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The history of the discovery of America by Europeans

Pre-Columbian era

There is currently whole line theories and research, which makes it highly likely that European travelers reached the shores of America long before the expeditions of Columbus. However, it is certain that these contacts did not lead to the creation of permanent settlements or the establishment of strong ties with the new continent, and thus did not have a significant impact on the historical and political processes both in the Old and in the New World.

Travels of Columbus

Colonization of South and Central America in the 17th century

Chronology of the most important events:

• - Christopher Columbus lands on the island.
• - Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda reach the mouth of the Amazon.
• - Vespucci, after the second journey, finally comes to the conclusion that the open continent is not part of India.
• - After a 100-day trek through the jungles of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, he crosses the Isthmus of Panama and reaches the Pacific coast for the first time.
• - Juan Ponce de Leon goes in search of the legendary Fountain of Youth. Having failed in reaching the object of search, he, nevertheless, discovers deposits of gold. Names the Florida peninsula and declares it a Spanish possession.
• - Fernando Cortez enters Tenochtitlan, captures the Emperor Montezuma, thereby starting the conquest of the Aztec empire. His triumph leads to 300 years of Spanish rule in Mexico and Central America.
• - Pascual de Andogoya discovers Peru.
• - Spain establishes a permanent military base and settlement in Jamaica.
• - Francisco Pizarro invades Peru, destroys thousands of Indians and conquers the Inca Empire, the most powerful state of South American Indians. Great amount The Inca dies from the chickenpox brought by the Spaniards.
• - Spanish settlers found Buenos Aires, but after five years they were forced to leave the city under the onslaught of the Indians.

Colonization of North America (XVII -XVIII  centuries)

But at the same time, the balance of power in the Old World began to change: the kings spent the streams of silver and gold flowing from the colonies, and had little interest in the economy of the metropolis, which, under the weight of an inefficient, corrupt administrative apparatus, clerical dominance and lack of incentives for modernization, began to lag behind more and more. from the booming economy of England. Spain gradually lost the status of the main European superpower and mistress of the seas. Many years of war in the Netherlands, huge funds spent on the fight against the Reformation throughout Europe, the conflict with England hastened the decline of Spain. The last straw was the death of the Invincible Armada in 1588. After the English admirals, and in more a fierce storm destroyed the largest fleet of the time, Spain retreated into the shadows, never recovering from this blow.

Leadership in the "relay race" of colonization passed to England, France and Holland.

English colonies

The well-known chaplain Gakluyt acted as the ideologist of the English colonization of North America. In and 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, by order of Queen Elizabeth I of England, made two attempts to establish a permanent settlement in North America. The reconnaissance expedition reached the American coast in 1584 and named the open coast of Virginia (eng. Virginia - "Virgin") in honor of the "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth I, who never married. Both attempts ended in failure - the first colony, based on Roanoke Island off the coast of Virginia, was on the verge of collapse due to Indian attacks and lack of supplies and was evacuated by Sir Francis Drake in April 1587. In July of the same year, a second expedition of 117 colonists landed on the island. It was planned that ships with equipment and food would arrive in the colony in the spring of 1588. However, for various reasons, the supply expedition was delayed by almost a year and a half. When she arrived at the place, all the buildings of the colonists were intact, but no traces of people, with the exception of the remains of one person, were found. The exact fate of the colonists has not been established to this day.

AT early XVII century, private capital entered the business. In 1605, two joint-stock companies received licenses from King James I to establish colonies in Virginia. It should be borne in mind that at that time the term "Virginia" denoted the entire territory North American continent. The first of these companies was the London Virginia Company. Virginia Company of London) - received the rights to the south, the second - the "Plymouth Company" (eng. Plymouth Company) - to the northern part of the continent. Despite the fact that both companies officially proclaimed the spread of Christianity as the main goal, the license they received granted them the right to "search and mine gold, silver and copper by all means."

On December 20, 1606, the colonists set sail on three ships and after a difficult, almost five-month voyage, during which several dozen people died of starvation and disease, in May 1607 they reached the Chesapeake Bay (Eng. Chesapeake Bay). During next month they built wooden fort, named after King Fort James ( English pronunciation named after Jacob). The fort was later renamed Jamestown, the first permanent British settlement in America.

The official historiography of the United States considers Jamestown the cradle of the country, the history of the settlement and its leader, Captain John Smith (Eng. John Smith of Jamestown) has been covered in many serious studies and works of art. The latter, as a rule, idealize the history of the city and the pioneers who inhabited it (for example, the popular cartoon Pocahontas). In fact, the first years of the colony were extremely difficult, in the hungry winter of 1609-1610. out of 500 colonists, no more than 60 survived, and, according to some accounts, the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism in order to survive the famine.

