The ol Solutrean Hypothesis: I think it was a cultural transfer. Its the only way to explain Asian DNA with European Technology. people are missing the boat and It all revolves around one thing the atlatl . I propose that the population surge and megafaunal disappearance associated with Clovis, represents, NOT an initial colonization event, but the sudden introduction of a new technology. And that the tech was the Atlatl, spear launcher. The Clovis point is just a marker for the spread of the Atlatl tool-kit; it was not by itself the magic ingredient, as stone points were already in use by the pre-Clovis. And I nominate the Solutreans as the source of the atlatl, and Clovis-like stonework, since they had both. Consider this scenario: 1) Pre-Clovis people, with Asian DNA, spread throughout the new world... BUT... 2) They have no efficient long-distance projectile system... HENCE... 3) Their ability to hunt and eat (and defend against) megafauna is limited, and THUS 4) They dont impact the megafauna (much) nor do they reach high population densities... UNTIL One fine day... 5) A boatload of Solutrean sea-mammal hunters is blown off course, and lands in North America. 6) The refugees are taken in by a band of Paleoindians. 7) They teach Solutrean stonework techniques, and more importantly ATLATLS, to their hosts. 8) The atlatl technology -- and the associated stonework -- spreads virally through the pre-existing populations -- enabling them to eat the tasty megafauna, destroy the dangerous megafauna, and rapidly increase their own population. This explans a number of contradictions, As to the race question -- Under this scenario, the Clovisolutreans that brought new tech from Europe would have been just a few people maybe even just one landing on a continent already full of Asian DNA. Their technology spread much faster and farther than their DNA. If a boatload of Solutreans had landed on an empty continent presuming they had some women with them then, Native American DNA would look a lot like stone age Europe, barring founder effect. But thats not what we observe. Ancient American DNA is solidly Asian, yet the tech is solidly European.... so cultural transfer is the best explanation. All it would take would be one boat. And we know from cave art that Solutreans had boats. Oh, and stone age Europeans appear to have been bronze, not white, right up til the dawn of agriculture. The recent genetic sequencing of 2 Mesolithic European hunters suggests they both had brown skin (although interestingly, blue eyes.) So our Clovisolutrean castaways would probably have looked a lot like the people who took them in.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 18:09:18 +0000
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