Comments by "mpetersen6" (@mpetersen6) on "The Settlement of the Americas: New Discoveries" video.

  1. ​ @dukeon  I have to agree the Solutrean Hypothesis is likely to be false. Unfortunately the hypothesis got hijacked by certain unsavory individuals. The Solutreans had to have been either early European Hunter Gatherers or related to people from North Africa. Stanford himself said North Africa was likely. They would not have been related to the Neolithic Farmers who basically took over Europe. Plus it opened up a can of worms in that it immediately became political in that Native Peoples rejected it as being a tool that could be used to reject any land claims. But note l said likely to be false. Art work found in the region the Solutreans occupied shows they were utilizing marine resources. Specifically images of what appear to be tuna and seals. You don't catch tuna from shore. That implies watercraft of some type capable of handling waves of decent size just to get on and off of the beach. Could seasonal hunters from Southwestern Europe have reached the eastern shores of North America? Possibly following seals. Although l think it unlikely l also have to admit it is possible. The only way to really prove it would be a stable find on a stone tool that could be traced back to a source in the area the Solutreans occupied. Evidently there is one. But the artifact in question was a surface find in the Jamestown area. Could the artifact be a hoax? It is possible. But if it is related to early settlers why would 17th or 18th century settlers being using stone tools. And if the artifact was produced by Native Peoples how did they acquire the stone. The artifact in question has been traced to a quarry known to be used by Solutrean flint knappers. In the end l suspect we will find the peopling of the Americas a much more complicated and older story.
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  2. My vote goes to the coastal route for an earlier migration. People have suggested a southern route out of Australia or Polynesia (1). But l don't by it. Yes people were fully human but l question whether navigational techniques or blue water voyaging technology would have been up to it. One needs to remember that technological change was very slow at this time. Not because people were stupid and could not innovate. I suspect that the slow pace of technological change had to do with the mental agility of people in general. Technological change in the 20th and 21st Centuries has been the fastest it has ever been. I do not think that is because we are smarter or more capable. I think it has to do with in any society there are very few innovators. And the societies of the Paleo, Meso and Neolithic periods were not that large to start with. Even if a tool maker in one extended family group found a better way to knapp stone tools for a more efficent blade how long would it take for the knowledge of the technique to spread to other groups? The same would go for techniques for any other technology used by these peoples. And aside from any meteoric iron or native cooper they might have found everything they had was either stone or organic materials. There is another thing to consider. The single most important tools needed for people to inhabit the more extreme climates of the Northern Hemisphere were the needle and awl. The needle for sewing clothings and the awl for piercing skins and hides to facilitate that activity. Being able to sew hides allows the building of boats made from skins sewen over a frame. 1) I've heard people suggest Antarctica. But that has to be insane. As extreme as conditions are there today imagine what they were like 20 or 30 years ago.
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  3. We have several mammoth butchering sites locally. The Schaefer site has been dated to 14,500 years ago and the Hebior site one mile to the north is 150 to 250 years older. Another site called the Mud Lake site to my knowledge has not been fully excavated in terms of finding any more remains of the mammoth involved. A total of 31 bones were gound in the original excavation. This site was discovered in 1936 during a drainage ditch project. All three sites are in Kenosha Co, Wisconsin. The Schaefer specimen is on Display at the Kenosha Public Museum. The Hebior specimen is on display at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The Hebior specimen is the largest to be found east of the Mississippi River. It was 90% complete. The Schaefer specimen was 80% complete. There is a fourth site SE of the Schaefer and Hebior site called the Fenske site. But l do not know much about that one as l only found out about it today. I believe the site was found in the 1920s https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.archaeology.org/issues/145-1409/features/2372-peopling-the-americas-schaefer-hebior&ved=2ahUKEwjzzO6EnbOEAxUjLdAFHST7DZoQFnoECAQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw024rAaaamoaZmhuOMZDEZm All three sites show evidence of butchering on the bones. There is another site to the southwest in Dupage Co, ll. IMO it is highly likely that there are other kill and/or butchering sites in the area.
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  4. ​ @AncientAmericas  Hueyatlaco sounds like a real can of worms. Given the extremely wide range in dates derived l wonder if the site is contaminated with material that washed in at some time. Some of the dated material is evidently volcanic ash deposits. The tools were "found" in the ash layer. I use the quotes because the dates just seem to extreme. I would not accuse anyone of planting the artifacts but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Another site could be Cerutti near Dan Diego. This was dated at 130Ka. If there was an earlier presence of human, archaic human, denisovans or other member of the extended family in the Americas could they possibly arrived during the last Interglacial. Which was warmer as l understand it. Still if they arrived during the last Interglacial then that implies watercraft. Just how far back do "boats" go?
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  5. There is the Cerutti site near San Diego. 130K years old. Plus there have been other sites with usually old dates. One that comes to mind is one site in Mexico with an extremely wide range of dates. 300Ka+ to 20Ka.
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  6. ​ @procrastinator41  Larson's cave men are smarter.
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