New Evidence Challenges Bering Strait Theory

[Pavlov's House Party]

"The First Humans To Settle Americas Came From Europe, Not From Asia Over Bering Strait Land-ice Bridge, New Research Suggests"

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2008) — Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his students on the creation of Kankakee Sand Islands of Northwest Indiana is lending support to evidence that the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, a discovery that overturns decades of classroom lessons that nomadic tribes from Asia crossed a Bering Strait land-ice bridge. Valparaiso is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research.

Dr. Ron Janke began studying the origins of the Kankakee Sand Islands – a series of hundreds of small, moon-shaped dunes that stretch from the southern tips of Lake and Porter counties in Northwest Indiana into northeastern Illinois – about 12 years ago. Over the past few years, approximately a dozen Valparaiso undergraduates have worked with Dr. Janke to create the first detailed maps of the Kankakee Sand Islands, study their composition and survey wildlife and plants inhabiting the islands

Based upon the long-held belief that most of the upper Midwest was covered by a vast ice sheet up until about 10,000 years ago, Dr. Janke said he and other scientists surmised the Kankakee Sand Islands were created by sand in meltwater from the receding glacier.

That belief was challenged, however, when he and his students discovered a year and a half ago that the islands were composed of sand that had come from Lake Michigan – something that should have been impossible with the Valparaiso Moraine standing between the lake and the Kankakee Sand Islands.

“That created a lot of problems with what we had previously believed about ice covering this entire area,” Dr. Janke said. “How could it get over the Valparaiso Moraine and be deposited there?”

Figuring out that puzzle required taking core samples from some of the remaining islands and the development of a new test by one of Dr. Janke’s colleagues to determine when sunlight last shone on the sand.

The answer that came back – the Kankakee Sand Islands were born between 14,500 and 15,000 years ago from Lake Michigan sand – was startling.

“We thought the area was completely covered by ice at that time,” Dr. Janke said. “That was a really earth-shattering result for us.”

Yet it also supports research showing that North American Clovis points – a particular type of arrowhead that represents the oldest manmade object on the continent –identically match arrowheads found in Europe and made by humans at approximately the same time. And just within the last year, new research has provided strong evidence that a large meteorite struck the ice sheet covering North American and melted much of the ice shortly before the formation of the Kankakee Sand Islands.

“Our research at Valparaiso supports this other recent research because it indicates there wasn’t a massive ice sheet covering North America that would have allowed tribes to cross over from Asia via a Bering Strait land-ice bridge,” Dr. Janke said.

Dr. Janke’s research on the formation of the Kankakee Sand Islands is continuing this summer, with a focus on determining whether the islands closest to Lake Michigan are younger than the southernmost islands.
At one time, approximately 1,200 of the islands stretched out in a series of curved bands north and and south of the Kankakee River that are separated by a few miles and mirror the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Though many were destroyed by human settlement, about 700 still exist today.

Dr. Janke and his students also have been active in the Woodland Savanna Land Conservancy, an organization working to protect the Kankakee Sand Islands.

Scott Osthus, a recent graduate who worked with Dr. Janke to map the Kankakee Sand Islands and support their preservation, enjoyed being involved in the research effort.

“During my four years at Valparaiso, I saw how interesting and significant the Kankakee Sand Islands landscape is,” Osthus said. “I want to see this area preserved because it is so historically significant.”

Landowners have donated a handful of islands to the trust for preservation, and Dr. Janke is hopeful that others will follow their lead and perhaps eventually build enough support for some of the islands to be incorporated into Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore or their own state park.

“The Kankakee Sand Islands are archaeologically significant, with numerous Native American artifacts and burial grounds still present in the surviving islands, and they provide crucial habitat for native wildlife and plant species,” Dr. Janke said. “I’m hopefully the sand islands can be protected so we can continue to learn about and appreciate them.”"

dubleyadubleyadubleyadot sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701193203.htm

dubleyadubleyadubleyadot msnbc.msn.com/id/26819601/#storyContinued

I first heard about this from some documentary on National Geographic Channel where they theorized that the North Atlantic was completely covered in ice during the winters of the Ice Age and ancient Europeans would have went to hunt seals on the ice because the animals they normally hunted migrated during the winter.

It's possible that the first North Americans did come from Europe, and that later migrations came through the Bering Strait

[jake williams]

I don't understand how any of this provides evidence that Europeans either could have or did migrate across the Atlantic and into North America. I've also never heard of any archaeological evidence, so it would have had to be a tiny migration, and simply hypothesized as a possibility anyway.

[Kwisatz Haderach]

Wait, so... the lack of expected evidence for ice suggests that humans could not have crossed the tiny body of water known as the Bering Strait, so this researcher concluded that, instead, humans must have crossed the fucking huge body of water known as the Atlantic Ocean?

Sounds like someone is desperate for funding.

[Revy]

It's possible migrants from Asia could have sailed across the north Pacific, especially hopping from island to island, look at the Aleutian islands.

"Because of the location of the islands, stretching like a broken bridge from Asia to America, many anthropologists believe they were a route of the first human occupants of the Americas. The earliest known evidence of human occupation in the Americas is much further south; the early human sites in Alaska have probably been submerged by rising waters during the current interglacial period. People living in the Aleutian Islands developed fine skills in hunting, fishing, and basketry. Hunters made their weapons and watercraft. The baskets are noted for being finely woven with carefully shredded stalks of beach rye." (Wikipedia)

[Pavlov's House Party]

I don't understand how any of this provides evidence that Europeans either could have or did migrate across the Atlantic and into North America. I've also never heard of any archaeological evidence, so it would have had to be a tiny migration, and simply hypothesized as a possibility anyway.

