Posted on 05/20/2008 6:57:41 PM PDT by blam
Did Humans Colonize the World by Boat?
Research suggests our ancestors traveled the oceans 70,000 years ago.
by Heather Pringle
Jon Erlandson shakes out what appears to be a miniature evergreen from a clear ziplock bag and holds it out for me to examine. As one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient seafaring, he has devoted much of his career to hunting down hard evidence of ancient human migrations, searching for something most archaeologists long thought a figment: Ice Age mariners. On this drizzly late-fall afternoon in a lab at the University of Oregon in Eugene, the 53-year-old Erlandson looks as pleased as the father of a newborn—and perhaps just as anxious —as he shows me one of his latest prize finds.
The little “tree” in my hand is a dart head fashioned from creamy-brown chert and bristling with tiny barbs designed to lodge in the flesh of marine prey. Erlandson recently collected dozens of these little stemmed points from San Miguel Island, a scrap of land 27 miles off the coast of California. Radiocarbon dating of marine shells and burned twigs at the site shows that humans first landed on San Miguel at least 12,000 years ago, and the dart head in my hand holds clues to the ancestry of those seafarers. Archaeologists have recovered similar items scattered along the rim of the North Pacific, and some have even been found in coastal Peru and Chile. The oldest appeared 15,600 years ago in coastal Japan. To Erlandson, these miniature trees look like a trail left by mariners who voyaged along the stormy northern coasts of the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the Americas during the last Ice Age. “We haven’t published the evidence for this hypothesis yet, and I’m kind of nervous about it,” he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at discovermagazine.com ...
A repeat, I believe.
Pure speculation by denialists.
There are people who don't believe there was an Ice Age?
Good article! Thanks.
“There are people who don’t believe there was an Ice Age?”At least Al Gore, I’m guessing.
I don’t get it, it’s already been proven that the Indians got here when Tibetan tribesmen crossed the Bering Straight. Why does this surprise anyone. They migrated South through Canada all the way to South America...Now that didn’t take just a few short years, there had to be colonies, break offs, and further migration which must have taken at least 50,000 yrs or more to develop as many tribes and sub tribes as there are, and have been discovered including the various languages. This isn’t news to me...I learned that in college many years ago.
AND if one tribe could take a boat and cross the Bering Straight, it would make sense many could. Christopher Columbus kept a diary, so he got the nod. I doubt if any of the tribes thought keeping a diary of the trip significant...lol
What ended the last Ice Age 25,000 years ago? Neanderthal fires??????
Maybe global warming broke off a chunk of Ice and they floated down along the coast..(sarc)
The interesting part of these new discoveries is that in addition to the overland migration there was an early coastal migration, which may have moved from North to South America relatively quickly. And, it resulted in some settlement along the coastal strips significantly earlier than the land migration did.
This idea has been around since the 1960s (Harrison) and 1970s (Fladmark), but only recently has there been good evidence. Erlandson (the primary subject of the article) has been at the forefront of gathering that evidence.
"USC Professor Discovers 50,000 Year-Old (Human) Artifacts in S.C.
“What ended the last Ice Age 25,000 years ago? Neanderthal fires??????’
Nope — the first Neanderthal Nuclear Exchange, waged between what is now Europe and Africa over hunting rights... ;)
Wasn’t there some evidence awhile back that early polynesians settled South America?
Posted on FR six years ago.
How did I miss that? :)
Load the trebuchet!!!
We’ll show ‘em ....
Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did A Comet Blow Up Over Eastern Canada? (Carolina Bays)
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