Stephan: Another dogma falls. For the past half century the idea that the first Americans were tied to the Clovis Model was dogma for archaeology. A few archaeologists and others, and I was amongst them, argued that Clovis Model was wrong. My view has always been that modern humans were on the American continent much earlier, and they didn't all come over the landbridge, or in a single incursion. I wrote a book in 1978 arguing this. Time and research has proven this to be true, as this report makes clear.
The story of our past is so much for complex and interesting than we have previously understood. Our modern form ancestors were smart, highly adaptive, and close observers. They developed observational sciences, and were as curious and adventurous as we are today. They loved beauty, and went to great lengths to produce art. It is always important to keep that in mind when reading about the past, particularly the deep past.
When and how did the first people arrive in the Americas?
For many decades, archaeologists have agreed on an explanation known as the Clovis model. The theory holds that about 13,500 years ago, bands of big-game hunters in Asia followed their prey across an exposed ribbon of land linking Siberia and Alaska and found themselves on a vast, unexplored continent. The route back was later blocked by rising sea levels that swamped the land bridge. Those pioneers were the first Americans.
The theory is based largely on the discovery in 1929 of distinctive stone tools, including sophisticated spear points, near Clovis, N.M. The same kinds of spear points were later identified at sites across North America. After radiocarbon dating was developed in 1949, scholars found that the age of these ‘Clovis sites