American stamp issued for the tercentenary of the founding of Jamestown

In subsequent years, when the issue of physical survival was no longer so acute, two critical issues there were tense relations with the indigenous population and the economic feasibility of the existence of the colony. To the disappointment of the shareholders of the London Virginia Company, neither gold nor silver was found by the colonists, and the main commodity produced for export was ship timber. Despite the fact that this product was in some demand in the metropolis, which had depleted its forests in order, the profit, as well as from other attempts economic activity, was minimal.

The situation changed in 1612, when the farmer and landowner John Rolfe (Eng. John Rolfe) managed to cross a local variety of tobacco grown by the Indians with varieties imported from Bermuda. The resulting hybrids were well adapted to the Virginia climate and at the same time suited the tastes of English consumers. The colony acquired a source of reliable income and for many years tobacco became the basis of the economy and exports of Virginia, and the phrases "Virginia tobacco", "Virginia blend" are used as characteristics of tobacco products to this day. Five years later, tobacco exports amounted to 20,000 pounds, a year later it was doubled, and by 1629 it reached 500,000 pounds. John Rolfe rendered another service to the colony: in 1614 he managed to negotiate peace with the local Indian chief. The peace treaty was sealed by marriage between Rolf and the leader's daughter, Pocahontas.

In 1619, two events occurred that had a significant impact on the entire further history USA. This year Governor George Yardley George Yeardley) decided to transfer part of the power Council of Burghers(English) House of Burgesses), thus founding the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. The first meeting of the council took place on July 30, 1619. In the same year, a small group of Africans of Angolan origin was acquired by the colonists. Although formally they were not slaves, but had long-term contracts without the right to terminate, it is customary to count the history of slavery in America from this event.

In 1622, almost a quarter of the population of the colony was destroyed by the rebellious Indians. In 1624, the license of the London Company, whose affairs had fallen into decay, was revoked, and from that time Virginia became a royal colony. The governor was appointed by the king, but the colony council retained significant powers.

Settlement of New England

In 1497, several expeditions to the island of Newfoundland, associated with the names of the Cabots, laid the foundation for the claims of England to the territory of modern Canada.

In 1763 by Paris Treaty New France passed into the possession of Great Britain and became the province of Quebec. Rupert's Land (the area around Hudson Bay) and Prince Edward Island were also British colonies.

Florida

In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for control of Havana, which the British occupied during Seven Years' War. The British divided Florida into East and West and began to attract immigrants. For this, the settlers were offered land and financial support.

In 1767 northern border West Florida was relocated substantially so that West Florida included parts of present-day Alabama and Mississippi.

During the American Revolutionary War, Britain retained control of East Florida, but Spain was able to take over West Florida through an alliance with France at war with England. Under the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 between Great Britain and Spain, all of Florida was ceded to Spain.

Caribbean Islands

The first English colonies appeared in Bermuda (1612), St. Kitts (1623) and Barbados (1627) and were then used to colonize other islands. In 1655, Jamaica, taken from the Spanish Empire, was under the control of the British.

Central America

In 1630, British agents founded the Providence Company. (Providence Company), whose president was the Earl of Warwick, and the secretary was John Pym, occupied two small islands near the Mosquito Coast and established friendly relations with local residents. From 1655 to 1850, England, and then Great Britain, claimed a protectorate over the Miskito Indians, but numerous attempts to establish colonies were unsuccessful, and the protectorate was disputed by Spain, the Central American republics and the United States. The objections from the United States were caused by fears that England would gain an advantage in connection with the proposed construction of a canal between the two oceans. In 1848, the capture of the city of Greytown (now called San Juan del Norte) by the Miskito Indians, with the support of the British, caused great excitement in the United States and almost led to war. However, by signing the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, both powers pledged not to strengthen, colonize, or dominate any part of Central American territory. In 1859, Great Britain transferred the protectorate to Honduras.

The first English colony on the banks of the Belize River was established in 1638. In the middle of the 17th century, other English settlements were established. Later, British settlers began harvesting logwood, from which a substance used in the manufacture of dyes for fabrics was extracted and had great importance for the wool spinning industry in Europe (see article Belize#History).

South America

In 1803, Britain captured the Dutch settlements in Guiana, and in 1814, under the Treaty of Vienna, officially received the lands, united in 1831 under the name of British Guiana.

