Evidence of Ice Bridge Theory of Human Migration to North America May be a Hoax

If you've learned anything about human migration, you probably have heard of the ice bridge theory that spanned the Bering Strait and allowed humans to travel from east to west through Greenland to North America. Now, new research may just prove that this theory is incorrect.

Advocates of the ice bridge theory point toward the Chesapeake Bay as evidence. In the early 1970s, the crew of a scallop trawling vessel was operating off the coast of Virginia when it hit a snag and pulled up an ancient stone blade, along with pieces of a mastodon skeleton. The scientists correlated the date of the blade with the mastodon, since radiocarbon dating wasn't available for the blade. They estimated that both were 22,000 years old.

"For more than two decades, proponents of the ice bridge theory have pointed to similarities between North American stone blades such as the one allegedly dredged from the Chesapeake and blades left by Solutrean foragers in western Europe," said Michael O'Brien, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We know, however, that Solutrean culture began around 22,000 to 17,000 years ago, which is later than North American dates pointed to by ice bridge theorists as proof that Solutrean people populated North America. That includes the date from the Cinmar mastodon."

There is actually a lack of firsthand accounts from the crew of the Cinmar, which is the ship that found the mastodon. All published accounts were first written by proponents of the Solutrean hypothesis.

"While the interview indicates that the Cinmar captain took detailed notes, researchers never indicated that they actually observed the charts," said O'Brien. "In fact, captains keep 'hang logs' in which they record readings when they hit obstructions on the ocean floor. We reviewed countless snag reports from the Bay and the time frame when the snag should've occurred and didn't find anything to corroborate the story. One of the most famous snags of all time-when the crew pulled up the mastodon-and it's just not recorded."

The researchers also found inconsistencies with the origins and the ownership of the ship itself. These findings seem to indicate that the history of the stone tool is uncertain, and that the ice bridge theory may not have evidence to support it, after all,

The findings are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

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