An Early Peopling of America (Part I)

An Early Peopling of America
This is an essay (It is not scholarly enough to be a "paper), which summarizes in a neat way many things that I have posted on my blog.
In Part II, coming soon, I look into the genetics of the peopling of America and try to build a case for early entry and admixture between modern humans and Neanderthals / H. erectus.

An Early Peopling of America (Part I)

Austin V. Whittall

Abstract

The argument used against an ancient peopling of America -before c. 25 thousand years ago (Kya)- is that there were no modern humans in Northeastern Siberia at that time ready to cross Beringia and enter North America.
Another claim is that only then, during the final period of the Wisconsin glaciations, had modern humans acquired the know-how to be able to survive in such a hostile environment and that the sea level had dropped enough to allow entry.
However archaeological remains dating >30 Kya in the Americas and the in depth sequencing of modern and archaic genomes open up the possibility that the first human occupant of the New World may have been either Homo erectus or H. Neanderthalensis.
This overview will present the case for an early peopling of America by these hominids and a later admixture in America with modern H. sapiens, which defined the particular genetic lineages of the New World.

Ancient hominids in Siberia

There is ample evidence of pre-sapiens hominids in Siberia and north East Asia who had mastered the techniques necessary to survive in that environment and could have entered America long before the 25 Kya “entry window period”.

Denisova Cave in Central Siberia site displays cultural sequences dating from 282.0 +⁄- 56.0 Kya to roughly 9.8 Kya, (1)(2) associated to both Neanderthals and the recently discovered Denisovans.

Further east the Diring Yuriakh site on Lena River has provided lithic elements dated to 260 Kya (3), probably fashioned by H. erectus or Denisovans.

Northern China is well known for H. erectus sites and remains from the Longlin cave in Guangxi and Malu cave in Yunnan China belonging to the “Red deer people” suggest that archaic hominids which display a mosaic of primitive and modern traits lived there 11.5 Kya (4); suggesting also admixture in China. An archaic skullcap from Salkit in Northeast Mongolia is also a mosaic of modern and archaic, similar to Neanderthals and Chinese Homo erectus yet has been dated to 12.6 Kya (34). These findings suggest a long history of archaic humans in Northeastern Asia.

Could these primitive Siberian Hominids migrate into America?

This question was posed by Argentine Anthropologist Juan Schobinger: “If relatively recent Homo erectus adapted to the cold winters of Northern China and Manchuria, why couldn't they advance along the North Pacific coast and enter -just like the fauna did- the American continent at any time during the last 400 thousand years?” (5).

The Beringia land route used by the fauna and later by modern humans was only open when the sea level dropped at the height of the glaciations. Warmer interglacial periods submerged that route and, would have required sailing across a short stretch of sea between Asia and America.

The Wisconsin glaciations (12 – 110 Kya), were one of many that occurred during the last half million years. The others glacial events are: Illinoian 120-200 Kya and Pre-Illinoian 300/380 - 455 Kya.

Regarding fauna migration, an ancestor of both black and brown bears colonized the Siberian steppe about 3.5 Mya. Shortly after that, the black bears migrated into America across Beringia. They were followed by the brown bears 300 Kya (6).

In an inverse path across Beringia, woolly mammoths from the New World colonized Eurasia 60 Kya (7). The cave lion ancestor of the American lion (puma) entered America through Beringia during the second-last (Illinoian) glaciations between 130 and 300 Kya.

If animals could cope with the harsh Beringian environment, an intelligent hominid such as H. erectus could do so too. H. erectus had adapted well to the extreme cold conditions of northern China and lived there for hundreds of thousands of years. They exploited the environment and used fire (8)(9) and perhaps clothing to deal with the cold. It is therefore possible that they could have crossed Beringia and entered America either by walking or, as suggested by recent evidence, sailing, during a warm interglacial period (10). Neanderthals, whose remains have been found in Western and Central Asia, were equally well adapted to the glacial conditions of Northern Eurasia.

Evidence of Archaic Humans in America

1. Ancient sites in America

Cobble assemblages with pebble and chopper tools similar to those found in Eurasian Pleistocene sites of Mid-Wisconsinan age (over 25 Kya) have been found in Alberta, Canada (Silver Springs, Grimshaw and Varsity Estates) (11)(12); however they have been contested as geofacts (13).