In January 1765, British Captain John Byron explored Saunders Island at the eastern end of the archipelago. Falkland Islands and announced its accession to Great Britain. Captain Byron named the bay on Saunders Port Egmont. Here in 1766 Captain McBride founded an English settlement. In the same year, Spain acquired French possessions in the Falklands from Bougainville and, having consolidated its power here in 1767, appointed a governor. In 1770, the Spanish attacked Port Egmont and drove the British off the island. This led to the fact that the two countries were on the brink of war, but a later peace treaty allowed the British to return to Port Egmont in 1771, while neither Spain nor Great Britain abandoned their claims to the islands. In 1774, in anticipation of the impending American Revolutionary War, Great Britain unilaterally abandoned many of its overseas possessions, including Port Egmont. Leaving the Falklands in 1776, the British erected a commemorative plaque here to confirm their rights to this territory. From 1776 until 1811, a Spanish settlement remained on the islands, administered from Buenos Aires as part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. In 1811, the Spaniards left the islands, also leaving a tablet here to prove their rights. After declaring independence in 1816, Argentina claimed the Falklands as its own. In January 1833, the British again landed in the Falklands and notified the Argentine authorities of their intention to restore their power on the islands.

Timeline of the founding of the English colonies

1. 1607 - Virginia (Jamestown)
2. 1620 - Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Settlement)
3. 1626 - New York
4. 1633 - Maryland
5. 1636 - Rhode Island
6. 1636 - Connecticut
7. 1638 - Delaware
8. 1638 - New Hampshire
9. 1653 - North Carolina
10. 1663 - South Carolina
11. 1664 - New Jersey
12. 1682 - Pennsylvania
13. 1732 - Georgia

French colonies

By 1713, New France was at its largest. It included five provinces:

• Acadia (modern New Scotland and New Brunswick).
• Hudson's Bay (present-day Canada)
• Louisiana ( central part USA, from the Great Lakes to New Orleans), divided into two administrative regions: Lower Louisiana and Illinois (fr. le Pays des Illinois).

Spanish colonies

The Spanish colonization of the New World dates back to the discovery of America by the Spanish navigator Columbus in 1492, which Columbus himself recognized eastern part Asia, east coast or China, or Japan, or India, because the name West Indies was assigned to these lands. The search for a new route to India is dictated by the development of society, industry and trade, the need to find large reserves of gold, for which demand has risen sharply. Then it was believed that in the "land of spices" it should be a lot. The geopolitical situation in the world changed and the old eastern routes to India for Europeans, which passed through the lands now occupied by the Ottoman Empire, became more dangerous and difficult to pass, meanwhile there was a growing need for the realization of a different trade with this rich land. Then some already had the idea that the earth was round and that India could be reached from the other side of the Earth - by sailing west from the then known world. Columbus made 4 expeditions to the region: the first - 1492 -1493 - the discovery of the Sargasso Sea, the Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba, Tortuga, the foundation of the first village in which he left 39 of his sailors. He declared all the lands to be possessions of Spain; the second (1493-1496) years - the complete conquest of Haiti, the discovery

It is believed that the foot of the first European set foot on the land of the New World on Friday, October 12, 1492, when Spanish sailors landed on one of the Bahamas, which they called San Salvador. It is possible that even before this date, some brave European sailors crossed Atlantic Ocean: mentioned in the Icelandic sagas sea ​​trips Leif Erickson, who allegedly reached the shores of North America around the year 1000, calling modern Labrador Helluland ("land of flat stones"), Nova Scotia - Marland ("land of forests"), and the territory of Massachusetts - Vinland ("land of grapes"). Increasingly, the opinion is expressed that in the New World, more precisely, on east coast South America was regularly visited by knights templars, members knightly order Templars, who probably exported American silver from there to Europe - it is no coincidence that this metal, previously quite rare, became so widespread in Western Europe precisely during the heyday of this order *. (* In a recently published study, the Italian historian Ruggiero Marino, referring to documents he discovered, claims that Columbus discovered America during a secret expedition in 1485, equipped on the instructions of the Pope Innocent VIII, and in 1492 he already knew for sure which shores he was heading towards).

