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https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-state-university-oldest-human-artifacts-idaho-north-america/
Ancient human artifacts found in a remote corner of Northwestern Idaho could deliver a major blow to a long-held theory that North America's first humans arrived by crossing a land bridge connected to Asia before moving south through the center of the continent.
The artifacts have been dated to as far back as 16,500 years ago, making them the oldest radiocarbon dated evidence of humans in North America, according to research published Thursday in the journal Science.
The artifacts are part of a trove discovered where Cooper's Ferry, Idaho, now stands. They are a thousand years older than what has previously been considered North America's most ancient known human remains. Together with dozens of other archaeological sites stretched across the continent, it helps decipher the story of when, and how, humans first arrived.
[...] The site at Cooper's Ferry doesn't fit with [the land Bering Strait land bridge] model. For one, the ice-free corridor probably didn't exist when humans first arrived at Cooper's Ferry — scientists think it didn't open up until about 15,000 years ago, which means these early people had to find a different route south. Other early sites challenged this theory, but none were this old, and the oldest were dated with a method considered less precise than radiocarbon dating.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday September 05 2019, @09:49PM (1 child)
Not to mention that the far north tends to be a difficult area for preserving archaeological sites anyway, so most land sites are well hidden or lost as well.
One of the problems with most scientific models as they are presented in the popular media is that they always seem to be shown as distinct explanations as to what actually occurred. The reality of course is likely a part of what HiThere suggests, these were not singular events but regular patterns of usage by the peoples involved. Competing theories that seem to have evidence backing them are probably all partially correct in that they were all true at times to varying extents.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday September 06 2019, @08:39PM
Well, I also oversimplified. I said (paraphrase)"nearly continual crossings by traders", but this gives the wrong impression. People weren't as highly specialized then as now, and most of these traders probably only went as far as the next tribe or two. IIUC, however, at least in recent times items traded from over a distance (probably from hand to hand) gained mana (magical power). So there was incentive to "trade it on", because it was more valuable to someone further away than to you.
OTOH, there is evidence for long distance trading dating to the old stone age, though not in that particular area. So why not expect it? Kayaks are at a high state of development, but even primitive kayaks would allow fishing and accompanying gossip at long distances. (Low bandwidth, of course. Kayaks don't encourage trading, but allow communication of, e.g., "Your cousin that married my brother has a new son.")
So. What evidence of this would you expect to find? (Either supporting or denying it.) The only evidence that I have is that inter-tribal gossip about relatives is nearly universal among humans, and trading seems nearly as universal. So I think I'd require evidence to doubt that it occurred in this area. Of course, when one tribe leaves the area controlling the Bering strait, the folks on the other side don't gossip with the new comers about relatives...because they don't know of any shared relatives. After a few generations, though, new bonds are formed, albeit a bit slowly, and the gossip and trading pick up again.
As for tool styles, those take a long time to learn, and are often held secret to maintain an advantage. So they've got a somewhat different rate and style of diffusion. I would suggest that women's tools have styles that diffuse more rapidly then men's, as exogamy is more likely to involve a woman moving to her husband's tribe than the reverse. Also that women's tools are more subject to decay, as they tend to be made of wood or woven fibers (with exceptions like bone needles).
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