Ever since the first Anthropology survey course, I've been hearing humans have been in the Americas for about thirty thousand years but it wasn't solid so much as the general thinking. In the current article, researchers had placed the first arrival was about 14,000 years ago and their discovery is that happened at least 10,000 years before that. (Science Daily: First humans arrived in North America a lot earlier than believed)
Please forgive the twee specification for time since they use BP to mean Before Present and another of that ilk is BCE to mean Before Current Era. It's precious to see them dodging religion and the use of B.C. and A.D. for Before Christ and After Death but it doesn't add anything to the science. Someone somewhere must have come up with the idea the original terms influence people's spiritual beliefs. Yeah, ok.
This horse mandible from Cave 2 shows a number of cut marks on the lingual surface. They indicate that the animal’s tongue was cut out with a stone tool.
Credit: Image courtesy of Université de Montréal
- SD
Although I've heard 'lingual' from every dentist I ever saw (i.e. many), I never bothered to look it up. Now I find that means the 'surface closest to the tongue.'
You see our love, right; we look up useless crap like that for you (larfs).
The earliest settlement date of North America, until now estimated at 14,000 years Before Present (BP) according to the earliest dated archaeological sites, is now estimated at 24,000 BP, at the height of the last ice age or Last Glacial Maximum.
The researchers made their discovery using artifacts from the Bluefish Caves, located on the banks of the Bluefish River in northern Yukon near the Alaska border. The site was excavated by archaeologist Jacques Cinq-Mars between 1977 and 1987. Based on radiocarbon dating of animal bones, the researcher made the bold hypothesis that human settlement in the region dated as far back as 30,000 BP.
- SD
Now we're back to the first estimation I heard in the early Seventies but even the 1977 expedition was after that since I walked away with the degree in 1975.
Here's some solid science to base the timing at 24,000 BP and that must be 22,000 BC, right (larfs).
"Series of straight, V-shaped lines on the surface of the bones were made by stone tools used to skin animals," said Burke. "These are indisputable cut-marks created by humans."
Bourgeon submitted the bones to further radiocarbon dating. The oldest fragment, a horse mandible showing the marks of a stone tool apparently used to remove the tongue, was radiocarbon-dated at 19,650 years, which is equivalent to between 23,000 and 24,000 cal BP (calibrated years Before Present).
"Our discovery confirms previous analyses and demonstrates that this is the earliest known site of human settlement in Canada," said Burke. It shows that Eastern Beringia was inhabited during the last ice age."
- SD
We will skip the idea of 'calibrated years' since we have no idea how they differ from any other kind.
This time we're solid on 24,000 BP and their proof looks perfect.
Ed: assuming no other evidence is discovered!
Fair enough.
This part may not interest you much but I don't understand why they stayed in this location.
Beringia is a vast region stretching from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to the Lena River in Russia. According to Burke, studies in population genetics have shown that a group of a few thousand individuals lived in isolation from the rest of the world in Beringia 15,000 to 24,000 years ago.
- SD
This was at the height of the last Ice Age and life in the far North is harsh anyway but it must have been absolutely brutal back then. Why didn't they keep going South?
In fact, they did go South but not until much later.
"Our discovery confirms the 'Beringian standstill [or genetic isolation] hypothesis,'" she said, "Genetic isolation would have corresponded to geographical isolation. During the Last Glacial Maximum, Beringia was isolated from the rest of North America by glaciers and steppes too inhospitable for human occupation to the West. It was potentially a place of refuge."
The Beringians of Bluefish Caves were therefore among the ancestors of people who, at the end of the last ice age, colonized the entire continent along the coast to South America.
- SD
There you have it, Young Anthro, the work here is outstanding but the question still stands. If they were stranded by weather, doesn't it seem logical they would try the next Spring when there's at least some respite to give them a chance to find somewhere just a wee bit warmer.
These people had the same intelligence as we so the problem couldn't have been there were not able to figure it out.
We also have the Clovis points for arrowheads and some percentage of archaeologists / anthropologists believe they're indicative of an ancient connection with Europe. (WIKI: Clovis point)
It's not over, mates. When Einstein came up with E = MC2, that seemed to settle things but you can see how it incited physicists since then to challenge it. The finest kind of science doesn't ever seem to be over.
