ARRIVAL THEORIES
FOCUS QUESTIONS
Who were the first settlers?
Where did they come from?
When did they arrive in North America?
ARRIVAL THEORIES
• Bering Land Bridge Theory
(Clovis First Theory)
• Pacific Coastal Route Theory
• Atlantic Crossing Theory
(Solutrean Theory)
BERING LAND BRIDGE THEORY
During the last Ice Age the
water from the Bering Strait
got “locked up” in the
glaciers of the northern
hemisphere.
Because there was no water
left in the strait, the
continents of Asia and North
America were connected
BERING LAND BRIDGE / CLOVIS THEORY
Immigrants from northeast
Asia arrived in North
America during the last ice
age by coming across the
Bering Land Bridge
After a while they found a
passage in the glaciers
and slowly moved south
from Alaska to live in the
Americas
CLOVIS PEOPLE
Scientists think that the people hunted very
large animals. They think this because
they have found spear points inside the
skeletons of large prehistoric animals.
They also think that because about the
same time that the people came through
the passage, all of the really big animals
in the Americas became extinct.
CLOVIS PEOPLE
The people are called
“Clovis” because the
first spear points were
found in Clovis, New
Mexico
Scientists say that the
spear points are 13,500
years old.
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PACIFIC COASTAL ROUTE THEORY
Explorers from northeast
Asia may have traveled
the Pacific coast in small
boats
Coastal areas were more
exposed than scientists
thought
PACIFIC COASTAL ROUTE THEORY
Eventually these people
populated both North
and South America
In Monte Verde, Chile
the remains of a 14,700
year old campsite have
been discovered
ATLANTIC CROSSING/ SALUTREAN THEORY
Some scientists believe that
people from what is today
France traveled across the
Atlantic in boats following
the edge of receding
glaciers
They would have paddled
from ice flow to ice flow
The trip would have taken a
few generations
ATLANTIC CROSSING/ SALUTREAN THEORY
It is possible to make such a
long journey by boat. The
Inuit people of the Far North
travel in boats called
UMIAKS. The Salutreans
could have come across the
Atlantic Ocean 16,000
years ago using boats like
these.
ATLANTIC CROSSING/ SALUTREAN THEORY
The only physical evidence for this
theory so far is an arrow head
found in Cactus Hills, Virginia that
looks like a cross between the ones
the Solutreans mads in France, and
the ones the Clovis people made in
America.
Scientists have also found a DNA
strand within the Aboriginal people
of the Great Lakes area that ONLY
connects to the ancient Solutrean
line in France.