First Americans might've been Europeans
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:51 am
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1406/segments/1406-4.htm
For years it was believed that Clovis people came through Alaska using a land bridge from Siberia, then traveled south just as ice sheets across Canada were breaking up. So archeologists have long looked for signs of Clovis people in Alaska.
In 1989, road builders in Alaska's Tanana River valley accidentally uncovered a site called Broken Mammoth. With artifacts dating back 14,000 years, it was the oldest site in Alaska-but it held no Clovis points. Later, another nearby site yielded artifacts a few hundred years older, but still no Clovis points. It did, however, contain microblades and scrapers typical of Siberian and Russian sites going back more than 20,000 years.
For Alaska state archeologist Chuck Holmes these findings suggest that early Alaskans weren't the predecessors to Clovis. And he's not alone.