Pseudo-Archaeology · The Archaeology Podcast Network

Peopling of the New World - Ep 171

·39 min·2 clips

White Sands is dated to about 23,000 years ago, but Kinkella questions whether every print is human.

1. Pseudo-Archaeology episode 171 centers on the peopling of the New World and asks when people first arrived in North and South America. 2. Host Dr. Andrew Kinkella says he is the show's host and that the topic matters because it comes up often in his archaeology work. 3. The episode asks three linked questions: when people arrived, how they got there, and how archaeologists date the evidence. 4. Kinkella says the strongest route is a crossing from northeastern Asia into Alaska over Beringia, not a boat from Europe. 5. He describes Beringia as a large landmass created when sea levels were about 300 feet lower during the Ice Age. 6. He contrasts the older ice-free corridor idea with the newer kelp highway model that follows coastal resources south. 7. Kinkella argues that fishing, shellfish, and sea mammals could have supported movement beach by beach from Alaska to South America. 8. He says the old Clovis-first model placed the earliest people at about 13,000 years ago. 9. He notes that pre-Clovis sites changed that picture once more evidence accumulated in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. 10. Monte Verde in southern South America is the site he names as the break that made the Clovis barrier harder to defend. 11. Arlington Springs on Santa Rosa Island is presented as the oldest well-dated human remains in the New World, based on femurs. 12. He says an Oregon cave deposit with human feces dates to about 14,000 or 14,200 years ago and is older than Arlington Springs. 13. Bluefish Cave in the Northern Yukon is treated as a case where the 14,000-year material looks human-made but the 24,000-year claim does not. 14. Kinkella says the Bluefish Cave bones from the older layer look more like rodent gnawing than cut marks. 15. Meadowcroft Rock Shelter in Pennsylvania is described as having dates around 16,000 years, with uncertainty about whether the charcoal matches the stone artifacts. 16. White Sands in New Mexico is described as having human and giant sloth footprints dated to about 22,000 to 23,000 years ago. 17. Kinkella says the White Sands dates may be strong, but he is unsure that every small print is human because of toe count and image quality. 18. The episode's tone is conversational and skeptical, with Kinkella repeatedly returning to dates, artifacts, and whether the evidence really matches the claim. 19. Listeners interested in archaeology, ancient migration, and site dating will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a polished case for very early settlement claims may skip it.

As heard by us

Old dates matter only when the evidence and context agree.

Episode 171 stays with the peopling of the new world and with the harder job of separating firm dates from fragile claims. Kinkella frames archaeology as a discipline that has to keep asking three things at once: whether the dates hold, whether the artifacts are truly human-made…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a plain-English take on the peopling of the New World, with the dates, artifacts, and skepticism all kept in play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Pseudo-Archaeology