Education

Ancient Bones May Rewrite Theory Of Earliest Americans

CNN - June 10, 1999 - Santa Barbara, Ca.

The bones of an early American woman found off the coast of California may rewrite the history books on how the earliest visitors arrived in North America. The three bones were discovered 40 years ago on the Channel Islands, on a ridge called Arlington, just off the California coastline. Now, technological advances are offering new clues into just how far back in history the bones may reach.

Using radiocarbon dating to analyze the bone protein at the molecular level, scientists at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History say they've dated the remains at 13,000 years old. If that's accurate, the bones precede by several hundred years the oldest previously known remains, discovered in Montana and the Midwest. "This woman probably belonged to a band of people that were not necessarily hunting mammoths, but were living along the coasts, hunting, fishing, gathering shellfish," says John Johnson, the museum's curator of anthropology.

The bones were found 40 years ago on an island off the coast of California The fact that the woman was found on an island indicates the earliest Paleo-Indians had watercraft necessary to cross the Santa Barbara Channel If that's so, the find offers an alternate theory to the long-held belief that the first visitors to North America came from Asia and walked from Siberia to Alaska across a land bridge, now covered by the Bering Straight. But exactly where the woman came from may forever remain a mystery. "We can't tell what genetic background this woman had, because there's no DNA present," Johnson says.

The newly-established age of the so-called Arlington Springs Woman lends credence to the coastal migration theory that ancient peoples first entered North America by boat down the Pacific Coast from Alaska, according to a museum statement. San Rosa Woman May be the Oldest Woman in the Americas

MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT

LA Times - April 13, 1999

The bones of a woman found on California's Channel Islands might be among the oldest human remains found so far in North America, and they could support theories that the first Americans came by sea rather than over a land bridge, scientists say.

The bones of the so-called Arlington Springs woman are probably 13,000 years old. That would make her slightly older than the oldest known skeletons in North America, which were found in Montana, Idaho and Texas, and about 2,000 years older than New Mexico's "Folsom Man." "'Bottom line is, she may be the earliest inhabitant of North America we have discovered. It's a find of national significance," said John Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, which is part of a team researching the woman's bones.

"The remains--two thigh bones--were discovered at Arlington Springs on Santa Rosa Island 40 years ago and kept at the Santa Barbara museum. Recently researchers at the museum and Channel Islands National Park conducted DNA and radiocarbon tests that were unavailable when the bones were first found." "One test produced an estimate that the bones are 11,000 years old (about the same as Folsom Man--J.T.), and a second gives an age of about 13,000 years."

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