Evidence of earliest humans in North America corroborated by second study

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Cypress

Well-known member

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study​

The new paper finds that the mud [containing the human footprints] is between 20,700 and 22,400 years old – which correlates with the original finding that the footprints are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. The new study now marks the third type of material – mud in addition to seeds and pollen – used to date the footprints, and by three different labs. Two separate research groups now have a total of 55 consistent radiocarbon dates.

"It's a remarkably consistent record," said Holliday, a professor emeritus in the School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences who has studied the "peopling of the Americas" for nearly 50 years, focusing largely on the Great Plains and the Southwest.

"You get to the point where it's really hard to explain all this away," he added. "As I say in the paper, it would be serendipity in the extreme to have all these dates giving you a consistent picture that's in error."

news.arizona.edu

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study

A new paper agrees with findings that footprints discovered in New Mexico are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old – much older than the previously known earliest signs of human culture in the Americas.
news.arizona.edu news.arizona.edu
 
Cypress said:

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study​

The new paper finds that the mud [containing the human footprints] is between 20,700 and 22,400 years old – which correlates with the original finding that the footprints are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. The new study now marks the third type of material – mud in addition to seeds and pollen – used to date the footprints, and by three different labs. Two separate research groups now have a total of 55 consistent radiocarbon dates.

"It's a remarkably consistent record," said Holliday, a professor emeritus in the School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences who has studied the "peopling of the Americas" for nearly 50 years, focusing largely on the Great Plains and the Southwest.

"You get to the point where it's really hard to explain all this away," he added. "As I say in the paper, it would be serendipity in the extreme to have all these dates giving you a consistent picture that's in error."

news.arizona.edu

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study

A new paper agrees with findings that footprints discovered in New Mexico are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old – much older than the previously known earliest signs of human culture in the Americas.
news.arizona.edu news.arizona.edu
Click to expand...
More argument from randU fallacies. You obviously have no clue how radiocarbon dating works or why scales of this nature are meaningless.
 
Cypress said:

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study​

The new paper finds that the mud [containing the human footprints] is between 20,700 and 22,400 years old – which correlates with the original finding that the footprints are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. The new study now marks the third type of material – mud in addition to seeds and pollen – used to date the footprints, and by three different labs. Two separate research groups now have a total of 55 consistent radiocarbon dates.

"It's a remarkably consistent record," said Holliday, a professor emeritus in the School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences who has studied the "peopling of the Americas" for nearly 50 years, focusing largely on the Great Plains and the Southwest.

"You get to the point where it's really hard to explain all this away," he added. "As I say in the paper, it would be serendipity in the extreme to have all these dates giving you a consistent picture that's in error."

news.arizona.edu

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study

A new paper agrees with findings that footprints discovered in New Mexico are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old – much older than the previously known earliest signs of human culture in the Americas.
news.arizona.edu news.arizona.edu
Click to expand...
Awesome. 20,000 years ago North America was in a full glacial state but the southern tier of the present US would be free of ice.

18,000-15,000 14C y.a. (about 21,000-17,000 calendar years ago). The full glacial.At this earliest mapped time slice, North America was still in the grip of full glacial conditions. The ice sheet extent did not remain static through this period; by 15,000 14C y.a., some retreat of the major North American ice mass had occurred relative to the 'global' glacial maximum position some 3,000 radiocarbon years previously (Dyke & Prest 1987), it still covered most of the continent and was even more extensive in some places. The ends of what was later to become an ice-free corridor had begun to open by 15,000 14C y.a., but about 1000 km of ice still remained blocking its course.

Lower sea levels had exposed a land bridge extending across from Alaska to the eastern tip of Siberia. Known as Beringia, this exposed land seems to have had localised areas of moist, peaty tundra (though not true 'peatland') in stream and river valleys, but other pollen cores and geomorphological indicators show that the higher slopes and knolls, and areas towards the north and away from the Pacific, would have had a large proportion of open ground (Elias et al. 1996, Colinvaux 1996). In the interior of Alaska, conditions seem to have been particularly dry and cold, and probably resembled polar desert. See the main QEN section on North America for a more detailed discussion of Beringia.

QqZbdXm.jpeg
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Awesome. 20,000 years ago North America was in a full glacial state but the southern tier of the present US would be free of ice.

