Examples of Clovis and other Paleoindian point forms, markers of archaeological cultures in northeastern North America.

The Solutrean hypothesis proposes that stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture in prehistoric Europe may have later influenced the development of the Clovis tool-making culture in the Americas, and that peoples from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers in the Americas^[1]. The Solutrean industry is a relatively advanced flint tool-making style of the Upper Palaeolithic. The Clovis culture (sometimes referred to as the Llano culture) is a Prehistoric Paleoindian culture that first appears in the archaeological First proposed in 1998, its key proponents include Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution and Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Dennis Stanford is the head of the Archaeology Division and Director of the Paleo-Indian Program at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of The University of Exeter (usually abbreviated as Exon for post-nominals) is a University in the South West of

In this hypothesis, peoples associated with the Solutrean culture migrated from Ice Age Europe to North America, bringing their methods of making stone tools with them and providing the basis for later Clovis technology found throughout North America. An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets The hypothesis rests upon particular similarities in Solutrean and Clovis technology that have no known counterparts in Eastern Asia, Siberia or Beringia, areas from which or through which early Americans are known to have migrated. Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving The Bering land bridge was a Land bridge roughly 1000 miles (1600 km north to south at its greatest extent which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia

Characteristics

Solutrean culture was dominant in present-day France and Spain from roughly 21,000 to 17,000 years ago. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It was known for its distinctive toolmaking characterized by bifacial, pressure-flaked points. In archaeology a biface is a two-sided Stone tool, manufactured through a process of Lithic reduction, that displays flake scars on both sides Traces of the Solutrean tool-making industry disappear completely from Europe around 15,000 years ago, when it was replaced by the less complex stone tools of the Magdalenian culture. The Magdalenian, also spelled Magdalénien refers to one of the later cultures of the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe.

Clovis tools are typified by a distinctive rock spear point, known as the Clovis point. This is an article about a particle accelerator For uses of spear, see Spear or Spear (disambiguation. Clovis points are the diagnostic Projectile point associated with the North American Clovis culture. Like Solutrean points, Clovis points are thin and bifacial; they share so-called "overshot" flaking characteristics that yield wide, flat blades. Clovis tool-making technology seems to appear in the archaeological record in North America roughly 13,500 years ago, and similar predecessors in Asia or Alaska have not yet been discovered.

Atlantic crossing

Water temperatures during the last glacial maximum, according to CLIMAP. Climate Long range Investigation Mapping and Prediction, known as CLIMAP, was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a Map of Climate

The hypothesis proposes that Ice Age Europeans could have crossed the North Atlantic along the edge of the pack ice that extended from the Atlantic coast of France to North America during the last glacial maximum. An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM refers to the time of maximum extent of the Ice sheets during the last Glaciation (the Würm or Wisconsin glaciation) approximately The model envisions these people making the crossing in small watercraft, using skills similar to those of the modern Inuit people, hauling out on ice floes at night, getting fresh water by melting iceberg ice or the first-frozen parts of sea ice, getting food by catching seals and fish, and using seal blubber as heating fuel. Inuit (plural the singular Inuk, means "man" or "person" is a general term for a group of culturally similar Indigenous peoples inhabiting An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater Ice that has broken off from a snow-formed Glacier or Ice shelf and is floating in open water Sea ice is formed from Ocean water that freezes Because the Oceans consist of Saltwater, this occurs at about -1 Pinnipeds ("fin-feet" lit "winged feet" or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine Mammals comprising Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized Fat found under the skin of all Cetaceans Pinnipeds and Sirenians Description

Transitional styles

Supporters of the hypothesis suggest that stone tools found at Cactus Hill (an early American site in Virginia) indicate a transitional style between the Clovis and Solutrean cultures. Cactus Hill is an archaeological site in the US state of Virginia. Artifacts from this site are estimated to date from 17,000 to 15,000 years ago, although some researchers dispute their definitive age. Other sites that may indicate transitional, pre-Clovis occupation include the Page-Ladson site in Florida and the Meadowcroft rockshelter in Pennsylvania. The Page-Ladson prehistory site is a deep hole in the bed of the Aucilla River (between Jefferson and Taylor Counties in the Big Bend region Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the Meadows Rockshelter is an Archaeological site located near Avella in Washington County, in southwestern Pennsylvania, United States The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern

MtDNA Haplogroup X

Mitochondrial DNA analysis lends conditional support^[2] to the idea insofar as the fact that some members of some native North American tribes share a common yet distant maternal ancestry with some present-day individuals in Europe identified by mtDNA Haplogroup X. Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. In Human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup X is a Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA haplogroup which can be used to define genetic Populations. It is possible that Haplogroup X came to the Americas via Northeastern Asia or Siberia, but unlike other Native American mtDNA Haplogroups A, B, C and D, Haplogroup X is presently absent from the region, although occurrence of Haplogroup X2 of more recent origin (i. In Human genetics, Haplogroup A is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA haplogroup. In mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup B is a Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA haplogroup. In Human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup C is a Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA haplogroup. In Human genetics, Haplogroup D is a Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA haplogroup. e. more recently than 5000 BC) has been identified in the Altai Republic.

