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ST . LOUIS — The first humans to spread across North America may have been seal hunters from France and Spain .
This runs counter to the long - held notion that the first human entry into the Americas was a crossing of a land - trash bridge that spanned the Bering Strait about 13,500 years ago .
Photo taken by Sasan Saidi. There are no usage restrictions for this photo
The young intellection was outline here Sunday at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science .
The tools do n’t jibe
late studies have suggest that the glaciers that helped organise the bridge connect Siberia and Alaska began draw back around 17,000 to 13,000 year ago , leave alone very little chance that people walked from one continent to the other .
Also , when archaeologist Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution invest American spearheads , call Clovis point , side - by - side with Siberian level , he sees a divergence of many characteristic .
Instead , Stanford aver today , Clovis points match up much closer with Solutrean style peter , which research worker go steady to about 19,000 year ago . This suggests that the American masses making Clovis power point made Solutrean point before that .
There ’s just one problem with this hypothesis — Solutrean toolmakers lived in France and Spain . Scientists get it on of no land - crank bridge that spanned that intact gap .
The lose hunting party
Stanford has an melodic theme for how human race crossed the Atlantic , though — boats . Art from that earned run average indicates that Solutrean populations in northerly Spain were hunting marine animals , such as seals , walrus , and tuna .
They may have even made their way into the floating meth chunks that unite immense mouth organ stamp population in Canada and Europe each twelvemonth . Four million seals , Stanford pronounce , would attend like a fairly respectable meal to hungry European hunters , who might have jeopardize into the Methedrine run much the same way that the Inuit in Alaska and Greenland do today .
Eskimo use large , open hunting boat constructed from animal skin for longer trips or big hunting . These boat , call umiaq , can hold a dozen adults , as well as several fry , dead seal or walrus , and even hotdog - sleigh team . Inuit have been building these boat for thousand of years , and Stanford believe that Solutrean the great unwashed may have used a similar pattern .
It ’s possible that some grouping of these hunters embark out as far as Iceland , where they may have gotten caught up in the obtain currents and were carried to North America .
“ You get three gravy holder loaded up like this and you would have a viable population , ” Stanford said . “ You could actually get a whole bunch of people washing up on Nova Scotia . ”
Some scientist believe that the Solutrean peoples were responsible for much of thecave artin Europe . opposite of Stanford ’s study ask why , then , would these people stop bring out artistic production once they made it to North America ?
“ I do n’t know , ” Stanford say . “ But you ’re look at a recollective distance inland , 100 miles or so , before they would get to caves to do graphics in . ”
