User:Moxy/sandbox
scholarly debate
[edit]Historically, researchers believed a single theory explained the peopling of the Americas, focusing on findings from Blackwater Draw New Mexico, where human artifacts dated from the last ice age were found alongside the remains of extinct animals. This led to the widespread belief in the "Clovis-first model," proposing that the first Americans migrated over a the Beringia land bridge from Asia during a time when glacial passages opened. This model linked the first inhabitants to distinctive spear points, known as Clovis points, ranging in age from 13,250 to 12,800 years old.[1]
However, numerous claims of earlier human presence began to challenge this model beginning in the 1990s, culminating in significant discoveries at Monte Verde, Chile, dating back 14,500 years.[2] At Oregon’s Paisley Caves, fossilized human feces date back 14,300 years.[3] In Texas, at Buttermilk Creek complex, stone tool fragments date back 15,500 years.[4] At Arroyo Seco 2 in Argentina, archaeologists discovered 14,000-year-old butchered animal bones.[5] Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania may have a history of at least 16,000 years.[6] As research progressed in the 2000s, the narrative shifted from a single migration event to multiple small, diverse groups entering the continent at various points in time.[7] This indicates that people might have been in the Americas as early as 15,000 to 20,000 years ago,[1] which some believe support a coastal migration route.[8]
Genetic studies over the past two decades has hghlighting populations that adapted over tens of thousands of years. Geneticists discovered that a Beringian population split from Siberian groups about 36,000 years ago. Around 25,000 years ago, they became isolated, forming a new genetic group linked to today’s Indigenous populations,[9] which divided into two main lineages about 17,000 years ago then entered the Americas south of Laurentian ice sheet.[10]
The Chiquihuite Cave in Mexico suggest that ancient stone tools, we're being utilized as long ago as 30,000 years ago. However, proving these tools were made by humans has faced criticism.[11] In New Mexico, researchers uncovered fossilized footprints, dating back perhaps 23,000 years,[12] showing humans and megafauna like mammoths co-existing, which is also under great debate.[13] In addition, some argue that evidence points towards human presence extending back 130,000 years,[14] though this is outright rejected by the vast majority of scholars across multiple academic fields.[15][16][17]
- ^ a b Smallwood, Ashley M.; Jennings, Thomas A. (2016). "The First Americans: The Current Debate". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 46 (4). [The MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editors of The Journal of Interdisciplinary History]: 543–561. ISSN 0022-1953. JSTOR 43830506. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Swaminathan, Nikhil (August 15, 2024). "America, in the Beginning". Archaeology Magazine. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ "Pre-Clovis Human DNA Found In 14,300-year-old Feces In Oregon Cave Is Oldest In New World". ScienceDaily. April 8, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Harmon, Katherine (March 24, 2011). "People Were Chipping Stone Tools in Texas More Than 15,000 Years Ago". Scientific American. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Daley, Jason (October 3, 2016). "Campsite Places Humans in Argentina 14,000 Years Ago". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ "Synopsis of Native Americans (up to 1682) in Pennsylvania". Millersville University. February 3, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Skoglund, Pontus; Reich, David (2016). "A genomic view of the peopling of the Americas". Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 41: 27–35. doi:10.1016/j.gde.2016.06.016. PMC 5161672. PMID 27507099. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Belshaw, John Douglas (October 6, 2020). "2.3 The Indigenous Americas". BCcampus. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ "Ancient Americans arrived in a single wave, Alaskan infant's genome suggests". www.science.org. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Llamas, Bastien; Harkins, Kelly M.; Fehren-Schmitz, Lars (2017). "Genetic studies of the peopling of the Americas: What insights do diachronic mitochondrial genome datasets provide?" (PDF). Quaternary International. 444: 26–35. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.04.040. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Chatters, James C.; Potter, Ben A.; Prentiss, Anna Marie; Fiedel, Stuart J.; Haynes, Gary; Kelly, Robert L.; Kilby, J. David; Lanoë, François; Holland-Lulewicz, Jacob; Miller, D. Shane; Morrow, Juliet E.; Perri, Angela R.; Rademaker, Kurt M.; Reuther, Joshua D.; Ritchison, Brandon T.; Sanchez, Guadalupe; Sánchez-Morales, Ismael; Spivey-Faulkner, S. Margaret; Tune, Jesse W.; Haynes, C. Vance (October 23, 2021). "Evaluating Claims of Early Human Occupation at Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico". PaleoAmerica. 8 (1). Informa UK Limited: 1–16. doi:10.1080/20555563.2021.1940441. ISSN 2055-5563.
- ^ Gannon, Megan I. (September 4, 2019). "The Knotty Question of When Humans Made the Americas Home". SAPIENS. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Madsen, David B.; Davis, Loren G.; Rhode, David; Oviatt, Charles G. (January 14, 2022). "Comment on "Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum"". Science. 375 (6577). doi:10.1126/science.abm4678. ISSN 0036-8075. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ Holen, Steven R.; Deméré, Thomas A.; Fisher, Daniel C.; Fullagar, Richard; Paces, James B.; Jefferson, George T.; Beeton, Jared M.; Cerutti, Richard A.; Rountrey, Adam N.; Vescera, Lawrence; Holen, Kathleen A. (2017). "A 130,000-year-old archaeological site in southern California, USA". Nature. 544 (7651). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 479–483. doi:10.1038/nature22065. ISSN 0028-0836.
- ^ Yasinski, Emma (May 2, 2022). "New Evidence Complicates the Story of the Peopling of the Americas". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ "UO's Erlandson questions new finding on peopling of Americas". OregonNews. April 28, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ^ "The Debate Concerning the Early Peopling of the Americas Has Always Been a Paleontological Problem". Center for American Paleolithic Research. November 10, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2025.