The Vikings got to the Americas long before Columbus. Credit: vlastas/Shutterstock
When Columbus landed in 1492, the Americas had been settled for tens of thousands of years. He wasn't the first person to discover the continent. Instead, his discovery was the last of many discoveries.
In all, people found the Americas at least seven different times. For at least six of those, it wasn't so new after all. The discoverers came by sea and by land, bringingnew genes, new languages, new technologies. Some stayed, explored, and built empires. Others went home, and left few hints they'd ever been there.
From last to first, here's the story of how we discovered the Americas.
7. Christopher Columbus: AD 1492
In 1492, Europeans could reach Asia by theSilk Road, or by sailing the Cape Route around the southern tip of Africa. Sailing west from Europe was thought to be impossible.
The ancient Greeks had accurately calculated that the circumference of the Earth was40,000 km, which put Asia far to the west. But Columbus botched his calculations. An error in unit conversion gave him a circumference of just 30,000 km.
This mistake, with other assumptions born of wishful thinking, gave a distance of just4,500 kmfrom Europe to Japan. The actual distance is almost 20,000 kilometers.
So Columbus's ships set sail without enough supplies to reach Asia. Fortunately for him, he hit the Americas. Columbus, thinking he'd found the East Indies, called its people "Indios," or Indians. He ultimately died without realizing his mistake. It was the navigator Amerigo Vespucci who realized Columbus hadfound an unknown landand in 1507 the name America was applied in Vespucci's honor.
Replicas of Columbus’s ships sailed to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. E. Credit: Benjamin Andrews/wikimedia
6. Polynesians: AD 1,200
Around 2,500 BC, a seafaring peoplesailed from Taiwanto find new lands. They sailed south through the Philippines, east through Melanesia, then out into the vast South Pacific. These people, thePolynesians, were master navigators, reading wind, waves and stars to cross thousands of kilometers of open ocean.
Using huge double canoes, the PolynesianssettledSamoa, Fiji, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. Some wentsouth to New Zealand, becomingthe Maori. Others went east to Tahiti, Hawaii, Easter Island, and the Marquesas. From here, they at last hit South America. Then, having explored most of the Pacific, they gave up exploration and forgot South America entirely.
But evidence of this remarkable voyage remained. The South Americans acquiredchickens from Polynesians, while the Polynesians may have picked upSouth American sweet potatoes. And they shared more than food. Eastern Polynesians haveNative American DNA. Polynesians didn't just meet Native Americans, they married them.
AroundAD 1021, Erik's son Leif established a settlement in Newfoundland. The Vikings struggled with the harsh climate, before war with Native Americans ultimately forced them back to Greenland. These stories were long dismissed as myths, until 1960, when archaeologists dug up the remains ofViking settlements in Newfoundland.
Doubled hulls gave Polynesian canoes more stability on the open ocean. Credit: NYPL/wikimedia
4. Inuit: AD 900
Just before the Vikings, the Inuit people traveledfrom Siberia to Alaskain skin boats. Hunting whales and seals, living in sod huts and igloos, they were well adapted to the cold Arctic Ocean, and skirted its shores all the way to Greenland.
Curiously, their DNA isclosest to native Alaskans, implying their ancestors colonized Asia from Alaska, then went back to discover the Americas again.
3. Eskimo-Aleut: 2,000–2,500 BC
The Inuit descend from an earlier migration: that of speakers of theEskimo-Aleut languages. These are distinct from other Native American languages, and might even be distantly related to Uralic languages such asFinnish and Hungarian.
This, with DNA evidence, suggests the Eskimo-Aleut was a distinct migration. They came across theBering Seafrom present-day Russia to Alaska, perhaps4,000–4,500years ago, partly displacing and mixing with earlier migrants: the Na-Dene people.
2. Na-Dene: 3,000–8,000 BC
Another group, the Na-Dene, crossed the Bering Sea to Alaska around5,000 years ago, although other studies suggest they settled the Americas as long as10,000 years ago.
DNA from their boneslinks them not to modern people in the Eskimo-Aleut group, but to Native Americans speaking the Na-Dene language family, such as theNavajo,Dene,Tlingit, and Apache people. Na-Dene languages are closest to languagesspoken in Siberia, suggesting again that they represent a distinct migration.
Petter Ulleland/wikimedia, CC BY-SA">
Petter Ulleland/wikimedia, CC BY-SA" src="https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2022/seven-times-people-dis-3.jpg" alt="Seven times people discovered the Americas—and how they got there" />Osebergskipet, a viking ship constructed in AD 820. Credit:Petter Ulleland/wikimedia,CC BY-SA
1. First Americans: 16,000–35,000 years ago
Almost all Native American tribes—Sioux, Comanche, Iroquois, Cherokee, Aztec, Maya, Quechua, Yanomani, and dozens of others—speaksimilar languages. That suggests their languages evolved from a common ancestor tongue, spoken by a single tribe entering the Americas long ago. Their descendants' low genetic diversity suggests this founding tribe was small, maybeless than 80 people.
