First Humans Flashcards
Study for midterm
3 Key Questions re:
Humans Arrival in Mesoamerica
- WHEN did Native Americans colonize the New World?
- WHERE did Native Americans originate - and HOW did they enter
- WHAT evidence exists within Mesoamerica to demonstrate the culture of these earliest Americans?
Bering Sea Land Bridge Chronology
3 Major Openings
44-48,000 bp
19-23,000 bp
14-15,000 bp
WHEN?
EARLY ENTRY HYPOTHESIS
(aka the “long chronology”)
Theorizes that humans entered the New World well before 15,000 bp
Point to (problematic) RC dates 20-40,000 bp
But no sites appear in between these and 13,500 bp
Argue for boat travel (point to early human entry into Australia by as early as 65,000 bp)
But no direct evidence of boat use
Land bridge was open prior to 50,000 bp
but very little evidence of humans in Siberia at this time
Naia - (disputed) date 12-13,000 bp in Eastern Yucatan with mtDNA haplotype unique to Native Americans, estimated branch at 30,000 bp, but not present in Asia, suggests New World mutation, and possible evidence of earlier migrations “wave”
Beringia refugio theory suggests humans were penned into Beringia 26-18,000 bp and this is where the mutation occurred
Monte Verde recently dated as early at 18,500 bp
Tlapacoya (BoM) hearths, stone tools (no biface), animal bones dated as early at 21-24,000 bp (single RC date) destroyed by freeway construction
WHEN?
LATE ENTRY HYPOTHESIS
(aka the “short chronology”)
- 9000 to 14-15,000 (bp)
- Land bridge reappears around 14-1500 bp
- 9000 to 14-5,000 bp: humans begin colonizing , and moved quickly to Southern Chile (Monte Verde 14,500)
- but modern h/g’s don’t mover rapidly (expanding into new territories is risky)*
- 13,000 bp: sites appear in the new world with points (Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, Clovis)
- Earlier dates are problematic
Later Entry / Big Game Hunter Hypothesis
What Was the Culture?
Big game hunters following their prey (mammoth, giant sloth) into the New World across the Bering Straight
if horses could walk out, humans could follow mammoths in
Big game is mostly extinct by 9000 bp and it is argued that humans followed them south and drove extinction
Theory is that large fluted points (Clovis, Folsom, Meadowcroft) were developed to hunt big game
this is a specialized tool not found in Siberia or the Old World
MacNeish argued that agriculture was a reaction to big game extinction
(may have been the reverse: agriculture may have impacted big game by reducing the plants on which they fed)
Upward Sun River
January 2018 Report in Nature on DNA analysif of burial of two infants found in Northern Alaska (eastern Beringia)
Dated 11,500 bp (stratigraphic chrono based on 27 RC dates)
DNA argued to show a distinct ancient Beringean population
Ancient Beringians split from ancestors of Native Americans 22-18,000 bp (during LGM)
Ancient Beringians and Native Americans both descended from a single founding population that split from East Asia populations around 36,000 bp
Problems With
“Bering Straight Only”
Hypothesis
Limited Skeletal Evidence
Kennewick Man, one of the earliest human remains in the New World 9500-9200 bp
Facial reconstruction does not “fit” with East Asia populatitons (but facial reconstruction easily biased)
Problems With
“Bering Straight Only”
Hypothesis
Stone Tool Manufacturing Techniques
Stone tool manufacturing techniques differ markedly between EA (microblades in wood or bone) from New World (fluted points)
why would humans enter the New World, abandon the tool kit they were using to hunt big game, and start making tools with an entirely different technique
Clovis and other large biface, flutted points are virtually identical to older Solutrean culture in SW Europe (24-18,000 bp) - these are the only two examples of the use of this technique
- no other element of Solutrean culture ends up in the New World*
- little evidence of a plausible route from Europe*
Problems With
“Bering Straight Only”
Hypothesis
DNA Evidence
Study of mitochondrial DNA mutations show 4 maternal lines linked with East Asia
One line divergered 30,000 bp
The other 3 diverged later - 14-16,000 bp
Suggests waives of migration
A 5th mitochandrial line (Ojibwa), diverged 14-15,000 bp, associated with Europe, but not East Asia has also been found
Problems with the
Big Game Hunting Hypothesis
Very few sites w/evidence of big game being killed by humans (versus butchering)
Modern hunter/gatherers don’t drive their prey to extinction
Big game hunting is wasteful (high energy, limited ability to consume or transport)
No evidence that specialized fluted point technology is well suited to big game hunting (similar Solutrean tools from a people that exploited maritime resources)
Contradicted by Paleo Indian settlement patterns in the Quiche Basin which show consumption of plants and small game
Human biology not well suited to all meat diet (liver problems)
Problems with the
Solutrean Migrations Hypothesis
Solutrean in Europe is as much as 5000 years older than Clovis
Culture was heavily geared to the exploitation of maritime resources
No other aspect of Solutrean culture appears in the New World
No archaelogical evidence for how they could have arrived in the New World