Please forgive the twee specification for time since they use BP to mean Before Present and another of that ilk is BCE to mean Before Current Era. It's precious to see them dodging religion and the use of B.C. and A.D. for Before Christ and After Death but it doesn't add anything to the science. Someone somewhere must have come up with the idea the original terms influence people's spiritual beliefs. Yeah, ok.
This horse mandible from Cave 2 shows a number of cut marks on the lingual surface. They indicate that the animal’s tongue was cut out with a stone tool.
Credit: Image courtesy of Université de Montréal
- SD
Although I've heard 'lingual' from every dentist I ever saw (i.e. many), I never bothered to look it up. Now I find that means the 'surface closest to the tongue.'
You see our love, right; we look up useless crap like that for you (larfs).
The earliest settlement date of North America, until now estimated at 14,000 years Before Present (BP) according to the earliest dated archaeological sites, is now estimated at 24,000 BP, at the height of the last ice age or Last Glacial Maximum.
The researchers made their discovery using artifacts from the Bluefish Caves, located on the banks of the Bluefish River in northern Yukon near the Alaska border. The site was excavated by archaeologist Jacques Cinq-Mars between 1977 and 1987. Based on radiocarbon dating of animal bones, the researcher made the bold hypothesis that human settlement in the region dated as far back as 30,000 BP.
- SD
Now we're back to the first estimation I heard in the early Seventies but even the 1977 expedition was after that since I walked away with the degree in 1975.
Here's some solid science to base the timing at 24,000 BP and that must be 22,000 BC, right (larfs).
"Series of straight, V-shaped lines on the surface of the bones were made by stone tools used to skin animals," said Burke. "These are indisputable cut-marks created by humans."
Bourgeon submitted the bones to further radiocarbon dating. The oldest fragment, a horse mandible showing the marks of a stone tool apparently used to remove the tongue, was radiocarbon-dated at 19,650 years, which is equivalent to between 23,000 and 24,000 cal BP (calibrated years Before Present).
"Our discovery confirms previous analyses and demonstrates that this is the earliest known site of human settlement in Canada," said Burke. It shows that Eastern Beringia was inhabited during the last ice age."
- SD
We will skip the idea of 'calibrated years' since we have no idea how they differ from any other kind.
This time we're solid on 24,000 BP and their proof looks perfect.
Ed: assuming no other evidence is discovered!
Fair enough.
This part may not interest you much but I don't understand why they stayed in this location.
Beringia is a vast region stretching from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to the Lena River in Russia. According to Burke, studies in population genetics have shown that a group of a few thousand individuals lived in isolation from the rest of the world in Beringia 15,000 to 24,000 years ago.
- SD
This was at the height of the last Ice Age and life in the far North is harsh anyway but it must have been absolutely brutal back then. Why didn't they keep going South?
In fact, they did go South but not until much later.
"Our discovery confirms the 'Beringian standstill [or genetic isolation] hypothesis,'" she said, "Genetic isolation would have corresponded to geographical isolation. During the Last Glacial Maximum, Beringia was isolated from the rest of North America by glaciers and steppes too inhospitable for human occupation to the West. It was potentially a place of refuge."
The Beringians of Bluefish Caves were therefore among the ancestors of people who, at the end of the last ice age, colonized the entire continent along the coast to South America.
- SD
There you have it, Young Anthro, the work here is outstanding but the question still stands. If they were stranded by weather, doesn't it seem logical they would try the next Spring when there's at least some respite to give them a chance to find somewhere just a wee bit warmer.
These people had the same intelligence as we so the problem couldn't have been there were not able to figure it out.
We also have the Clovis points for arrowheads and some percentage of archaeologists / anthropologists believe they're indicative of an ancient connection with Europe. (WIKI: Clovis point)
It's not over, mates. When Einstein came up with E = MC2, that seemed to settle things but you can see how it incited physicists since then to challenge it. The finest kind of science doesn't ever seem to be over.
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