How did they get there? Before the last ice age ended 11,700 years ago, so much water waslocked up in glaciersthat sea levels fell. The bottom of the Bering Sea dried out, creating theBering Land Bridge. America's first people just walked from Russia to Alaska. But the timing of their migration is controversial.
Some of these dates could be incorrect, but with each new discovery it seems increasingly unlikely that they're all wrong.
An early migration would neatly solve a major mystery. 13,000 years ago, a vast glacier, theLaurentide Ice Sheet, buried Canada in ice up to three kilometers thick. If people arrived in North America then, how did they cross the ice? Southeast Alaska's rugged coast, full of glaciers and fjords, was likely impassible, and early Americans probably lacked boats. But 30,000 years ago, the ice sheet hadn't fully formed.
Before the ice spread, people could have hunted mammoths and horses east from Alaska into the Northwest Territories, then south through Alberta and Saskatchewan into Montana. Remarkably, humans may have settled the Americasbefore western Europe. Yet that might make sense. Alaska's Arctic is harsh, but Europe hadpotentially hostile Neanderthals.
The Secret Museum of Mankind, CC BY-SA">
The Secret Museum of Mankind, CC BY-SA" src="https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2022/seven-times-people-dis-4.jpg" alt="Seven times people discovered the Americas—and how they got there" />Inuit boats were built from walrus or seal skins stretched over driftwood or whalebone. Credit:The Secret Museum of Mankind,CC BY-SA
The end of discovery
1492 was the last discovery of the Americas. Following the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, and Cook, the scattered descendants of humanity's diaspora were finally reunited. Aside from a fewuncontacted tribes, everywhere was known to everyone. Discovery was impossible.
But the story of the Americas' settlement is still being written, and our understanding is evolving. The Eskimo-Aleut may have beentwo different migrations, not one. Geneshint at the possibilityof other, early founding populations. And given how little evidence the Polynesians and Norse left of their visits, it's conceivable there were other migrations, ones of which we have little evidence.
There's so much we don't know. No one can discover the Americas anymore, but there's a lot left to discover about their discovery.
Polynesians arrived earlier than 1,200 AD considering that several of the large, tall Moais in Easter Island (Rapa Nui) have been covered by soil almost completely while some were completely covered. A geologist have suggested that they were constructed several thousands of years ago. There are nearly 900 Moais that have been found thus far but there are likely several more underneath the ground and they are probably older than the known Moais. If Polynesians did arrived several millennia ago on Easter Island then it may suggest that they migrated to South America in that same time period. Since they are sophisticated to construct ocean dwelling ships that could travel far and away then it's likely that they have contacted with the Native American Indians. There are also Australoid genes found in South America which also suggest permanent settlement and interbreeding.
There's more people that discovered Americas such as the Paracas people in Peru that originated in Black Sea/ Caspian Sea.
Archaeology and genetics can’t yet agree on when humans first arrived in the Americas. That’s good science and here’s why
Footprints dated to 23,000-21,000 years ago at the White Sands National Park, New Mexico. All images courtesy Matthew Bennett/Bournemouth University
The debate over how people first arrived in the Western Hemisphere continues to roil archaeology in the United States – and to capture public attention. Today, the scientific community is contending with significant amounts of new genetic and archaeological data, and it can be overwhelming and even contradictory. These data are coming from new archaeological excavations but also from the application of newly developed tools tore-analyseprior sites and artefacts. They’re coming from newly sequenced genomes from ancient peoples and their contemporary descendants, but also fromre-analysisof prior sequence data using new modelling tools. The generation of new data at times feels as though it’s outpacing efforts to integrate it into coherent and testable models.
Did humans first populate the Americas100,000 yearsago,30,000 yearsago,15,000 yearsago, or13,000 yearsago? Did they come by boat or by an overland route? Were the ancestors of Native Americans from one population or several? The answers to these questions would help us understand the grand story of human evolution. Weknowthat the Americas were the last continents that anatomically modernHomo sapiens– humans like us – entered, but we don’t know exactly how this happened. These long-ago movements give us hints about the challenges ancient peoples across the world had to contend with during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a prolonged period of coldness and aridity, when animals, plants and humans retreated to environmental ‘refugia’ for several thousand years. How did we survive this Ice Age? What technological and biological adaptations arose as the result of these environmental conditions? These questions capture the popular imagination and challenge the scientists working to uncover the details of individual lives thousands of years in the past.
To their Indigenous descendants, the stories we tell about these First Peoples of the Americas are highly relevant for additional reasons. Their deep ties and claims to the lands have often been ignored or expunged by governments, media and corporations across North and South America in order to make room for narratives that are more palatable, exciting or convenient to certainnon-Nativegroups. The historical exclusion of Indigenous peoples from making decisions about research on their own ancestors and lands has caused significant harms to Native communities and individuals; when Native scientists and community members are full participants in theresearchprocess, the stories that emerge are not only more respectful but also moreaccurate.
