The map of the world 35,000 years ago was different than it is today. An example: there was Beringia, a region that served as a bridge between Siberia and Alaska that connected Asia and the Americas through the Bering Sea. That bridge sank 12,000 years ago but left traces of its existence, including the people who lived on it, such as a base camp along the Tanana River in Alaska 13,800 years ago.
discovery. After more than a decade of digging, archaeologist Kelly Graff and his team have revealed their findings in Alaska’s interior, specifically at Sheg’.
They include a stone anvil surrounded by crushed bison bones, a large clay oven, and some diamond-shaped stone points that I have never seen before at other sites in Alaska, but on the Russian side. Or what’s the same, across the Beringia Bridge.
Why is it important?. Beringia is a key part of America’s history and evolution, but we know little about its existence because there are few deposits. In fact, the few that exist are concentrated in a small area (slightly larger than the state of Maryland, explains the University of Kansas note).
However, Sheg’ In addition, the research team noted that these settlers shared with southern North American cultures such as red ocher and ivory projectiles, suggesting that there was a common lifestyle before the Clovis culture.
Clovis had no beginning. For much of the 20th century, Clovis (between 11,250 and 10,600 BC) was believed to be the oldest indigenous culture in North America. However, today we already know that this was not the case: Cooper’s Ferry in Idaho documents the existence of settlers between 16,560 and 15,280 years ago. And Sheg’ Xdaltth’í’ predates Clovis by about eight centuries.
Genetics also offers clues: According to the University of Cambridge, the DNA of two children from around 11,500 years ago, found in Alaska, revealed “ancient Beringians,” a Native American lineage that diverged from the rest very early.
at the root. As Kelly Graff details in a statement from the University of Kansas, the anvil appeared inside a house, surrounded by broken bison bones and quartz and quartzite hammers. Their explanation is that the bones were broken to extract the marrow and, possibly, the fat. Everything happened next to a good sized clay oven. The remains include an oval habitat with a hearth, an antler locket, possible red ocher, and a canid’s jaw, which may indicate the presence of dogs.
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cover Highlights of an early base camp in Beringia 13,800 years ago: Shag ‘Exaltoth’ and Alaska’s Late Pleistocene Peoples
