Friday, February 10, 2023

Ice Age America

 From Atlas Obscura:

During the last ice age, wooly mammoths, bison, caribou, and herds of fuzzy, stocky horses roamed the tundra-like grasslands of Beringia—a now-inundated landmass that once connected Siberia to Alaska and Yukon—munching vegetation and running from predators like steppe lions, bears, and wolves. Humans were living and hunting in Beringia at this time, too. From the Bluefish Caves, three hollows in a remote limestone ridge in northern Yukon, archaeologists have unearthed some of the oldest known signs of human occupation in North America. Today, these caves are providing scientists with a glimpse into the lives of the Beringian hunters who used them nearly 24,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have long debated how and when people entered the Americas. Throughout the 20th century, the mainstream hypothesis was that the Clovis people were the first to pass into Alaska about 13,000 years ago. Archaeologists who presented earlier dates for humans’ arrival were dismissed by many of their peers, and the sites they studied disregarded. (Read more.)

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