hunters and berry-pickers would venture much farther than this on land. By sea, they would go to all coastal areas all up and down North and South America and spread inland from there. But going on foot in interior Alaska and presumably on the Bering land bridge would be very tedious and slow in summer, and few would go anywhere at all in winter. Population would not spread outward from Alaska at all by land routes, not in 10,000 years.

[aBootes]

I guess I don't understand why everyone seems so partial to the land bridge theories. If the article is correct, there is no evidence to support the idea that the folks who settled Clovis came from Asia on land. While there may be other undiscovered sites on the Asian side, who cares? The land bridge theory has been cracking and flaking for awhile. Let it go.

[HamiltonJay]

The land was VASTLY different now than it was then.... take a look at the size of the bridge via the drawings, it wasn't some small pidly thin piece of land, it had plains and coastline and was a very large area.. sea levels were something like 400 feet lower then, which opened a LOT of land

[RightWhale]

The land was VASTLY different now than it was then....

Not here. During the Ice Age, this land was ice-free just as now. Permafrost, muskeg, sabertooth, mammoth, muskox all still here, although the sabretooth and mammoth are subsurface now. It's the same, and you don't go far on foot in the summer. In the winter the Yukon River is a 12-lane superhighway. 12 thousand years ago the land route south was blocked. Still is, except for that gov't road.

[BluH2o]

DNA testing of native Americans should offer clues to their ancestory ... isn't this avenue being explored?

[mtbopfuyn]

It's the evidence in the Americas that is spotty and recent.

But that's the zinger. Just because they haven't found it doesn't prove anything.

[NukeMan]

"If conditions are the same now as they were then, no one but a few hunters and berry-pickers would venture much farther than this on land. By sea, they would go to all coastal areas all up and down North and South America and spread inland from there. But going on foot in interior Alaska and presumably on the Bering land bridge would be very tedious and slow in summer, and few would go anywhere at all in winter. Population would not spread outward from Alaska at all by land routes, not in 10,000 years. "

Vine Deloria makes exactly these points in his book Red Earth, White Lies, noting that it was an *extremely* arduous journey, well-nigh impossible.

[Dog Gone]

But that's the zinger. Just because they haven't found it doesn't prove anything.

No, but it's reasonable to base theories on all the evidence you have. Otherwise, there is no reason to believe anything.

[genefromjersey]

Sorry, hoss ! I can't recall exactly where I saw it-( It was online, and thus subject to error )-but the essence of the story was in western PA, in the coal mining country,some artifacts, which appeared to be mummified proto-human remains,had been found. There were pictures-of poor quality.

There is a lot of legend further east, in New York state, in the southern Catskill ( Shawangunk ) range, of cave dwelling hunter gatherers called the Great Little People by the "Native" Americans, who sound a lot like the Dawn People or Barrow People of Ireland.

None of this remotely approaches scientific data.

[SunkenCiv]

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