Settlement of America

According to the latest research, the first settlers came to America in one wave from Siberia not earlier than 23 thousand years ago at the height of the last ice age ^[2] . Radiocarbon dates obtained by examining bone samples revealed during a complex taphonomic analysis of the fauna of Bluefish Cave in the Yukon gave a calibrated date of 24 thousand years to date (19,650 ± 130 BP) ^{[3] [4]} . Apparently, then these first migrants for a long time remained in the north.

According to the frequencies of the most important "eastern" (Mongoloid) marker - the spatulate shape of the incisors, only the Indian population of North America seems quite homogeneous.

About 13 thousand years ago, they were divided into northern and southern populations - the latter settled in Central, Southern and partially in North America ^[2] .

Separately, about 5.5 thousand years ago, there was an arrival of Inuit and Eskimo who spread throughout the Arctic ^[2] (the way they get from Siberia to Alaska remains a mystery, since there was no transition between them then ^[5] ) .

The chronology of migration models is divided into two scales. One scale is based on a “short chronology,” according to which the first wave of resettlement to America occurred no earlier than 14–16 thousand years ago. The results of studies conducted by Rutgers University , theoretically showed that the entire indigenous people of America occurred only from 70 individuals who arrived in the 14-12 thousand liters. n along the Bering isthmus , which then existed between Asia and America ^[6] . According to other estimates, the actual population size of Native Americans was approx. 250 people ^[7] .

Supporters of the “long chronology” believe that the first group of people arrived in the western hemisphere much earlier, perhaps 20-50 thousand years ago, and perhaps after it there were other successive waves of migrations ^[8] . Paleogenetics who studied the genome of a girl who lived in the Tanana Valley in Alaska ca. 11.5 thousand years ago, they came to the conclusion that the ancestors of all American Indians moved in one wave from Chukotka to Alaska in the late Pleistocene ca. 20-25 thousand years ago, before Beringia disappeared approx. 20 thousand years ago. After that, the " ancient Beringians " in America were isolated from Eurasia. Between 17 and 14 thousand years ago there was a division into the northern and southern groups of Paleo-Indians from which the peoples who settled in North and South America were formed ^{[9] [10] [11]} .

One of the factors supporting the heated debate is the discontinuity of archaeological evidence of early periods of human existence in both North and South America . North American finds generally reflect the classic complex of cultural evidence, known as the Clovis culture , which can be traced at least 13,500 years ago; these evidence was found almost throughout North and Central America .

The age of the lancet-shaped spear tips found in Block A (Block A) at the site of the ancient site of Debra L. Friedkin (Debra L. Friedkin site) in the Buttermilk Creek location (Texas) is within a period of 13.5-15.5 thousand years ago ^[12] .

In 2017, archaeologists excavated a settlement on about. Tricket Island off the west coast of Canada, also dating from about 13-14 thousand years ago. It is assumed that this area was not covered with ice during the last glaciation.

South American cultural finds, on the other hand, do not have the same sequence and represent diverse cultural patterns. Therefore, many archaeologists believe that the Clovis model is not valid for South America, calling for the creation of new theories to explain prehistoric finds that do not fit into the Clovis cultural complex. Some scientists are developing a Pan-American model of colonization, which combines both North American and South American archaeological finds.

The colonization of the American continent is associated with several migratory waves that brought the Y-chromosome Q and C haplogroups to the New World ^[13] . According to the calculations of genetics Theodore Schurr from the University of Pennsylvania, carriers of mitochondrial haplogroup B came to North America 24 thousand years ago ^{[14] [15]} . T. Schurr and S. Sherry believe that the migration of carriers of mitochondrial haplogroups A, B, C and D preceded the clovis and 15-20 thousand liters occurred. n The second migration associated with the alleged carriers of haplogroup X from the Clovis culture took place after the formation of the Mackenzie corridor 14-13 thousand years ago ^[16] .

DNA research from ancient cemeteries of the Pacific coast and mountainous regions of Peru, Bolivia and Northern Chile, as well as from Argentina and Mexico aged from 500 to 8600 years, showed the presence of mitochondrial haplogroups A2 , B2 , D1 , C1b, C1c, C1d , characteristic of modern Indians . The mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a , common to contemporary Indians of South America, was not detected in ancient South Americans. In North America, the mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a was found in an ancient burial ground (9730–9880 BP) in the cave on the Island of Prince of Wales (Alexander Archipelago in Alaska) ^{[17] [18] [19]} . A Kennewick man who lived 9,300 years ago, found in Washington State, identified a Y-chromosome group Q1a3a (M3) and a mitochondrial haplogroup X2a ^[20] .