Long before the arrival of the pale-faced, both Americas were inhabited by people with a reddish tint to the skin. About 20 thousand years ago, before the formation of the Bering Strait, which divided Asia and America, Alaska and Siberia were connected by a strip of land. Through this isthmus, ancient tribes from Northeast Asia crossed to America, the first immigrants from the Old World, who did not suspect that they had the honor of discovering a new continent. Natives of Asia rushed further and further south, settling across the territory of both Americas. Perhaps the settlement of America took place in several waves, since by the arrival of Europeans New World was inhabited by hundreds of aboriginal tribes, which differed from each other in their way of life (the inhabitants of the forests built wigwams from birch bark, the inhabitants of the plains used animal skins instead, some tribes lived in “long” houses, while others built “apartments” from stones and clay pueblo), and customs, and, of course, language. The names of some tribes remained immortalized on the map of America: place names Illinois, North and South Dakota, Massachusetts, Iowa, Alabama, Kansas and many others are of Indian origin. Some have survived Indian languages. As recently as World War II, Navajo Indians served as signalmen in the American army, who spoke over the radio on their mother tongue. The use of a rare language made it possible to keep military secrets intact - enemy intelligence failed to decode the information transmitted in this way.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the powerful Indian states of the Aztecs (on the territory of modern Mexico) and the Incas (in Peru) managed to take shape in Central America, and even earlier, on the Yucatan Peninsula and on the territory of modern Guatemala, it flourished mysterious civilization Maya, who mysteriously disappeared around 900 AD. e. However, on the territory now occupied by the United States, there were no Indian states, and the natives were at the stage of primitive communal system. Most of the North American Indians hunted, fished and collected the gifts of nature. The tribes living in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys were engaged in agriculture. They were at the level that the civilization of the Old World had in 1500 BC. e., i.e., in their cultural development they lagged behind Europe by about three millennia.

According to genetic research University of Michigan, the ancestors of the Indians and Eskimos moved to America from northeast Asia through the "Bering Bridge" - a wide isthmus on the site of the current Bering Strait between America and Asia, which disappeared more than 12 thousand years ago.

Migration continued between 70 thousand years BC. e. and 12 thousand years BC and had several independent friend from a friend of the waves. One of them was a wave 32 thousand years ago, the other - to Alaska - 18 thousand years ago (at this time the first settlers had already reached South America).

The level of culture of the first settlers corresponded to the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures of the Old World.

It can be assumed [some news contradicts] the following flows of settlement in America (according to racial types- roughly, but chronologically - more likely):

50,000 years ago - the arrival of the Australoids (or Ainoids) through the Aleutian Islands (10,000 years after the Ainu ancestors settled Australia), and their spread over 10,000 years along the western (Pacific coast) to the south (settlement of South America in 40,000 BC) . From them - an active sentence structure and open syllable in many (especially South American) Native American languages?
25,000 years ago - the arrival of the Americanoids (ketoids) - the ancestors of the Athabaskans (Na-Dene Indians). From them - incorporation and ergative system?
13,000 years ago - the arrival of the Eskimos - the ancestors of the Escaleus. Did they pour a nominative jet into the languages ​​of the Indians?
9000 years ago - the arrival of Caucasians (the legendary Dinlin, Nivkhs?). Have you also made your nominative contribution to Native American language structures?
Settlement and ancient cultures of North America

Clovis hunters of mammoths and mastodons, supposedly exterminating many species of large mammals in the Americas in just a few centuries, turned out to be the ancestors of the indigenous population of the New World south of the United States.

In total, about 400 tribes of Indians lived in North America.

2.

3.


Ancient cultures and anthropological populations of North America (articles)

Settlement of North America at the Anishinabemovin site.
Ancient cultures of North America. S.A. Vasiliev.
. (18.03.2008)
The genome of the prehistoric boy showed that modern Indians are the direct descendants of the Clovis mammoth hunters. (22.02.2014)
Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders.
S.A. Vasiliev. Ancient cultures of North America. St. Petersburg, 2004. 140 p. Institute of History Material Culture RAN. Proceedings, vol. 12.

Monograph S.A. Vasilyeva - significant event in Russian science about the past. Not only our understanding of the development of the culture of America before Columbus, but also the disclosure of the mechanisms of social evolution as a whole depends on the solution of the question of the time and ways of the initial settlement of the New World. From the time of Julian Steward, if not earlier, it was the basic similarity of the ancient civilizations of Western Asia, Mexico and Peru that served as the main argument in favor of the existence of the main path of evolution. The weight of this argument largely depends on how early the Indians were cut off from their Asian ancestors and what cultural baggage they brought from their Asian ancestral home. Determination of the dating of the initial settlement of the New World and identification of the appearance of the earliest local cultures is extremely important. Until now, get reliable information about ancient traces there was nowhere for the Russian reader to live in America. Not only the humanities in general, but also many ethnographers and even archaeologists' ideas on this subject are borrowed from academic publications of the middle of the last century, and sometimes even from irresponsible popular publications. Now this information gap is closed. S.A. Vasiliev perfectly knows both the Paleolithic of Eurasia, primarily Siberia, and ancient monuments North America, which are familiar to him not only in literature, but also de visu. The book is distinguished by the completeness of the coverage of the material, the use of reliable primary sources, terminological accuracy, clarity of presentation.

