Archeology Paper

716 Words2 Pages

This paper examines a National Geographic news article pertaining to the history of First Americans called, “On way to New World, First Americans Made a-10,000 Year Pit Stop”. The First Americans may have stayed on the Bering Land Bridge after separating from Siberia, which would explain a few things about the genetic variances between the two groups. Why do researches believe first Americans lived on the Bering Land Bridge? Are the reasons to believe in this justified? This paper attempts to answer such questions.
This National Geographic news article is based off a recent study conducted by Dennis O’Rourke and two colleagues. O’Rourke and colleagues’ study suggests that first Americans may have lived on the Beringia for 10,000 years. (Than, 2014) This idea is not new; it is called the Bearing Standstill Hypothesis. This hypothesis states that the First Americans likely lived somewhere else for a long period of time, after separating from the Siberian population, before landing on Alaska. (Than, 2014) The reasoning behind this hypothesis is that archeological evidence showed the oldest First American site to be about 15,000 years old while genetic evidence shows the First Americans separated from Siberia about 25,000 thousand years ago. (Than, 2014) It was speculated that the First Americans lived on Beringia but there no archeological evidence to support this speculation and Beringia was thought to be inhospitable. However, according to this article O’Rourke and colleagues’ study show Beringia might in fact have been hospitable. Examination of the sediment cores in the Bering Sea and Alaskan Bogs revealed Beringia might have had trees like birch, willow, spruce and alder and bushy shrubs. This setting, according to O’Rourke, ma...

... middle of paper ...

...ge from Siberia to get to America. An argument against Feders’ theory could have been; the First Americans did not come from Siberia because it takes about 25,000 years for DNA to change and the First Americans arrived about 13,000 years ago. This article shows that it is likely the First Americans did come from Siberia.
This article also discusses the Clovis Culture, linking it to the First Americans through genetics. Feder also talks about the Clovis Culture in his book and points out the debate over its origins. However, it seems through genetic proof that shows a young-boy in the Clovis Culture shared DNA with first Americans this debate will end.
In conclusion, it seems very likely that the First Americans did settle Beringia for 10 millennia. This article presents good evidence for the standstill hypothesis while objectively discussing other points of view.

Open Document