The evidence is supposedly matching spearheads found in France and the United States, which are (supposedly) dated long before the theorized date when humans crossed the Bering Strait. I admit all of the evidence is shoddy at best, for example the dating techniques used on the spearhead found in the US could be flawed, and as Kwisatz Haderach pointed out, it's very unlikely that early humans could cross an Atlantic ice flow but not cross the Bering Strait which is significantly smaller. I suppose it's not much more than an interesting though, but if it happened at all it would have been on a very, very small scale.

[MarxSchmarx]

Evidently somebody has never heard of deoxyribo nucleic acids.

[Plagueround]

This theory is known as the Solutrean hypothesis and is generally viewed as having flimsy evidence and little credibility. The documentary on the subject, "Ice Age Columbus", was kind of fun to watch though.

[Paul Cockshott]

"The First Humans To Settle Americas Came From Europe, Not From Asia Over Bering Strait Land-ice Bridge, New Research Suggests"

And just within the last year, new research has provided strong evidence that a large meteorite struck the ice sheet covering North American and melted much of the ice shortly before the formation of the Kankakee Sand Islands.

To melt the ice sheet the meteorite would have had to be vast, and generate a huge crater. There is some evidence of a meteorite strike, but not one of that magnitude.

[NecroCommie]

... so this researcher concluded that, instead, humans must have crossed the fucking huge body of water known as the Atlantic Ocean?
Not that I would believe the theory, but: England/Norway ----> Iceland ----> Greenland ----> New foundland. Especially when covered with ice.

[Blake's Baby]

Not that I would believe the theory, but: England/Norway ----> Iceland ----> Greenland ----> New foundland. Especially when covered with ice.


But at the time this is supposed to have happened, both Iceland and Greenland were thousands of miles from the edge of the ice, which is supposed to be at around the 50th parallel, I believe. The crossing from France, Spain, Britain or Ireland, wherever it's supposed to have come from, would be like crossing from say Santander to New York only stopping along the ice-floe edges.

There is some evidence that similar stone technology was used in Europe about 18,000 years ago, and N America about 11,000 I think. Whether there is a connection between these two technologies seperated by several thousand miles, and on current evidence several thousand years, is extremely difficult to decide on I'd think.

On the positive side, no 'intervening' evidence will be found. If Homo Sapiens was half-way from Europe to America by 15,000 years ago, living on the ice-margins, then the evidence will be at the bottom of the Atlantic, somewhere between the Azores and Iceland. So lack of evidence in this case isn't crucial.

My own feeling is that it's possible. In the 900s (AD) a long boat is said to have turned up in the Frankish Empire containing several half-starved men who spoke an unknown language and had dark skins, who may have been Native Americans (I'll try to find a source for this). So I think a navigation of the Atlantic in and open boat is possible, and Inuit communities spend a lot of time alternating between ice-floe living, boats on open water, and living on dry land. So why not ice-age Europeans?

On the other hand, there's a long tradition in American archaeology and anthropology to say that Native Americans lived in a perpetual state of conservative ignorance and any technical acheivements must have come from elsewhere. Advanced flint technology? Europeans must have brought it. Ohio mounds? Must have been Aztecs. Cities with pyramids? Egyptians.

So try to pick out the cultural chauvinism first, is my watchword when it comes to this kind of thing.

[NecroCommie]

But at the time this is supposed to have happened, both Iceland and Greenland were thousands of miles from the edge of the ice, which is supposed to be at around the 50th parallel, I believe. The crossing from France, Spain, Britain or Ireland, wherever it's supposed to have come from, would be like crossing from say Santander to New York only stopping along the ice-floe edges.
Well, yes. I don't claim to be an expert on this matter.


On the other hand, there's a long tradition in American archaeology and anthropology to say that Native Americans lived in a perpetual state of conservative ignorance and any technical acheivements must have come from elsewhere. Advanced flint technology? Europeans must have brought it. Ohio mounds? Must have been Aztecs. Cities with pyramids? Egyptians.

So try to pick out the cultural chauvinism first, is my watchword when it comes to this kind of thing.
I too immediately though if this was an elaborate attempt at some kind of "white men are better"-argumentation, but it is best to be careful with claims such as these, least we want to descent to the level of conspiracy theories.


By the way, as my stone-age knowledge is weak, does anyone know if there were other human species in america before Homo Sapiens? Like Erectus or Neanderthal? Just wondering if either atlantic (yeah right) or bering strait was crossed with even more primitive technology.

[Blake's Baby]

Well, yes. I don't claim to be an expert on this matter.


I too immediately though if this was an elaborate attempt at some kind of "white men are better"-argumentation, but it is best to be careful with claims such as these, least we want to descent to the level of conspiracy theories.


By the way, as my stone-age knowledge is weak, does anyone know if there were other human species in america before Homo Sapiens? Like Erectus or Neanderthal? Just wondering if either atlantic (yeah right) or bering strait was crossed with even more primitive technology.

No evidence at all, which in this case is generally taken to mean no there weren't.

It's just about possible that there might be evidence under the sea (Atlantic or Pacific, take your pick) due to 1 - sea-level changes and 2-the probability of coastal and estuarine environments being the earliest settlement sites; but for there to be literally no evidence for what might be 100,000+ years of inhabitation would be a little strange I feel.

[Jethro Tull]

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/sousa/churchill1.pdf

i really don't think anthropologists know as much about the origins of humanity as they believe.

however, in terms of modern history, interactions beween both hemispheres was more common than the u.s. imperialists' propaganda wants us to believe, but i think this goes without saying.