The New World haplogroup X DNA (now called subgroup X2a) is as different from any of the Old World X2 lineages as they are from each other, indicating a very ancient origin. The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia. The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans Asians and Africans in the 15th century Although haplogroup X occurs only at a frequency of about 3% for the total current indigenous population of the Americas, it is a major haplogroup in northeastern North America, where among the Algonquian peoples of the Great Lakes Region it allegedly comprises up to 25% of mtDNA types. The Algonquian (also Algonkian, and pronounced both and) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic It has been suggested that its relative concentration in northeastern North America indicates an early North Atlantic route for bearers of this haplotype, although it is found in smaller percentages in other regions, among the Sioux, Nuu-Chah-Nulth, and Yakama in western North America as well as the Yanomani in Brazil. Sioux (pronounced SUE are a Native American and First Nations people The Nuu-chah-nulth (pronounced) (also formerly referred to as the Nootka, Nutka, Aht, Nuuchahnulth) are one of the Indigenous peoples The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, or simply Yakama Nation (formerly Yakima) is a Native American group with nearly 10000 enrolled The Ya̧nomamö are a large population of native people in South America. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld

Recent Genetic Research

An article in the American Journal of Human Genetics states "Our results strongly support the hypothesis that haplogroup X, together with the other four main mtDNA haplogroups, was part of the gene pool of a single Native American founding population; therefore they do not support models that propose haplogroup-independent migrations, such as the migration from Europe posed by the Solutrean hypothesis. "^[3]

Challenges to the Solutrean hypothesis

Arthur J. Jelinek, an anthropologist who noted similarities between Solutrean and Clovis styles in a 1971 study, noted that the great geographical and temporal separation of the two cultures made a direct connection unlikely. He also noted that crossing the Atlantic with the technology of the time would have been difficult if not impossible, an observation repeated by Lawrence G. Strauss. Others have pointed to a lack of evidence of Solutrean seafaring. Proponents point out that evidence of Solutrean-era seafaring may have been obliterated or buried underwater, as much of the coastlines of western Europe and eastern North America that existed during the Last Glacial Maximum are now submerged. However, Strauss excavated along the Cantabrian coast, which was not submerged at the time, finding seashells and estuarine fish at the sites, but no evidence of exploiting deep sea resources. In addition, the dates of the proposed transitional sites and the Solutrean period in Europe only overlap at the extremes.

Other challenges to the hypothesis include an apparent lack of Solutrean-style artwork (like that found at Altamira in Spain and Lascaux in France) among the Clovis people. Lascaux is the setting of a complex of Caves in southwestern France famous for its prehistoric Cave paintings The original caves are located near In response, proponents point out that this style of art disappears in Europe by the time of Clovis, and that the Solutreans introduced a tool-making innovation and not necessarily cultural or artistic practices.

See also

• Kennewick Man
• Models of migration to the New World
• Haplogroup X (mtDNA)
• Pre-Siberian American Aborigines

Notes

References

• Brown M. D. , Hosseini S. H. , Torroni A. , Bandelt H. J. , Allen J. C. , Schurr T. G. , Scozzari R. , Cruciani F. , Wallace D. C. . "mtDNA haplogroup X: An ancient link between Europe/Western Asia and North America?" American Journal of Human Genetics, 1998 Dec;63(6): 1852-61.

• Greenman, E. F. 1963. "The Upper Palaeolithic and the New World", Current Anthropology, 4: 41–66.

• Hibben, Frank C. , "Prehistoric Man in Europe," Oklahoma University Press, Norman, 1958.

• Jablonski, Nina G. , "The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World," University of California Press, 2002

• Reidla, Maere et al, "Origin and Diffusion of mtDNA Haplogroup X", Am J Hum Genet. 2003 November; 73(5): 1178–1190. Published online 2003 October 20.

• Stanford, Dennis, and Bruce Bradley. 2002. "Ocean Trails and Prairie Paths? Thoughts About Clovis Origins. " In The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World, Nina G. Jablonski (ed. ), pp. 255-271. San Francisco: Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, No. 27.

• Stanford, Dennis, and Bruce Bradley. 2004. "The North Atlantic ice-edge corridor: a possible Palaeolithic route to the New World. " World Archaeology, 36(4): 459-478.

• Stanford, Dennis, and Bruce Bradley. 2006. "The Solutrean-Clovis connection: reply to Straus, Meltzer and Goebel. " World Archaeology, 38(4): 704-714.

• Straus, Lawrence G. 2000. "Solutrean Settlement of North America? A Review of Reality". American Antiquity 63: 7-20.

• Strauss, Larence G et all 1990, 'The LGM in Cantabrian : Spain: the Solutrean', in Soffer and Gamble (eds. ) _The world at

18,000 bp: high latitudes_, pp. 89-108. Unwin Hyman.

External links

• Stone Age sailors 'beat Columbus to America' (The Guardian, 1999)
• Coming into America: Tracing the Genes (PBS, 2004)
• Stone Age Columbus (BBC 2002)
• Ice Age Columbus: Who Were the First Americans? (Discovery Channel 2005)