In this chapter we advance our theory that the Beringia hypothesis is outdated and long in need of a major reappraisal. Archaeological sites in North America and in Chile and Brazil, with reliable carbon dating, show that man had been in the Americas for centuries before the Clovis culture, and that they had spread to the extremes of the continents by coastal routes.
Professor Jack Rossen proposes a pragmatic alternative to the Beringia theory – “There are seaweed belts along the western coasts of the Americas from Alaska to Chile, and they’re as ecologically complex as rain forests … What would people rather do? Try to find a meal in a world of ice or take a boat down the coast and help themselves to fish, oysters and greens?”
Further reading:
Monte Verde: http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1873/
http://newswise.com/articles/view/540470/
Pedra Furada – http://www.maria-brazil.org/niede_guidon.htm
The Seaweed trail – http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2011/the-seaweed-trail-peopling-the-americas