In South America tools from Malone, Lapa do Caboclo, Eduardo and Poseidon shelters in Brazil have been dated by TL and EPR methods to 41 - 60 Kya (14). Tools 22 Kya have been recovered from Toca da Tira Peia, Brazil (15). Arroyo Vizcaíno site in Uruguay has yielded stone tools and bones with man-made cut marks 27-30 Kya (16).

Bifacial axes similar to the Levalloisian, Mousterian and Clactonian industries, >35 Kya were reported in Cuba (17)(18). The Burnham site in Oklahoma, US, has bison bones associated with stone tools and radiocarbon dates of 35 to 42.5 rcybp (19).

Even older sites such as Valsequillo, Mexico and Calico Mountains, US, have produced lithic implements that have been dated to 80 - 220 Kya and 70 - 100 Kya respectively, generating controversy regarding their human or natural origin (20)(21)(22).

The paucity of such sites and associated archaic lithic industries in the Americas suggests that archaeologists pass over evidence that does not fit within the accepted framework of a late peopling of the contient as the last step of an Out Of Africa migration.

This oversight is not due to negligence or lack of knowledge, we assign it to training: if, under current theories such assemblages are not expected in America, then they are not sought for, or if encountered, are not identified at all.

2. Robust or Archaic crania

It is claimed that no remains of H. erectus or Neanderthal have been discovered in America; however crania with archaic features have been found but dismissed as belonging to modern humans.

A superciliary arch found at Lake Chapala site in Guadalajara, Mexico of notable “thickness and robustness are comparable to those of KNM-ER 3733 (African Homo erectus)… the brow is more like that of Zhoukoudian Skull XI (Asian Homo erectus)… the remains were mineralized and recovered with Pleistocene-age fauna” (23).

The “Loess Man” site close to Omaha, Nebraska, US, discovered in 1896 produced skulls with pronounced brow ridges of “Neanderthal type”, but they were dismissed as belonging to recent Native Americans (24).

A cranium discovered in the Paiute region of Nevada, US, at Lovelock Cave displayed: “Unusual features… prominent brow ridge… low retreating forehead… os inca… exceptionally developed occipital torus…”(25). The occipital torus or bun is a characteristic feature of Neanderthals, whereas it is very rare among modern humans. In part 2 of this paper we will review these archaic features.

Redheaded Paleo-Indians, Neanderthals?

At Spirit Cave, also in Lovelock, a mummified body of a man was recovered in 1940. Dated in 1994 to 10,630 Kya., its unusual “Caucasoid” features and red hair are quite unlike those of current Paiute natives, the Native Americans that peopled the area in historic times (26).

A book written in 1883 by a Paiute records that they: exterminated a “small tribe of barbarians” known as “people-eaters” who waylaid them to “kill and eat them”. These people “had reddish hair” from which the Paiute later made garments (27).

Red hair is very infrequent among Amerindians and Mongoloids, but, apparently could be a Neanderthal trait since they had the MC1R gene (melanocortin 1 receptor) associated with red hair in humans (28).

Remains that cannot be assigned to the typical East Asian morphology have been ascribed to Caucasoids (29), African Blacks (30), and other populations (31)(32) that may have peopled the continent before the arrival of Mongoloids groups via Beringia. Surprisingly the first Spanish Chronicles during the conquest of Meso-America, the Caribbean and Northwestern South America report Negroids (30). These distinct morphologies could be attributed to admixture with pre-sapiens hominids.

3. Lice

Humans are infested by three types of head louse (Pediculus humanus). One of them has a global distribution (Type A), while the other is only found in North America and Europe (Type B). The third type is very rare and found only in Nepal and Ethiopia.

Genetic analysis shows that type A an B diverged from each other about 1.2 Ma. Type B has been thought to have evolved separately in America and brought back to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. American Type B louse is believed to be the original Homo erectus’ lice strain, that accompanied these hominids when they left Africa for Asia 1.2 Ma. They evolved isolated into a new variety, while the original strain that remained in Africa became Type A.

About 1.1 million years later Homo sapiens left Africa, moving out with their own Type A lice. When modern humans and ancient H. erectus met in Asia the primeval louse lineage (Type B) jumped from erectus to sapiens, infesting modern man who took the ancient Type B louse with them into America. The lice remained isolated from the rest of mankind until the arrival of Europeans.

