Ancient American Explorers
The Ice Age to Early English Attempts
Christopher Wren Association
Lecture 1
Course Outline



Lecture 1
 Peopling of America After the Last Ice Age
 East Coast Indian Cultures
 Red Paint Culture – Cross Atlantic Contact
Lecture 2
 Earliest Explorations of North America Prior to 6th Century CE
Lecture 3
 More Legendary Voyages to America
 Spanish and French Voyages
 England begins to expand into the New World
Outline Lecture 1





Peopling of America
Prehistoric settlement of America
Indian Cultural Development
Mid-Atlantic Indians before contact
Red Paint Culture 7,000 years ago
“Native Americans”
Who were the people living in the mid-Atlantic
region met by Walter Ralegh’s expeditions?
The conventional answer is that they were Native
Americans.
But what do we know about these people?
When did people first come to America?
Where did they come from?
What was their society and technology?
Peopling of America
There is an emerging archaeological record that supports a preClovis human occupation of the Americas…The archaeological
data now show that Clovis does not represent the earliest
inhabitants of the Americas and that a new model is needed to
explain the peopling of the Americas.
“Redefining the Age of Clovis:
Implications for the Peopling of America”
Waters and Stafford in Science, 23 February 2007
Peopling of America
We do not know where [the] first person came from, or why, or
where the first footfall landed on the New World…American
archaeologists have long been fascinated—even obsessed—with
this transcendental…The standard theory is that they were the
immediate ancestors of the Clovis people—the mammoth hunters
of North America. This is by no means a settled question...
Recent tantalizing evidence that the Clovis hunters may have been
a Caucasoid people, who may have even originated in Europe,
has only deepened the interest—and heated the controversy.
Douglas Preston’s Foreword to In Search of Ice Age Americans, by Kenneth B. Tankersley
Conditions During the Ice Age
Peopling of America
Wisconsin Glacier
Our
Area
Atlantic Shore During Last Ice Age
Sea Level Rise
Earliest Evidence
of
People in America
Cactus Hill, Virginia
Projectile point
Evidence of Pre-Clovis settlement 15,000-17,000 years ago
Cactus Hill lies along the Nottoway River
45 miles south of Richmond
Miles Point, Maryland
Eroding bank where many
stone tools were found
Miles Point Stratigraphy
Age of Sediments= 25,818
to 32,562 years before
present
Based on 2 different
dating techniques
Location of
Paleolithic Artifacts
The sediments in the first meter
of these strata were deposited as
windborne material
Miles Point Artifacts
These stone tools are
approximately 25,000 years
old, based on carbon 14
dating and optically
stimulated luminescence
techniques.
Projectile point is very
similar to Cactus Hill
specimen
Peopling of America
European explorers traveled by skin boat from Iberia to America
18,000+ years ago
Stone Projectile Points
Clovis dates to 12,000 to 13,000 years ago
The Second Wave of Settlers
Beringia
Peopling of America
Asian hunters followed the herds across the Bering land bridge
About 13,000 years ago
Ice Free Corridor
13,000 YBP
Monte Verde, Chile
Monte Verde------
Others Came by a Different Route
Monte Verde Site
Human remains dating to 19,000 years ago preclude their
arrival across the Bering land bridge.
Luzia=African, Melanesian or Aboriginal Australian?
Remains found in Vermelha Cave near Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Luzia, dated to 11,243–11,710 YBP, stood just under five feet tall—
about one-third of her skeleton has been recovered. Her remains seem
to indicate that she died either in an accident or as the result of an
animal attack. She was a member of a group of hunter-gatherers.
Luzia, Dated to 11,700 YBP
Belo
Horizonte
Botocudo of Brazil
Botocudo, extinct by the end of the 19th Century, are
believed to be descended from Paleo-Indians of Brazil
2 skulls found to be Polynesian
• Morphology
• DNA
• mtDNA=B4a1a1
• Polynesian
• Solomon Islands
• Fiji
• All DNA Common to Oceania
Other Evidence of Pacific Contact
Polynesian Chickens Found in South America
• Archaeologist Daniel Quiroz dug up 50
bones from 5 chickens at El Arenal in
Chile
• The chickens were from Polynesian
stock.
Had genetic mutations not seen
.
in chickens brought to the Americas by
Europeans
• Carbon dating on the same bone used
for DNA testing revealed the bone was
buried between 1320 and 1410 AD
• Current Biology: recent DNA tests point
to contact between Native Americans
and Easter Islanders 3 centuries after
Polynesians settled the island
• In 8% of the genomes of 27 living
islanders, they found Native American
genetic patterns dating to 1300-1500 CE
• The study suggests that Native Americans arrived shortly after the Polynesians
• That could support Thor Heyerdahl’s controversial theory that Native
Americans had the skills to move west across the Pacific.
Mapuche People of Chile
• There are many words in Mapuche language which
are close to or identical with Polynesian, and the
Mapuche war club is very similar to a distinctive
Polynesian form.
• Other studies have suggested that Polynesians got
crops from the Americas. The strongest case is the
sweet potato, which originated in the Americas.
• Polynesians were growing this crop on the Cook
Islands as early as a thousand years ago.
Polynesian and Mapuche Hand Clubs
Polynesian club
Mapuche club
Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man had a spear point embedded in his hip bone.
His Caucasoid skeleton has been dated to 8,600 years ago.
Kennewick Man
Latest Representation
Most Closely Resembles Ancient
South East Asian People
Indian Cultural Development
Three Periods of Indian Occupation

Paleoindians
Before 10,000 Years Ago

Archaic Indians
10,000 to 3,000 Yrs. Ago

Woodland Indians
3,000 Years to Contact
with Europeans
Prehistoric Event Time Line
-------------Years Before Present-----------20,000+
10,000
5,000
2,000
500
Paleoindian Culture
Archaic 10,000 to 3,000 Years Ago
Atlatl Spear Thrower
Spear Thrower Gives Leverage
Mid-Atlantic Indians
Pre-Contact Culture and Appearance
Indian Language Groups
Woodland Indian’s Canoe
Woodland Indian Village
Woodland Indians Fishing
Cooking Fish
Maize--A Staple of the Indian Diet
Grown with Beans and Squash = The 3 Sisters
Old World Cultural Contact
With the People
of
The Americas
Red Paint Culture




Occurred in Northern Europe
And North America
Roughly 7,000 years ago
Common Cultural Features
Use of Red Ochre in Burials
 Fishing for Deep Sea Species (e. g. Swordfish)
 Polished Slate, Bone, Wood, and Flint Tools
 Decorative Motif

L’Anse Amour
Port au Choix
Important Red Paint Culture Sites
Red Paint Culture Burial
Burial Mound at L’Anse Amour, Labrador
7,500 yrs old
Red Paint Culture Burial
Burial in Denmark
Skeleton covered in Red Ochre Dated to Red Paint Period
Red Paint Culture
Stone Knife Blade
Harpoon Head & Pestle
Bird Bone Whistle
Artifacts from Burial at L’Anse Amour, Labrador
7,500 years ago
Red Paint Culture
Artifacts from Port au Choix,
Newfoundland
Red Ochre Stain
Artifacts Found in Maine
Decorated Bone Tools
Artifacts from Maine
European Artifact
Bone Harpoons
Artifacts from Maine
European Artifact
Evidence of Watercraft
Wooden Paddles
Recovered from a site
In Northern Russia
Dated to 8,000 Years Ago
Next Lecture
Early Explorations of North America
Questions & Comments