How Did Humans End Up In The Americas?

Much has been written about the Spanish colonization of the Americas (and Mexico in particular) starting in the 16th century. But the fact that there were humans on the western continent at all is a feat to consider. How, when, and why humans came to the Americas has been a source of longtime interest and debate.

Science likes a good clean story where all the evidence lines up; for archaeologists, the story often requires a lot of guesswork and modification as new puzzle pieces emerge. The Olmecs are assumed to be the first advanced civilization in Mesoamerica, but the Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition contains evidence that there may have been cultures which pre-date them by several centuries. The most famous theory can still be wrong, and all it takes is new evidence.

It's widely accepted that anatomically modern humans arose in Africa, evolving over millions of years into bipedal, large-brained primates with complex social structures and the capacity for abstract thought. But the exact details of how humans got onto the American continents are unknown; there are several excellent theories, but conflicting research and proofs make it difficult to say for sure. Researchers are able to track DNA markers of ancient fossils and trace a rough path of human migration; but the pattern, timing, and origin of the settlement is unclear.

We do know that anatomically modern Homo sapiens followed herds of animals--mastodons, mammoths, and Ice-Age deer--across Asia and into eastern Siberia, at the very edge of modern-day Russia. The traditional Beringia Theory of human migration postulates that Siberia and Alaska were connected by a land bridge across the Bering Strait between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago; the 1,000-mile wide bridge allowed nomadic humans to cross over into the Americas on foot. From there, humans spread out into the new land, eventually populating both North and South America; when the sea level rose at the end of the last ice age, the continents were effectively cut off from one another.

The proof of the Bering Strait migration comes from the fossilized remnants of big game hunters, who left behind very distinct stone projectile points that are called Clovis points. These bifurcated, fluted stone weapons were first found in New Mexico in the 1920s, and carbon dating put the Clovis culture in America between 11,050 and 10,800 years ago. They were the oldest human-made artifacts yet found on the continent, and the Clovis people were assumed to be the first human inhabitants of the Americas.

But there are significant issues with the so-called "Clovis first" hypothesis, and they are large enough to force scientists to reconsider their Beringia Theory. First of all, 11,000 years is a very short time span to populate an entire hemisphere. Furthermore, archaeological sites in South America have yielded artifacts which pre-date the Clovis points by at least 1,000 years. This includes the Monte Verde site in Chile, the Topper Archaeological site in South Carolina, and many others. While the Bering Land Bridge hypothesis has some solid genetic evidence behind it, some of the data just doesn't add up. This has led to some highly creative alternate theories about how humans first made it into the Americas to become the Aztecs, Maya, Olmecs, and other cultures.

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