Canadian journalist Tom Koppel tells the story of the archaeologists and other scientists who are using new technologies to search for the first Americans along the North Pacific rim from Japan to Alaska to California. He has spent 10 years reporting from remote offshore islands (see “Did They Come By Sea?” American Archaeology, Spring 2000), under the sea, and deep in caves on this new breed of explorers. They are all looking for solid evidence that the first Americans did not come by land across the Bering Strait as had been presumed for the past several decades, but rather they came by boat some 15,000 or more years ago.
The “lost world” is that ancient shoreline that is now hidden under more than 250 feet of water as the glaciers melt and the sea level rises. The coastal explorers have now determined that there were plenty of ice-free refuges along the coast as late as 15,000 years ago, and they are trying various innovative ways of excavating underwater to find evidence of humans. Modern submersibles and side-scanning sonar are mapping the seafloor along the ancient coastline in search of likely habitation areas, but the evidence is subtle and harder to find than a needle in a haystack. An underwater excavation off British Columbia has recovered artifacts dating to 6,800 years ago, including a finely made harpoon head of antler.
On land, archaeologists are testing coastal sites and offshore islands from Alaska to Chile, where the now famous Monte Verde site was dated to 14,500 years ago. Off Alaska, archaeologists are crawling into caves in search of the oldest human remains. Lost World is a spirited narrative that captures the adventure of doing research in such remote and exotic lands. It’s an ongoing adventure where progress is slow and hard earned. Stay tuned.
