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Discussion, Questions, Comments from my Readers
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Some people will agree with me, others will disagree. That is the nature and joy of intellectual pursuits. As Ken Kesey once said, “The answer is never the answer. What’s really interesting is the mystery."
I encourage readers to email me with your opinions, compliments, disagreements, and criticism. If you have information about the anthropology that I missed, please send it on.
jon@jonturk.net
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From Jason Rogers: Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology at Exeter:
It is absolutely inconceivable to
me that human migration to the New World was accomplished
without boats. Maritime cultures flourished in the
Pacific, Japan, coastal Asia, even the Arctic. The
relative abundance of food sources along the coast meant
that humans developed specific methods of maritime
resource extraction (including sophisticated watercraft)
early in the Paleolithic. As many authorities have noted,
moving by water is 5 to 100 times more efficient than
moving by land (depending on the vehicle and other
variables). Given all these factors, sea travel is clearly
the most attractive and likely option for migration from
Eurasia to North America.
In your book, you speculate quite a bit regarding
motivation and reasons for people to undertake such a
journey. While the adventure factor may certainly be
there, I suggest another similar primal motive, this one
developed by my PhD supervisor at Exeter, Dr. Robert Van
de Noort, arising from his work on Bronze Age sewn wooden
vessels. It goes something like this- in early societies,
there are a lot of questions about the strange things that
happen in the world. For example, the sun comes up here,
and goes down there. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it
snows, sometimes its hot and dry. Why do these things
happen? One way to get answers to these questions (perhaps
the only way) is to travel. By traveling, one encounters
strange and exotic people and places, and one can acquire
powerful (perhaps even sacred) knowledge. People who
complete such a journey gain tremendous status. (In Bronze
Age Europe, this is coupled with access to sacred and
exotic materials- bronze, amber, etc that show up in
high-status graves and burials). Highly ritualized
activities develop, for example marriage-partner exchange
leading to elite kinship ties in distant places, etc. At a
certain point, there is a metaphorical interchange between
the physical distance and the time distance, and the
journey to distant places is equated with a journey to
ancestors (or even to the gods).
Heady stuff for sure, but very interesting. And
archaeology should be fun too, right?
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From Jay Peck: Archaeologist and Program Coordinator for the Elderhostel program in Sante Fe:
Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian and others are discovering the apparent (shoot! Obvious!) relationship between Solutrean Laurel Leaf points and Clovis. They’ve got Solutrean/Clovis material at the Cactus Hill site in Virginia. This has led to thinking about possible contacts across the Atlantic by 18,000 years ago. Also, the Santa Rosa woman has caused rumblings about early seaborne entries from the west before 13,000 years ago. Both issues require paddling around the edges of glaciers as you did as witnessed by your excellent book. Now we’re finally talking. I’ve been very interested in the “copper issue” at the Great Lakes. If you don’t know that one-a half billion pounds of copper extracted from prehistoric copper mines on Isle Royale and other areas around the lakes starting about 4,000 years ago. Where is it? Four thousand years ago the lake levels were 30 feet higher. Sounds like you could float in the St Lawrence and get to Lake Superior with one portage. Did this copper support the Bronze Age in northern Europe?
The Clovis Barrier is definitely down and now’s the time for a big push by all researchers who believe it’s a little more complex than walking across Beringia.
Thanks for the great read.
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