Archaeologicalevidenceestablishes that Indigenous peoples were present in the Americas at least15,000 yearsago. Scientists don’t agree, however, on when people first arrived. Some archaeologists claim it must have been much, much farther back, citing evidence such as flaked stones in layersdatingto~30,000 yearsago at the Chiquihuite Cave site in Mexico, bones with cut marks in layersdatingto34,000 yearsago in Uruguay, flaked stones in layersdatingto 30,000-50,000 yearsago in Brazil, and even broken mastodon bonesdatingto130,000 yearsago in California. All of these claims are heavily disputed.
A general view of excavations at the White Sands site in New Mexico
Early-career archaeologists are pessimistic about future careers
by Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Occupation of PhD holders. Credit:European Journal of Archaeology(2022). DOI: 10.1017/eaa.2022.41
A high proportion of early-career researchers in the field of archaeology are concerned about the lack of career development opportunities available and believe their chances of finding long-term employment in their chosen discipline are low.
This is one of the findings of an international survey recently published in theEuropean Journal of Archaeology. The survey was coordinated by Dr. Maxime Brami, a researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), and involved 419 early-career archaeologists.
"Only about 21% of the participants believe it is likely that they will find a permanent position in archaeology," said Brami. 45% of those surveyed said that unlimited contracts in the field are extremely rare. Furthermore, 84% claimed to have suffered from stress due to a lack of career prospects, while 61% cited competition for jobs in the field as a stress factor.
However, despite these rather negative aspects, many early-career archaeologists remain passionate about their discipline and 71% of those surveyed expressed a desire to continue working in academia.
According to Brami, the idea for the survey was prompted by a growing number of the approximately 1,500 members of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), in particular the early-career academics among them, who in recent years have been expressing concern about their professional situation. Brami and his colleagues from the Early Career Archaeologists (ECA), a community within the EAA, subsequently designed the survey and launched it in 2021.
Thesurveyconsisted of 37 questions and was advertised via the ECA and EAA websites as well as on social media. Of the participants, 86% were based in Europe, 20% of these were from Germany; 46% had completed a doctorate, while 43% held a Master's degree or a similar qualification.
In addition to worries about the job climate, bullying was also cited as an important topic, with 47% of the participants reporting being bullied in the workplace, in most cases by their superiors. Theworking environmentin archaeology was repeatedly described as "toxic" and "very competitive." About 62% of women reported experiencing gender-based discrimination during their careers, as opposed to about 12% of men.
"In the past two decades, there has been a steep rise in both the number of doctoral graduates and short-term employment contracts at universities, while the number of permanent faculty positions has stagnated. This has led to oversaturation in the academic job market and precarious employment conditions," said Brami, commenting on the possible reasons for the difficult situation.
He suggests that the outlook for early-career archaeologists may be improved if, among other things, the transition from graduate to a permanent member of academic staff was structured more clearly. In addition, early-career academics needed to be better informed about the support available to them, for example fromlabor unions, and about means of combating bullying.
"In principle, early-career researchers should have the same ordered working conditions as permanent employees, with regular progress reports and opportunities for further development, so that they can improve theircareerprospects."
ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE UNCOVERED A HIGH-STATUS ROMAN DOMUS DURING EXCAVATIONS IN REIMS, FRANCE.
During the Roman Period, Reims was known as Durocortorum, the former capital of the Remi tribe, which grew into the second largest city in Roman Gaul and was one of the largest cities north-west of Rome.
At its height, Durocortorum had a population of between 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, and numerous public buildings such as an amphitheatre, an arena, thermae imperial bath complexes, temples, and a forum.
By the 4th century AD, the city was under threat by the invading Alamanni (a confederation of Germanic tribes). Without sufficient defences, the city, known during this period as Metropolis Civitas Remorum, went into decline, and was sacked by Vandals in the year AD 406, and by the Huns in AD 451.
Image Credit : Jean-Jacques Bigot, Inrap
Archaeologists from the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (INRAP) have uncovered a high-status Roman domus and a section of a Roman road during excavations in preparation for a new housing development on the rue de la Magdeleine, located 1km from the city’s Roman forum.
The dwelling dates from between the 2nd to 3rd century AD, for which the researchers have found the remains of walls that delimit the interior rooms, and two large blocks that supported pillars to mark the street entrance.
Image Credit : Jean-Jacques Bigot, Inrap
Beneath a demolition layer, archaeologists found large quantities of painted plaster, some of which contains inscriptions that has led the researchers to believe comes from a large megalography depicting the mythological figure of Achilles. Achilles was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer’s Iliad. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia.
In a quiet group chat in an obscure part of the internet, a small number of anonymous accounts are swapping references from academic publications and feverishly poring over complex graphs of DNA analysis. These are not your average trolls, but scholars, researchers and students who have come together online to discuss the latest findings in archaeology. Why would established academics not be having these conversations in a conference hall or a lecture theatre? The answer might surprise you.
