How Men Came to America essays

How Men Came to America essays There are many theories as to how the first of mankind came to America. The most probable theory is one that concerns the Bering Straight. The Bering Straight connects Siberia to Alaska. Around 13,000 yrs. ago, there was an ice age; since the water in the Bering Straight is shallow, all of it froze which created a land bridge. Coincidentally, large arrowheads were found inside a Mammoth skeleton in Clovis, New Mexico, which was also dated to be 13,000 yrs. old. This theory is simple and logical. There was a land bridge. Man crossed it while following big game and dispersed all over America within a thousand years. A few archeological sites have been found to have artifacts older than 13,000 years. Among these, is the Meadow Croft Rock Center near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a site in Chili named Monte Verde and Cactus Hill, south of Richmond, Virginia. The dates of artifacts in these sites were determined by carbon dating. Although this is a precise way of telling how old an artifact is, there are things that can go wrong. For instance, In the Meadow Croft Rock Center, some argue that the ground had been contaminated by groundwater seepage, which could bring in older pieces of wood or plant next to spearheads. As for Cactus Hill, some archaeologists disagree as to weather the layering process is a valid indication of time. It is hard to believe that a few inches of sand could represent thousands of years of time, writes Michael Parfit, a writer for National Geographic. Concerning Monte Verde, many archaeologists readily attacked the the idea that the site held bones that are at least 1,000 yrs . older than those from Clovis, New Mexico. Stuart Fiedel, a consulting archaeologist and author, comments that the recording of artifacts wasnt exact enough to support the conclusions. Another archaeologist, C. Vance Haynes, has found from his own experience, how hard it is to tell the difference between, for example, charcoal...