Homo erectus died out in Asia and its Type B lice with them, removing them from further contact with humans in Eurasia and Africa (33).

We understand that this interpretation is flawed as it does not account for the lack of infestation with Type B variety in modern humans who remained in Asia.

A more plausible explanation is that Homo erectus had moved out on into America with its Type B lice and by the time humans reached Asia erectus had died out in there. Erectus had taken its Type B into America, effectively isolating them from all modern Old World humans. Infestation took place in America, when humans migrated to the New World and encountered H. erectus and its Type B lice.

(Continued in Part II

Bibliography

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(3) Waters M., Forman S., and Pierson J., (1997). Diring Yuriakh: A Lower Paleolithic Site in Central Siberia Science. 28 Feb 1997: 275 (5304), 1281-1284. doi:10.1126/science.275.5304.1281
(4) Barras C., (2012), Chinese human fossils unlike any known species. Journal reference: PLoS One, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031918
(5) Schobinger J., (1988). 200.000 años del hombre en América: ¿qué pensar? Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie I, Prehistoria, t. I, 1988, p. 375-395
(6) Craighead L., (2003). Bears of the World. Voyageur Press. p 115
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(10) Gibbons A., (1998). Paleoanthropology: Ancient Island Tools Suggest Homo erectus Was a Seafarer. Science 279 (5357): 1635-1637. doi:10.1126/science.279.5357.1635
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(17) Suárez Tintín P., (1996). En el Paleolítico de Sagua La Grande. El Undoso # 263. March 1996. p. 24
(18) Bores Sellén Y., Una aproximación al conocimiento arqueológico en la cuenca del Damují. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. p.19
(19) Wyckoff D., Theler J., Carter B., Eds., (2003). The Burnham Site in Northwestern Oklahoma: Glimpses Beyond Clovis? V. 9 Memoir (Oklahoma Anthropological Society)
(20) Simpson R., (1982). The Calico Mountains Archaeology Project: A Progress Report. In: Peopling of the New World. By J. Ericson, R. Taylor and R. Berger. Bellana Press. Anthropological Papers No. 23: 181-192
(21) Payen L., (1982). Artifacts or Geofacts at Calico: application of the Barnes’ Test. In: Peopling of the New World. By J. Ericson, R. Taylor and R. Berger. Bellana Press. Anthropological Papers No. 23: 193-202
(22) VanLandngham S., (2004). Corroboration of Sangamonian age of artifacts from the Valsequillo region, Pueblo, Mexico by means of diatom biostratigraphy. Micropaleontology, V. 50 No. 4. pp 313-342
(23) Irish J., Davis S., Lobdell J. and Solórzano F. , (2000). Prehistoric Human Remains from Jalisco, Mexico, Current Research in the Pleistocene 17, 2000 pg. 95-96
(24 ) Hrdlička A., (1907).Skeletal remains suggesting or attributed to early man in North America. Published 1907. Govt. print. Off. Washington. Series Smithsonian institution. Bureau of American ethnology. Bulletin 33
(25) Reed E., (1967). An Unusual Human Skull from near Lovelock, Nevada, University of Utah Press. Miscellaneous Collected Papers, No.18
(26) Ellis B., Damadio, S., (2000). Determination of cultural affiliation of ancient human remains from Spirit Cave. Nevada.Bureau of Land Management Nevada State Office
(27) Hopinks Winnemucca, (1883). Life among the Piutes, their wrongs and claims. Putnam’s. N. York. p. 73
(28) Lalueza-Fox C., Römpler H., Hofreiter M., et al., (2007). A melanocortin 1 receptor allele suggests varying pigmentation among Neanderthals. Science, Oct. 25, 2007
(39) Morell V., (1998). Kennewick Man's trials continue. Science 1998; 280:190-192
(30) Alcina-Franch J., (1985). Los orígenes de America. Madrid: Editorial Alhambra
(31) Bruges-Armas J., et al., (1999). HLA in the Azores Archipelago: possible presence of Mongoloid genes. Tissue Antigens 1999; 54:349-359
(32) Neves W., Pucciareli H., (1991). Morphological affinities of the First Americans: an exploratory analysis based on early South American remains. J Hum Evol 1991; 21:261-273
(33) Reed D., et al., (2004). Genetic Analysis of Lice Supports Direct Contact between Modern and Archaic Humans. PLoS Biol 2(11): e340 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020340
(34) Coppens Y., Tseveendorj D., Demeter F., Tsagaan Turbat T., Giscard P., (2007). Discovery of an archaic Homo sapiens skullcap in Northeast Mongolia. doi : 10.1016/j.crpv.2007.12.004

