Ancient Stone Artifacts Unearthed Near a River, Suggest First People in the Americas Came by Sea
Researchers have long had various theories and speculations regarding how the Americas welcomed people. A large number of experts support the 'Clovis First' theory but research conducted in 2019 challenged it. The findings from that study instead professed that people arrived at the site through a particular route. The hypothesis was published in detail in Science.
'Clover First' theory claims that people traveled through Siberia to the Americas with the help of an opening in the ice sheet near the present-day Dakotas, Science Daily stated. Researchers estimate that the corridor opened around 14,800 years ago. However, the findings of the study indicated that people were present at the site long before that, suggesting that the corridor was not the way through which individuals came in. Instead, the findings imply that the first group arrived through the sea.
The study focussed on stone tools and artifacts unearthed from Cooper's Ferry site near the Idaho River. The items uncovered from the site include bone fragments belonging to middle and large-sized animals, fire-cracked rock, and charcoal. There was also evidence of pits created for domestic functions, food processing stations, and fire hearth at the place. Examinations unveiled that the items were placed in the region 16,000 years ago. This is much before the opening of the corridor, hence rejecting the assertion that the first group of people arrived through that route. Jennifer Raff, a geneticist at the University of Kansas in Lawrence who studies the people of the Americas claims that the findings perfectly align with the coastal model, which is gaining more and more agreement within the scientific community, according to Science.
The coastal model suggests that people entered the Americas by moving down the Pacific coast and up the rivers. "The Cooper's Ferry site is located along the Salmon River, which is a tributary of the larger Columbia River basin. Early peoples moving south along the Pacific coast would have encountered the Columbia River as the first place below the glaciers where they could easily walk and paddle into North America," Loren Davis, a professor of anthropology at Oregon State University and the study's lead author explained, Science Daily stated. "Essentially, the Columbia River corridor was the first off-ramp of a Pacific coast migration route. The timing and position of the Cooper's Ferry site is consistent with and most easily explained as the result of an early Pacific coastal migration."
Even before the discovery of the Cooper Ferry site, there were assertions regarding the coastal model, but no substantial proof, according to Science. This was because the earliest evidence of human settlement in the Americas was of Clovis people, who presumably entered through the ice sheet. There were findings in several other spots which aligned the coastal model, but could not be proved to be from pre-Clovis time. However, the examinations at the Cooper Ferry site proved beyond doubt that the artifacts were placed there before the arrival of the Clovis people. "The timing and position of the Cooper's Ferry site is consistent with and most easily explained as the result of an early Pacific coastal migration," Davis added, Science Daily stated.
Researchers currently plan to analyze the artifacts found from the site further for more information. "We have 10 years' worth of excavated artifacts and samples to analyze," Davis said. "We anticipate we'll make other exciting discoveries as we continue to study the artifacts and samples from our excavations."