Ancient Sailors — More Evidence that First Settlers in North America May Have Arrived by Sea

Posted on by September 6, 2019

Cooper’s Ferry, Idaho  Photo: Loren Davis, Oregon State University

More evidence that the first travelers to the Americas may have been sailors.

The classic theory of the arrival of early people in North America was the Clovis model. The theory was that early humans migrated to North America by walking over an Alaskan landbridge from Asia around 13,000 years ago. Roughly 14,000 years ago, the landbridge became passible due to the retreat of ice due to rising temperatures. 

Now, a team of archeologists working in Cooper’s Ferry, Idaho have uncovered artifacts dating back to 16,000 years ago, well before the landbridge was clear of ice. Whomever these early humans were, they did not walk from Asia. They most likely arrived by boat. Evidence suggests that glaciers retreated from the Pacific coast around 17,000 years ago which would have allowed early Asian sailors to make their way up the Columba River valley to Cooper’s Ferry. 

The Asian origins of these early sailors is also reinforced by the discovery at Cooper’s Ferry of spearheads very similar to spearheads found in Japan from the same time period. The spearheads are of a significantly different design than Clovis spearheads. 

The discoveries at Cooper’s ferry add significantly to existing evidence that early migrants to North America came by sea. Artifacts discovered in 1976 in Monte Verde, Chile, dating back 14,500 years, suggest pre-Clovis settlers who most likely traveled by water. Since then various sites along the Pacific coast, including Cedros Island, Mexico and Calvert Island, off British Columbia, have suggested settlement by pre-Clovis mariners.

Most archaeologists think the first Americans arrived by boat. Now, they’re beginning to prove it

Thanks to Roberta Weisbrod for contributing to this post.

Comments

Ancient Sailors — More Evidence that First Settlers in North America May Have Arrived by Sea — 6 Comments

  3. I noticed that this story ignores that there once was a giant lake at one time that covered much of the Pacific North West. Such a lake would have had mariners that would have gone fishing on it. My schooling in high school told us that the lake at one time covered much of Washington to Idaho. Most of Utah and Nevada were under water from the giant lake. The water eventually leaked out of the grand canyon and the columbia river.

    Having such a lake would have had mariners. Yet doesnt mean they were what settled North America. This on the premise of Idaho having had mariners

  4. Though the article doesn’t say “discovered” several of the responses use that word…please stop it. Turtle Island was not discovered by Asians, European or Polynesians. Turtle Island was inhabited by the First Nations, Native Americans and as such couldn’t be “discovered”. Maybe explored by these outsiders is a good way to say it. Also ask some Natives and they will tell you that we came by boat.