First People in the Americas

Apparently, the first people in the Americas didn’t walk here over the Beringia land bridge. For decades, common knowledge said that the first Americans arrived in Alaska about 13,000 years ago. But that narrative is unraveling as radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and ancient tool discoveries say they arrived thousands of years earlier, and they came across the water. It appears that the earliest people may have sailed along the Pacific coast, revealing early seafaring ambition.

In 2021, at the White Sands National Park, researchers uncovered fossilized human footprints dating between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, which makes them thousands of years older than when the Bering land bridge might have been passable. This discovery forced a reconsideration of when humans first arrived on the continent.

In addition, stone tools found in Idaho closely resemble ancient blades from Japan’s Upper Paleolithic period. This suggests that early travelers might have island-hopped to America by small boats. The Pacific Rim was full of resources, such as fish, kelp, and sea life, which could sustain a slow coastal migration.

A genetic study published in 2024 traced indigenous ancestry to several distinct migrations, some possibly predating the Beringian land bridge. Genomic patterns in early American remains and East Asian populations show many separate lineages arrived over thousands of years. This implies that multiple groups used different routes, which dismantles the notion of a single mass migration.

Geological models say that much of Beringia was submerged or glaciated during the Last Ice Age. Even if small areas of land did connect Asia and Alaska, they would have been barren, cold deserts that would be inhospitable to travelers.

Archaeological sites along the Pacific coast reveal human activity that dates back 17,000 years or more. These include sites in British Columbia and southern Chile. Such settlements occurred before inland routes opened. If humans followed a marine corridor, this could explain how they reached both North and South America so quickly after their initial arrival.

At a time when much of northern North America was covered by two enormous ice sheets that blocked any land route from Alaska to the interior, coastlines offered abundant food and mobility.

When the Ice Age ended, the sea levels rose more 120 meters, drowning the coastlines. Countless early camps and villages could now lie underwater along the Pacific shelf. Archaeologists are only beginning to explore such hidden landscapes with sonar and submersible drones.

Indigenous oral traditions told stories of ocean crossings and shoreline living. If taken seriously, these oral traditions reveal an ancestral memory of seafaring that was long ignored by Western scholars.

Humans reach Australia 65,000 years ago. If they could sail open ocean to there, they could certainly make shorter voyages along the North Pacific. Boat-making and navigation became part of human innovation tens of thousands of years earlier.

All this evidence—footprints, tools, genetics, and submerged landscapes—suggests the Americas were peopled earlier and by more complex routes than trudging across an icy bridge. It creates a portrait of maritime travelers who adapted with intelligence and courage. Each new discovery reveals that the first Americans charted their own course across a world still locked in ice.

Darn! I was sure the land bridge was the answer.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/new-evidence-shows-america-s-first-people-didn-t-walk-here-after-all/ss-AA1PIGkD?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=690d5eedff2e4e36a861e6a01db38aae&ei=28#image=11

Oldest Gun Ever Found in America

From 1540 to 1542, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led a Spanish expedition out of Mexico to as far north as Kansas in a search for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. The golden cities were never found but during a stop at the former settlement of San Geronimo III (in what is now Nogales AZ) the expedition left some items behind. One of those items is now a major archaeological find and an indication of weapon history in the United States.

In 2020, Researchers uncovered a bronze cannon—also known as a “wall gun”—at a Spanish stone-and-adobe structure. Radiocarbon dating and other dating techniques say the device is 480-years-old, which puts it in the same time period as Coronado’s expedition. This cannon is the oldest firearm ever discovered within the continental United States, and perhaps is the oldest cannon known at this time on the continent.

However, it is not a small pistol. Being 42 inches in length and weighing 40 pounds, it would have taken two people to operate. The team also uncovered plenty of broken swords and daggers, fishhooks, pottery, and other items, but not any bullets. And the lack of residue in the barrel indicated it was never fired.

A wall gun is considered a beefed-up musket. It got its name because it was often used at a building’s wall or a ship’s railing. Although not what is usually visualized as a cannon, it is also referred to one because of the smoothbore barrel. This particular gun was likely built in the early 1500s in either Mexico or the Caribbean and brought on the expedition before it was eventually abandoned, possibly because they ran out of ammunition for it.

These Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon.

Since the first gun’s discovery in 2020, the team has uncovered a second, very similar cannon.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/archaeologists-accidentally-discovered-the-oldest-gun-ever-found-in-america/ar-AA1On7iD?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=68eda03f62e4437c80d66c55b0ff381b&ei=107

Humans reach southern South America

DNA from 139 Indigenous groups reveal that humans reached southern South America by 14,500 years ago.

A new genetic analysis reveals that humans crossing from Asia along the Bering Land Bridge during the last ice age underwent three major population splits as they traveled through the Americas. This journey has been identified as the longest human migration out of Africa. Eventually, a group settled in the southern part of South America some 14,500 years ago.

An international team of scientists analyzed 1,537 genomes of people from 139 different ethnic groups to identify genetic characteristics of the earliest Americans.

The GenomeAsia 100K consortium collected the genetic material, including some from Asian populations whose ancestors made early migrations into the Americas. The scientists were able to identify the genetic background of indigenous people throughout the Americas. They pinpointed three key time periods when the long-distance travelers split up.

The first population split occurred between 26,800 and 19,300 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. This was when Indigenous Americans split from North Eurasian people. These dates are consistent with a Native American presence at White Sands in New Mexico, as evidenced by ancient footprints and vehicle drag marks dated to 23,000 to 21,000 years ago.

The next major population split happened between 17,500 and 14,600 years ago. The indigenous population in North America split, and some made their way south. This Mesoamerican group then split rapidly into four native genetic lineages around 13,900 years ago. These groups were ancestral Pueblo peoples in the southwest US, as well as Amazonians, Andeans and Patagonians in South America.

This estimation actually fits well with the archaeological records, which indicate that people were living in the furthest southern reaches of the South American continent by about 14,500 years ago.

As people made their way into the new land tens of thousands of years ago, they experienced a reduction in their genetic diversity. First it was because of geographic barriers. Later, the populations were decimated after the arrival of European colonists.

One key loss was in the variation in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes. A high diversity of HLA genes is important for immune system health. In regions such as Southeast Asia with a high number of disease-causing organisms, previous studies found a high diversity of HLA genes. But in the Indigenous South American genomes, there was significantly lower diversity in the HLA genes. This may have led to these people being more vulnerable to novel pathogens.

One of the researchers’ aims is to emphasize the special medical needs of contemporary Indigenous peoples. Some have gene variants associated with problems like adverse drug reactions.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/humans-reached-southern-south-america-by-14-500-years-ago-genomes-from-139-indigenous-groups-reveal/ar-AA1ER86r?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=e2137095d6244d2d9b66aa91eafcef03&ei=65