NatGeo November issue has a lot of information on the changing outlooks we have of the past in human history. I won't go through them all, but I will randomingly be looking and sharing some I find interesting.*
The will all be labelled as NatGeo and Top100 if you ever want to look at a bunch of them. Skip if you want. I will not be looking at things that I knew and understand well (like the 30,000 year old French cave paintings in Chauvet and Lascaux), but will focus on things I find interesting about civilization. The ever expanding family tree that includes Homo Naledi, Denisovians and Flores Woman - I will also ignore. I am not big on anthropology myself. Most of the non-European sites and accomplishments are new to me.
So let's start with something I do find interesting. The changing dates for settlement of the Americas by carbon dating the Monte Verde site. Dates IO was taught in school had the American natives crossing a land bridge from Asia to Alaska about 13,500 years ago. This lead to the "Clovis" theory that human migration started up in northern North America moving southward for land and a changing climate.
Here is the information as noted by Wikipedia (which expands the NatGeo description).
Monte Verde is an archaeological site in southern Chile, located near Puerto Montt, Southern Chile, which has been dated to as early as 18,500 cal BP (16,500 BC).[1] Previously, the widely accepted date for early occupation at Monte Verde was ~14,500 years cal BP.[2] This dating added to the evidence showing that the human settlement of the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by roughly 1000 years (or 5,000 years if the 18,500 BP dates are confirmed). This contradicts the previously accepted "Clovis first" model which holds that settlement of the Americas began after 13,500 cal BP. The Monte Verde findings were initially dismissed by most of the scientific community, but the evidence then became more accepted in archaeological circles.[2][3]
Paleoecological evidence of the coastal landscape's ability to sustain human life further supports a "coastal migration" model.[4] Dating of rock surfaces and animal bones suggests the coastal corridor was deglaciated and became habitable after 17,000 years BP.[5] Although testing coastal migration theories can be difficult due to sea level rise since the last glacial maximum, archaeologists are increasingly willing to accept the possibility that the initial settlement of the Americas occurred via coastlines.[6][7]
* Just a quick note. I tend to blog because it is a great outlet for me. Unless you are Eddie, you are free to judge as you feel fit.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing !
ReplyDeleteMissed this earlier, internet spotty at best !