By Karen Phillips. 12/06

By Karen Phillips. 12/06

Questions The First Americans: Who, What, When, Where, How, Why? Who were the first Americans? When did the first Americans start arriving? Where did they come from? Where did they first enter the Americas? How did they travel to the Americas? Why did they come to a new land? What was daily life like for these First Americans?

The Very First Americans - Who Were They? The Americas were the last continents on earth to be occupied by man. Before man arrived, large animals roamed and ruled the land. Short-faced bears ran as fast as horses and were twice the size of today s grizzly bears. 3500 pound ground sloths, 20 feet long and standing over 6 feet tall roamed the land.

More Wild Animals Teratorns birds weighed 30 pounds, had 10 foot wing spans, but stalked their prey on the ground Three-toed horses, that disappeared before Columbus arrived, galloped across the continent. Saber-toothed tigers with 10 canines were dangerous meateaters. Mastodons and Mammoths Camels, antelope, bighorn sheep, lions, deer, moose, fox, otters, and bison.

The Ancient World: Ice Sheets About 125,000 years ago, the earth s last ice sheets formed and lasted until 12,000 years ago. Geologists know that during this age, ice sheets covered more than 30% of the earth, including much of North America and Europe.

Lower Ocean Levels = Land Bridges Because so much of the world s water was frozen in ice sheets, ocean levels were 200-500 feet lower than they are today. The lower sea levels exposed land that today is ocean floor. Back then, these exposed lands existed as land bridges.

What Route Did the First Explorers Take to Travel Here?

Beringia is the name that scientists call the land bridge that existed between Asia and North America. Beringia was a land bridge thousands of miles wide. Paleoclimatologists believe that the weather in Beringia was much milder than the weather in the area is today. Beringia supported wildlife and plants.

Artifacts The tools, to the left, were found near Alaska. They are made of bird bone, whale bone, and walrus tusk. Some of the tools are tiny needles that were used to make waterproof clothing. They show that humans had adapted to the northern climate. Archaeologist Rick Knecht says these Aleutian tools show us only a glimpse of who these people were. All we have are these little piles of stones and bones. It s like trying to tell something about our culture by looking at steak knives.

The Enigma of the First Americans Geoarchaeologist C. Vance Haynes believes the first people who entered the Americas were explorers... Probably young [people] who were really bent on [seeing what was] over the next hill. The Beringia Land Bridge theory was long considered the most probable theory, but two problems with the theory arose: 1. How did the explorers travel thousands of miles over the relatively barren ice sheets. Some scientists argue that there was an area free of ice, a corridor, through which humans could have walked. 2. Evidence from an archeological site in Monte Verde, Chile indicate that humans were living in South America at an earlier date than the North American artifacts indicate people were living here. (Michael Parfit and Photographer Kenneth Garrett. National Geographic, [Accessed 10/29/06. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0012/feature3/index.html

Coastal Route Theory Recent evidence suggests that the coast of the Americas would have been habitable, livable. In a cave in Alaska, archeologists found the bones of a 10,400 year old man and tools nearby. The bones prove that the man ate a marine diet, fish and sea plants, proving that by 10,000 years ago, people lived along the coast. Ancient travelers could have traveled from Asia, along the coast of the Americas down to South America. The evidence would have been destroyed when the ice sheets melted and the ocean levels rose.

European Maritime Theory Scientists have recently found similarities between the spear points found at certain American sites and the spear points made by the Solutreans, an ancient European culture. These similar spear points suggest that ancient man might have traveled across the Atlantic. The Solutreans might have traveled by boat, or the Atlantic might have been frozen, and the Solutreans could have walked.

Everyday Life for the First American Hunter Gatherers Humans developed farming about 8,000 years ago. Before man learned how to grow plants and take care of crops that would grow well in the same place year after year, people would hunt small and large animals, birds, and fish, and they would gather plants, berries, and roots that were edible, fit to be eaten. We call these people hunter gatherers. Hunter gatherers didn t live in permanent homes or villages. Instead they would move from place to place hunting and gathering food. ( Hunter-Gatherers, Microsoft Encarta, 2001).

National Geographic. http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/ Bibliography La Brea Tar Pits. Return to the Ice Age: La Brea Exploration Guide. [Accessed 10/30/06. http://www.tarpits.org/education/guide/flora/birds.html] Beringia. [Accessed: October 29, 2006. http:///www.beringia.com/02/02maina6.htm.] Moyle, Peter and Mary A. Orland. A History of Wildlife in North America. [Accessed 11/2/06. http://marinebio.org/oceans/conservation/moyle/ch2.asp]