According to scientists, in the period from 20 to 17 thousand years ago, the Pacific coast was covered with a glacier, but then the glacier retreated from the coast and the first people were able to go along the coast to the south. The corridor between the Cordillera and Lavrentine ( eng. Laurentide ice sheet ) ice sheets, though opened approx. 14-15 thousand years ago, remained lifeless and became available for migration only after another 1.4-2.4 thousand years ^[21] . Genetics, who analyzed 91 genomes of the ancient Indians who lived in the territory of modern California and in the south-west of Ontario, came to the conclusion that earlier than 13 thousand years ago, migrants from Asia were divided - one part of the ancient Indians went to the east and turned out to be related to Kennevik man and modern Algonquin, another part of the ancient Indians went to the south and was related to the boy Anzik-1 (representative of the Clovis culture). Later, both populations were reunited, as the modern inhabitants of Central and South America turned out to be genetically similar to both the "eastern" and the "southern" parts of the ancient Indians. The confusion of populations could occur repeatedly in both North America and South America ^[22] .

Theory Review

The “classical” theory of the land bridge, also known as the “Bering Strait theory” or “short chronology theory”, has been generally accepted since the 1930s. This model of migration to the territory of the western part of North America suggests that a group of people - Paleo - Indians - moved from Siberia to Alaska , tracking the migration of a large herd of animals. They could cross the strait, which now separates the two continents , via a land bridge, known as the Bering Isthmus , which was located on the site of the modern Bering Strait during the last ice age , the last stage of the Pleistocene .

The classic version speaks of two or three waves of migration through the Bering Strait. The descendants of the first wave became modern Indians, the second (presumably) the Na-Dene peoples, the third and the later Eskimos and Aleuts. According to another hypothesis, the ancestors of modern Indians were preceded by Paleo-Indians , akin not to the Mongoloid, but to the South Pacific races. In this hypothesis, the dating of the first wave is determined about 15 thousand years ago, and the second - 10 thousand years ago ^[23] .

Thus, according to this theory, migration began about 50 thousand years ago and ended about 10 thousand years ago, when the ocean level was 60 m lower than today. This information was collected using deep-water oxygen isotope analysis. The land bridge, which opened during this period between Siberia and the west coast of Alaska, was at least 1600 km wide. According to archaeological evidence collected in North America, it was concluded that a group of hunters crossed the Bering Strait less than 12 thousand years ago and could eventually reach the southern point of South America 11 thousand years ago.

Based on the spread of American languages ​​and linguistic families , the movement of tribes took place along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and eastward across the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast, which the tribes reached about 10 thousand years ago.

Clovis Cultural Complex

The large-scale hunter culture, known as the Clovis culture , is primarily known for throwing dart tips cut from stone. Culture got its name from the name of the town of Clovis in the state of New Mexico , where in 1932 the first samples of the tools of this cultural complex were found. Clovis culture was common in most of North America, and some samples of its tools were found even in South America. The culture is easily distinguished by the characteristic form of “Clovis tips”, jagged tips of darts, carved from flint , which were inserted into a wooden handle.

The dating of the Clovis culture materials was carried out using an analysis of animal bones using carbon dating techniques. While the first results gave an age in the heyday of 11,500–1,000 years ago, recent re-examinations of Clovis materials using improved radiocarbon methods yielded results between 10,150 and 10,800 years ago. According to this data, the flowering of the culture took place somewhat later and for a shorter period of time than previously thought. Michael R. Water ( University of Texas ) and Thomas V. Stafford, owner of a private laboratory in the city of Lafayette ( Colorado ) and an expert of radiocarbon dating techniques, together came to the conclusion that at least 11 of Clovis’s 22 sites are “problematic”, including Clovis, and can not be used for dating due to contamination by more ancient material, although these findings did not find general support among archaeologists.

In 2013, an international group of scientists read the genome of the only well-known representative of Clovis culture - a two-year-old boy Anzik-1 ( en: Anzick-1 ), who lived 12.5 thousand years ago in the current state of Montana . Its Y chromosome belongs to the Q-L54 * (xM3) haplogroup, and the mitochondrial Y refers to the D4h3a haplogroup ^{[24] [25] [26]} . The quality of DNA allowed us to read the genome 14 times, which guarantees a low level of errors. Comparison of the obtained sequences with known genogeographic data shows that representatives of the Clovis culture were genetically close to modern Indians of North and Central America and, accordingly, are relatives of Asians of Siberia and the Far East ^{[27] [28]} .

In 2014, a group of scientists led by paleontologist James Chutters published the results of a skeleton study of a 15-year-old girl, who presumably lived 13 thousand years ago and was discovered in 2007 in the flooded Oyo-Negro cave on the Yucatan Peninsula . Scientists have investigated the mitochondrial DNA obtained from the molars of the girl and compared her with the mtDNA of modern Indians. According to the data obtained, representatives of the Clovis culture and the Indians belong to the same haplogroup D1 , to which some modern peoples of Chukotka and Siberia also belong ^[29] .