The origin of American man: the Solutrean hypothesis
The theory about the origin of American man, considered true until a few years ago, originally proposed by Aleš Hrdlička, indicated that some groups of Sapiens had crossed a frozen prairie called Bering, around 25,000 years ago, entering the American continent and later giving rise to all the inhabitants of the New World.
Also according to this theory, the first group of humans from Asia had generated the first American culture, that of Clovis, 13,500 years BC (New Mexico).
The consensus on Clovis began to decline when some researchers of the American settlement proposed new hypotheses. The Frenchman Paul Rivet, after important ethnographic and linguistic studies, suggested a direct settlement from Polynesia, with his polygenetic theory and the Portuguese Mendes Correa proposed it through Antarctica.
The analysis carried out at the site of Monte Verde, Chile (evidence of human presence dating back to 33,000 years BC), and those carried out by the Brazilian archaeologist Niède Guidon (human traces in Pedra Furada dating back to 60,000 years BC), revolutionized the theory on the origin of the American man and made the Clovis theory definitively obsolete.
How could Clovis be the first culture in America 13,500 years BC, if at the same time, in South America, other cultures developed such as that of the Caverna de la Pedra Pintada (12,000 BC), Pedra Furada (12,000 BC) and Monte Verde (12,800 BC)?
A recent theory on the origin of the American man, expounded by specialists such as Dennis Standford and Bruce Bradley, maintains that some groups of humans crossed the northern Atlantic around 17,000 years BC, which belonged to the Solutrean culture, which It flourished on the current Spanish and French Atlantic coast.
Some finds of chipped stones (dating back to 17,000 years BC) carried out in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, were associated with similar stones, belonging to the European Solutrean culture and, therefore, it was hypothesized that some groups of Humans sailed along the sea ice, which at that time extended in the North Atlantic between France and the present-day United States.
It should be noted that, around 17,000 BC, the sea level was lower than today by approximately 160 meters and, therefore, the coastline of North America was different from the current one. Underwater archeology could then help us find other Solutrean elements that could further support this hypothesis.
Therefore, for those who support this theory, the Clovis culture of 13,500 BC would derive from the Sapiens of the Solutrean culture and not from the Paleoasiatics who crossed the Bering.
The complicated enigma about the origin of the American man is far from being solved.
On the other hand, what has the study of genetics contributed to these investigations?
It was shown that the majority of Native Americans living on the eastern coast of North America belonged to mitochondrial DNA haplogroups X, exactly like European populations. These discoveries support the Solutrean theory, although they are not definitive proof.
In any case, the big question remains: did Sapiens first populate North or South America?
According to recent findings, particularly Pedra Furada in Brazil, a few groups of Sapiens arrived in Brazil even 60,000 years ago and, although their numerical consistency was limited (no more than one hundred, according to Niède Guidon), they gave rise to the first American culture of hunters-gatherers, long before the arrival of the Solutreans to the eastern coasts of North America (19,000 years ago) and the Paleo-Asiatics on the Bering coasts (27,000 years ago).
In light of all this, it could be argued that the initial flow of human colonization in America was from south to north, and not vice versa.
Further studies and archaeological excavations, perhaps in an area of obligatory passage as Darién will in the future be able to tell us much more about the prehistory of America.
YURI LEVERATTO
