PDA

View Full Version : Earliest known human settlement in the Americas raises new questions



Philosophia
May 10th, 2008, 09:42 AM
Ancient Beachcombers May Have Travelled Slowly

New evidence, more questions. That's the thumbnail of the first new data reported in 10 years from Monte Verde, the earliest known human settlement in the Americas.

Evidence from the archaeological site in southern Chile confirms Monte Verde is the Americas earliest known settlement and is consistent with the idea that early human migration occurred along the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago, but questions remain about just how rapidly that migration occurred.

"If all the early American groups were following a similar pattern of moving back and forth between inland and coastal areas, then the peopling of the Americas may not have been the blitzkrieg movement to the south that people have presumed, but a much slower and more deliberate process," says Tom Dillehay, professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., who led the study.

From here (http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111530&org=NSF&from=news)

Here are some more articles:

Early Americans had a coastal diet (http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080508/full/news.2008.808.html?s=news_rss)

New Evidence About Earliest Americans Supports Coastal Migration Theory (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/stories/monteverde.html)

Brightshores
May 10th, 2008, 10:45 AM
I think this is really interesting. I've never agreed with the "Clovis First" theory - I have seen lots of evidence that people had been in the Americas more than 12,000 years ago.