I've lived with their moccasined foot on my throat long enough:
The Clovis people, known for their distinctive spear points, likely were not the first humans in the Americas, according to research placing their presence as more recent than previously believed.Using advanced radiocarbon dating techniques, researchers writing in the journal Science on Thursday said the Clovis people, hunters of large Ice Age animals like mammoths and mastodons, dated from about 13,100 to 12,900 years ago.
That would make the Clovis culture, known from artifacts discovered at various sites including the town of Clovis, New Mexico, both younger and shorter-lived than previously thought. Previous estimates had dated the culture to about 13,600 years ago.
These people long had been seen as the first humans in the New World, but the new dates suggest their culture thrived at about the same time or after others also in the Americas.
Michael Waters, director of Texas A&M University's Center for the Study of the First Americans, called the research the final nail in the coffin of the so-called "Clovis first" theory of human origins in the New World.
Waters said he thinks the first people probably arrived in the Americas between 15,000 and 25,000 years ago.
"We've got to stop thinking about the peopling of the Americas as a singular event," Waters said in an interview.
"And we have to start now thinking about the peopling of the Americas as a process, with people coming over here, probably arriving at different times, maybe taking different routes and coming from different places in northeast Asia."
Multiple waves and multiple routes. It appears that there were a lot more ancient non-Indians hoofing it around this land besides Kennewick Man. Guess where they think some of those routes possibly originated?
Posted by floridacracker at February 23, 2007 06:20 AMYes, I saw a show on TV (Discovery Channel???) that this is proof the first people here were from Europe. They said people came and went depending the on weather conditions. Interesting.....you don't hear that being spread around or pass theories being corrected.
Posted by: Marie Galante at February 23, 2007 01:17 PMOh no, this will not stand! Native Americans came from Asia. No one of European descent belongs here, unless you're Ward Churchill. Everyone knows that its only people of European ancestry that cause global warming, invented DDT, and enslaved Africans. You've got to start feeling more guilt and crush this heresy before it takes root!
Posted by: Hamous at February 23, 2007 01:37 PMNobody talks about the Spirit Cave Mummy found in Nevada. He is the oldest mummy found in N. Ameica not to have Native American origins.
He's cool because he had stuff with him.
Kennewick Man speaks:
"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."
It's not so much that Columbus was the first Eurogoober to find his way here. He was just the first to make it back to Europe and start complaining about the food, the climate and the warlike natives. Thus began the noble European tradition of America bashing.
Posted by: Carl H. at February 24, 2007 02:25 PM