technologia: Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories, many of which are speculative, propose that visits to the Americas, interactions with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or both, were made by people from elsewhere after the initial peopling of the Americas by migrants from Siberia across Beringia at least 15,000 years ago, but before Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Caribbean in 1492. Maritime explorations by Norse peoples from Scandinavia during the late 10th century led to the brief Norse colonization of Greenland and a base camp L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, which preceded Columbus's arrival in the Americas by some 500 years. Recent genetic studies have also suggested th…

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The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. The book is one of the earliest and most well-known unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement. The denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture (sometimes as one of four standard works) and secondarily as a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas. Most Latter Day Saints view the book as a record of actual history, though perspectives vary by denomination: some emphasize its spiritual inspira…

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Kennewick Man or Ancient One was a Native American man who lived during the early Holocene whose skeletal remains were found in 1996 washed out on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. Radiocarbon tests show the man lived about 8,400 to 8,700 years ago, making his skeleton one of the most complete ever found this old in the Americas, and thus of high scientific interest for understanding the peopling of the Americas. The discovery precipitated a nearly twenty-year-long dispute involving the Federal government, Native Americans, and scientists who wanted to study the remains. The Federal government, through the United States Army Corps of Engineers, held jurisdiction over…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Tucson artifacts, sometimes called the Tucson Lead Crosses, Tucson Crosses, Silverbell Road artifacts, or Silverbell artifacts, were thirty-one lead objects that Charles E. Manier and his family found in 1924 near Picture Rocks, Arizona, that were initially thought by some to be created by early Mediterranean civilizations that had crossed the Atlantic in the first century, but were later determined to be a hoax. The find consisted of thirty-one lead objects, including crosses, swords, and religious/ceremonial paraphernalia, most of which bore Hebrew or Latin engraved inscriptions, pictures of temples, leaders' portraits, angels, and a dinosaur (inscribed on the lead blade of a sword).…

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An out-of-place artifact (OOPArt or oopart) is an artifact of historical, archaeological, or paleontological interest to someone that is claimed to have been found in an unusual context, which someone claims to challenge conventional historical chronology by its presence in that context. Some people might think that those artifacts are too advanced for the technology known to have existed at the time, or that human presence existed at a time before humans are known to have existed. Other people might hypothesize about a contact between different cultures that is hard to account for with conventional historical understanding. This description of archaeological objects is used in fringe scien…

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The similar cultures of peoples across the Bering Strait in both Siberia and Alaska suggest human travel between the two places ever since the strait was formed. After Paleo-Indians arrived during the Last Glacial Period and began the settlement of the Americas, a second wave of people from Asia came to Alaska around 8000 BCE. These Na-Dene peoples, who share many linguistic and genetic similarities not found in other parts of the Americas, populated the far north of the Americas and only made it as far south as Oasisamerica. It is suggested that by 4000–3000 BCE Paleo-Eskimo peoples began coming to the Americas from Siberia. They were subsequently replaced by the Thule people around 1200 C…

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Landscape-scale spatial variations of pre-Columbian anthropogenic disturbances at three ring ditch sites in French Guiana.. In the past two decades, repeated discoveries of numerous geometric earthworks in interfluvial regions of Amazonia have shed new light onto the territorial extent and the long-term impact of pre-Columbian populations on contemporary landscapes. In particular, the recent development of LiDAR imagery has accelerated the discovery of earthworks in densely forested hinterlands throughout the Amazon basin and the Guiana Shield. This study aimed to evaluate the extent and landscape-scale spatial variations of pre-Columbian disturbances at three ring ditch sites in the French…

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Ancient Plasmodium genomes shed light on the history of human malaria.. Malaria-causing protozoa of the genus Plasmodium have exerted one of the strongest selective pressures on the human genome, and resistance alleles provide biomolecular footprints that outline the historical reach of these species 1 . Nevertheless, debate persists over when and how malaria parasites emerged as human pathogens and spread around the globe 1,2 . To address these questions, we generated high-coverage ancient mitochondrial and nuclear genome-wide data from P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae from 16 countries spanning around 5,500 years of human history. We identified P. vivax and P. falciparum across geo…

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Integrating paleoparasitological, paleogenetic, and archaeological data to understand the paleoecological scenario of pre-Columbian archaeological site <i>Gruta do Gentio</i> II, Brazil.. Paleoparasitology and paleogenetics is the study parasites in ancient remains from latrines, mummified individuals, and coprolites, that is fossilized or desiccated feces. Paleoparasitological studies in Brazil began with analyses of coprolites from the Gruta do Gentio II (GGII) archaeological site, the oldest site related to the Una ceramist tradition (12,000 to 410 BP), Brazil. The GGII archaeological site contained numerous human burials, lithics, and cultural artifacts such as basketry, ceremonial orna…

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How oral traditions develop: a cautionary tale on cultural evolution from the Quechuan-speaking Andes.. While large-scale comparative and historical analysis of folktales has largely disappeared from anthropological inquiry after the wane of diffusionism in the early 20th century, such approaches are experiencing a revival in the framework of cultural evolution. In that context, questions asked include to what extent narrative traditions are transmitted horizontally from generation to generation; influenced by practices of neighbors; and form larger packages with other expressions of culture, prominently language. Here, I explore to what extent 41 versions of a widespread story told by Indi…

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Trans-Pacific Human Migrations via North and South Pacific Gyres. Abstract This paper proposes that the North and South Pacific gyres functioned as maritime corridors facilitating human migration, cultural exchange, and genetic interaction prior to European contact. By examining ocean current systems alongside genetic, botanical, and linguistic evidence, the study presents a transoceanic model that helps explain shared ancestry patterns between Asia and North America, and between Australia and South America. The model offers an expanded view of pre-modern mobility and recognizes the navigational traditions of Indigenous Pacific cultures. Future validation of this model will require expanded…