18,000-15,000 14C y.a. (about 21,000-17,000 calendar years ago). The full glacial.At this earliest mapped time slice, North America was still in the grip of full glacial conditions. The ice sheet extent did not remain static through this period; by 15,000 14C y.a., some retreat of the major North American ice mass had occurred relative to the 'global' glacial maximum position some 3,000 radiocarbon years previously (Dyke & Prest 1987), it still covered most of the continent and was even more extensive in some places. The ends of what was later to become an ice-free corridor had begun to open by 15,000 14C y.a., but about 1000 km of ice still remained blocking its course.

Lower sea levels had exposed a land bridge extending across from Alaska to the eastern tip of Siberia. Known as Beringia, this exposed land seems to have had localised areas of moist, peaty tundra (though not true 'peatland') in stream and river valleys, but other pollen cores and geomorphological indicators show that the higher slopes and knolls, and areas towards the north and away from the Pacific, would have had a large proportion of open ground (Elias et al. 1996, Colinvaux 1996). In the interior of Alaska, conditions seem to have been particularly dry and cold, and probably resembled polar desert. See the main QEN section on North America for a more detailed discussion of Beringia.

QqZbdXm.jpeg
Click to expand...
Because this coincides with the Last Glacial Maximum, I guess these people hopscotched by boat down the Pacific coast, rather than traversing through western land routes.

It also seems to fill in a question I had. The earliest sites of human habitation in South America were older than the known habitation sites in North America. That didn't make sense. The fact this site pushes the North American date back almost ten thousand years makes the South American sites less curious.
 
Cypress said:
Because this coincides with the Last Glacial Maximum, I guess these people hopscotched by boat down the Pacific coast, rather than traversing through western land routes.

It also seems to fill in a question I had. The earliest sites of human habitation in South America were older than the known habitation sites in North America. That didn't make sense. The fact this site pushes the North American date back almost ten thousand years makes the South American sites less curious.
Click to expand...
Seems plausible that they would have sailed/paddled along the coastlines until clear of the ice.

Still, how many years would it take tribal people to migrate across several continents? A thousand years?
 
Dutch Uncle said:
Seems plausible that they would have sailed/paddled along the coastlines until clear of the ice.

Still, how many years would it take tribal people to migrate across several continents? A thousand years?
Click to expand...
No one knows, but its a reasonable guess that it would take many centuries for human habitation to spread from North America to South America

The aboriginal people seem to have spread across Australia fairly rapidly.
 
Cypress said:
No one knows, but its a reasonable guess that it would take many centuries for human habitation to spread from North America to South America

The aboriginal people seem to have spread across Australia fairly rapidly.
Click to expand...
As the previously posted map of 20,000 years ago, leaving Asia for Australia would be doable by land and short boat trips.
 
Dutch Uncle said:
As the previously posted map of 20,000 years ago, leaving Asia for Australia would be doable by land and short boat trips.
Click to expand...
Aboriginal people supposedly made it to Australia around sixty thousand years ago, and I am impressed that archaic humans that far back in the Paleolithic era had the nerve for open ocean boat trips, even if it was only 30 or 40 miles.
 
Cypress said:
Aboriginal people supposedly made it to Australia around sixty thousand years ago, and I am impressed that archaic humans that far back in the Neolithic era had the nerve for open ocean boat trips, even if it was only 30 or 40 miles.
Click to expand...
Over-the-horizon sea navigation would be a difficult feat, but island hopping is much easier. Even if an island is just over the horizon, if large enough, clouds would form over it and be stationary thus identifying its existence.
 
Cypress said:

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study​

The new paper finds that the mud [containing the human footprints] is between 20,700 and 22,400 years old – which correlates with the original finding that the footprints are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. The new study now marks the third type of material – mud in addition to seeds and pollen – used to date the footprints, and by three different labs. Two separate research groups now have a total of 55 consistent radiocarbon dates.

"It's a remarkably consistent record," said Holliday, a professor emeritus in the School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences who has studied the "peopling of the Americas" for nearly 50 years, focusing largely on the Great Plains and the Southwest.

"You get to the point where it's really hard to explain all this away," he added. "As I say in the paper, it would be serendipity in the extreme to have all these dates giving you a consistent picture that's in error."

news.arizona.edu

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study

A new paper agrees with findings that footprints discovered in New Mexico are between 21,000 and 23,000 years old – much older than the previously known earliest signs of human culture in the Americas.
news.arizona.edu news.arizona.edu
Click to expand...

I knew it! They covered this in one of my Anthro classes.

Thanks for posting it.
 
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