© 09.January.2014. Austin V. Whittall

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

The Nebraska Loess Man

Some surprisingly "Neanderthal-like" skulls found in Nebraska early last century which show a rather "sturdy" build, with prominent supraorbital arches and slanting forehead, were, as could be expected, dismissed by Aleš Hrdlička in his book on "early man in North America" he considered this "Nebraska Loess Man" as recent. The story, and a link to his book is below:

By the way, Loess is a silt-sized sediment, which is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust, and as such is found in all of the World's great plains.

Finding the remains

The original finding dates to 1894, when a group of men (Parker, Morris and Huntington) were searching for the remains of Indian Chief Black Hawk.

They dug a pit on the crest of a wooded hillock 10 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska, and discovered an odd skull about 1.2 m below ground level (4 ft.).

The remains were packed and left untouched until 1906, when they heard about another similar discovery by Mr. Gilder and sent the skull via Gilder to the University of Nebraska.

An expedition was organized that summer and new digs produced more bones, skulls and even "two flint blades of ordinary form".

Science magazine's issue of Nov. 16, 1906 reported the findings: antique remains of the "Nebraska loess man".

Below are some of Gilder's remarks in the media. I underlined the interesting parts in red.

Below are two of the skulls found at the site:

Above is text and two of the skulls foun in 1894 in Nebraska, US. From [1]

Hrdlicka's comments

Enter Ales Hrdlicka (1860-1943). He migrated to the US, as a medical student from Bohemia. The state of New York employed him as an associate in anthropology and pathology. He went to Paris in 1896 studying with Leonce Manouvrier in Broca's laboratory. He was later hired (1903) as an anthropologist by the United States National Museum. In 1918 he established the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. He also was a forceful figure who emphatically argued that native American Indian populations had come to America across the Bering Straits from Asia in recent times. He never found any evidence of Paleolithic peoples in the New World.

Loess Man would not be an exception, he demolished its antiquity in his book.

He wrote that if it were not for their pronounced brow ridges, they would have been dismissed as recent burials.

He gives the following reasons for discarding their antiquity:

Their shallow depth (2.5 - 5 ft. ; 0.7 to 1.5 m). The fire hardened soil (a common practice among the local natives to protect burials) he brushes aside the fact that many skeletons were fragmented and their parts dispersed within the mound, which would be unexpected in a controlled burial. The fact that they had not fossilized. Some bones had "rodent bites" so he surmises that mice ate the bones and dragged them into their burrows deep in the mound, which later collapsed making the bones appear at deeper levels than they originally had.

Last but not least he says that sloping foreheads and pronounced brow ridges are common among contemporary natives and also mentions other mounds which held similar Neandertal-like skulls (see page 92). I wonder if they were not actually ancient burials!.

Read the full text below as from page 66 by following the link below.

PS.. A comment on the "flint" tools:

Not far from these bits of bone, and in apparently undisturbed loess soil I found a small chip of whitish pink flint, very sharp and no larger than a gold dollar. This, to me, is an important find and carries more weight, as evidence, than anything else I have seen from that field. If this specimen of flint was used by the loess man, this same loess man must have visited the home of this flint or he must have trafficked with those who did visit the original quarry. If I mistake not this flint is the same as that brought north by the Pawnees about 1400 A. D. A number of bits of gray flint were found in the excavation which are certainly from the Nehawka quarry. This proves little, as the Nehawka quarry is not far away and primitive man used flint; the nodules crop out at Nehawka and this loess man may have found his flint on the surface. Perfect implements will be found in some future excavation, and when they are found much may be learned from them.

The above is from page 338 of NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, (1907).

Also read Poynter's bigoted 1915 study on Nebraska Man's remains(Stating that the low browed remains "may be considered as belonging to a low order racially")

Sources

[1] Aleš Hrdlička,(1907).Skeletal remains suggesting or attributed to early man in North America. Published 1907 by Govt. print. off. in Washington. Edition Notes: Series Smithsonian institution. Bureau of American ethnology. Bulletin 33.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall ©