Figure 1.--Here is a good represehtation of current (2019) thinking as to the peopleing of the Americas. Notice that Native Americans reached southern South America nefore thebnort/south split. Balter adapted from Rhagavan et al., 'Science'

It is difficult to build a time line for Native American peoples. This is because stone age people at the hunter gatherer sthge left so little datable material and were often bery small populations. It is possible to date most settled civilizations, although the Amazonian people are proving to be a challenge. Anthropolgists studing Native American prople are now reaching a concensus as to win Sobrian hunters crossed the Bearing Sea land bridge. It is now belived to have been abour 21,000 BC. [Balter] There is a in Beringia which reserachers etill are not sure about the length. Only a generation ago, archeologists thought they had the whole chronology of New World well documented based on the Clovis First theory. But now the history of proto-induans is about about 10,000 years longer than ealier believed. The chronology of most of the major civilizations are now fairly well established. What is not well know and prbably largekly unknowable in any detail as what happened after Siberian hunters crossed over and how North and South America populated. Considerable work in Meso-America developed a good understanding of the many different civilizations. Teotihuacan was an ancient ruin at the time of the Aztecs. While the chronology of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca are fairly well developed, the dating of the early civilizations and the early history of human settlement of the Americas is a matter of some controversy. Information is especially limited on the Olmec which appears to have been an early civilization of great importance. Particularly unsettling in dating Native American people is the discovery of an earlier dated human settlement in southern Chile near Puerto Montt--Monte Verde. And there are other unexpected sites being found. And if that was no bad enough, the whole issue of Amazonian settlement has hardly been touched. A good deal is know about Meso-America. The earliest known civilizations in South America appeared along the coast in northern Peru--surprising because the area is so arid. And from an early point we notice Amazonian influences, although next to nothing is known about advanced civilizations in the Amazon.

Sources

Balter, Michael. "Mysterious link emerges between Native Americans and people half a globe away," Science (July 21, 2015).

Created: 11:21 PM 11/29/2019
Last updated: 11:21 PM 11/29/2019