Migration Mystery Theories
WORLD HISTORY PROJECTORIGINS / LESSON 2.2ACTIVITYMIGRATION MYSTERY THEORIESUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “Migration Mystery Theories”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeAnalyze theories about when humans (Homo sapiens) first arrived in the Americas to decide which you think is most convincing.ProcessRead each of the theories and the evidence used to support it and record your responses in the When Did Humans Get to the Americas? worksheet.Theory 1: Beringia theory•Early humans migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait landbridge around the Last Glacial Maximum, approximately 18,000 years ago. They then moved down into the interior of the Americas and quickly spread south to South America by about 13,000 years ago. This theory was popularized in 1967 by geologist David M. Hopkins (PhD, Harvard University), working with an international, interdisciplinary team of botanists, archaeologists, and anthropologists.•Evidence from the interior of North America that supports the Berinigia theory includes artifacts from the Clovis culture. Between 1932 and 1936, archaeologists found the remains (animals and human-made tools) of people hunting near Clovis, New Mexico. Later archaeological finds from areas in the southwestern portion of North America through Mexico and into Central America confirm that Clovis culture was widespread from about 13,000 to 11,000 years ago. The similarities of the tools led researchers to believe that these were the people who moved across the Bering land bridge and populated the Americas.•Over 10,000 Clovis points (fluted or shaped stone spears used to hunt large game such as bison) have been found across sites in the Americas.Beringia, by National Park Service, public domain.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 2.2ACTIVITYMIGRATION MYSTERY THEORIES2Theory 2: Coastal migration/kelp highway theory•Early humans island-hopped from Asia around the Ring of Fire using primitive boats about 16,000 years ago. They sustained themselves on the lush marine life, migrating through what was known as the “kelp highway,” which extended from the Northwest Pacific coast to Baja California and then down the west coast of South America to Tierra del Fuego. This theory was proposed by archaeologist Jon M. Erlandson (PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara) and his colleagues (archaeologists and marine ecologists) in 2007.•Archaeologists have found tools in a number of sites in both North and South America that predate Clovis culture by at least 1,500 years.•Human remains have been found in underwater coastal areas in California and Mexico and evidence of settlements in South America (Monte Verde) have been found as well. This evidence has been dated to approximately 18,000 to 14,500 years ago, which is thousands of years before Clovis culture.Kelp forest distribution map, by Chumwa, CC BY-SA 2.0.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 2.2ACTIVITYMIGRATION MYSTERY THEORIES3Theory 3: Solutrean hypothesis•Early humans migrated from Europe (present-day France, Spain, and Portugal) using primitive boats to travel across the North Atlantic Ocean around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, about 21,000 to 17,000 years ago. This theory was first proposed by archaeologist and director of the PaleoIndian Program at the Smithsonian, Dennis Stanford (PhD, University of New Mexico), in 1999.•Some archaeologists have suggested that there are similarities between Solutrean (European) tools and those of the Clovis culture. These stone tools were found across five sites in the mid-Atlantic region of North America. Tools such as anvils, blades, andspear points were found around the Chesapeake Bay islands (Maryland). These tools were found in soil dated to about 20,000 years ago (meaning the experts are basing this on the date of the soil in which the tools were found), which may indicate that humans were in this region of North America (quite far from the Bering Strait land bridge) before the ice sheets melted and allowed passage into North America. Dr. Stanford has matched each of the North American tool finds to similar tools used in Europe at Solutrean sites.•Scholars have found that the remains of some early humans do not have the same facial and cranial characteristics as the Native American/Asian populations do, which may indicate that an early human population arrived on the east coast of North America from Europe. However, these differences in facial features could also be explained by evolutionary or genetic changes that took place once early humans arrived in the Americas and lived in relative isolation for thousands of years.Beringa, by National Park Service, public domain.Soultrean tools, by World Imaging, CC BY-SA 3.0.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 2.2ACTIVITYMIGRATION MYSTERY THEORIES4Theory 4: Cerutti mastodon theory•Humans—Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, or another species—arrived in the Americas (California) much earlier than all other theories suggest, possibly via the Bering Strait, coastal pathway, or another coastal/sea route, such as island-hopping in the Pacific Ocean.•In 1992, broken mastodon bones were found in coastal San Diego by Richard Cerutti (field paleontologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum), and then analyzed by a team of scholars that included evolutionary biologist Tom Deméré (PhD, University of California, Los Angeles). These bones have markings on them that appear to have been made by human tools. Tools such as anvils and hammerstones were also found at the site.•Researchers used uranium dating and discovered that the tusk and markings dated to around 131,000 years ago. These researchers also re-created the markings made in the mastodon bones and were able to perfectly replicate the original markings and even matched those markings to the specific tools found. The results of these studies were published in the journal Naturein 2017.Left: Mastodon rendering, by Dantheman9758, CC BY 3.0. Right: Cerutti Mastodon tuskon display, by Blervis, CC0.