On two dozen pages of the Introduction and Chapter 1, the author managed to tell about the history of the study of the Paleolithic of North America, its chronological framework, dating problems, research methods, strengths and weaknesses of American and Russian archeology, the infrastructure of Paleolithic studies in the USA and Canada (research centers and their hierarchy, publications, priority areas, interaction with other disciplines). In Chapter 2, the paleogeography and fauna of the North American continent in the final Pleistocene are described in the same compact and succinct way, with reference to this picture of the main Paleo-Indian traditions. Dating, as is customary in Paleolithic studies, is given in conventional radiocarbon years, which for the final Paleolithic is younger than the calendar years by about 2 thousand years. Chapters 3 - 6 contain an analytical description of the most ancient American Clovis culture (including its eastern one - from New England to the middle Mississippi - a variant of the Heiney) and the cultures of the final Paleolithic that arose immediately after the Late Clovis - Goshen, Folsom and Egate Basin on the Great Plains and in Rocky Mountains, parkhill and crowfield in the Great Lakes region, debert vale in the Northeast. The worse known monuments of the South-East and the Far West are also characterized. Most of these regional traditions (except goshen and parkhill) continue into the early Holocene. In general, the period of radical changes in culture in North America falls not at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene, but at the beginning of the Altitermal (ca. 6000 BC in calendar years), so it would be interesting to trace the fate of the cultures of ancient hunter-gatherers just before that time. Of course, this is a special task that goes beyond the professional interests of the author of the monograph. In chapter 7, Vasiliev considers the Paleolithic traditions of American Beringia - Nenanu, Denali and Northern Paleo-Indian. Throughout the book, the presentation is based on the most representative monuments, illustrated with site plans, stratigraphic sections, drawings of typical finds. Complete lists of radiocarbon dates and pivot tables characteristic of individual traditions of faunistic material.

Alaska was part of the land bridge from Siberia to America, and therefore its Paleolithic sites are of particular interest. Most of them are concentrated in a small area in the valleys of the Tanana River and its tributaries, the Nenana and Teklanika (west of Fairbanks). Geological conditions make it extremely difficult to find sites in other places. A characteristic type of tools of the Nenana complex (11-12 thousand years ago) are bilaterally processed tear-shaped tips of the chindadn type. It is important to note products made from mammoth tusk. The Denali complex (10-11 thousand years ago) is considered to be an offshoot of the Dyuktai tradition in Siberia. His characteristic technique is the chipping of microblades from wedge-shaped cores. Although the difference in time between Nenana and Denali is confirmed by the stratigraphy of a number of sites, complete confidence there is no. The radiocarbon dates of both complexes overlap, and the opinion about the functional rather than cultural reasons for the differences in the lithic inventory of the sites cannot yet be discounted.

The most mysterious is the northern Paleo-Indian tradition (NPT). It is mainly localized in the extreme northwest of Alaska (Arctic slopes of the Brooks Range), although one site (Spain Mountain) was found 1000 km south of this zone, near the mouth of the river. Kuskokwim. Most of the radiocarbon dates according to the MPT (mainly from the Meise site) fall within the range of 9.7–11.7 thousand years ago. This pushes the beginning of the SPT at least by the time of the appearance of Clovis, although the earliest dates may be erroneous (in this case, the SPT is dated within 9.6–10.4 thousand years ago). SPT, in contrast to Nena and Denali, is characterized by elongated bilaterally processed arrowheads, which in general contours resemble Clovis and the arrowheads of post-Clovis Paleo-Indian cultures in the mainland of the United States. The greatest similarity is seen with the Agate Basin tips in the north of the Great Plains, so archaeologists believe that either a reverse migration from the Plains to Alaska took place in the final Pleistocene, or the creators of the SPT left Alaska to the south and became the ancestors of the creators of the Aegate Basin tradition. Approximately the same is assumed with regard to undated finds of points with a groove in central Alaska (the locality of Batza Tena1), resembling folsom points.

The problem, however, does not end there. All monuments of the SPT are extremely specialized hunting camps on mountain ledges and plateaus, from where it was convenient to follow herds of animals. For most other cultures of the Late Paleolithic of America and Siberia, there is no such category of monuments. Archaeologists have found appropriate tools only because the Northern Paleo-Indians resorted to this particular hunting tactic. We do not know where and how people lived, who briefly climbed the viewing platforms to watch the bison. Apparently, the sites were used only during the era of the so-called Young Dryas, a sharp cooling, which was preceded by a warm period, when temperatures in northern Alaska were higher than today. During warm periods, the tundra-steppe was covered with woody vegetation and large herds of animals disappeared, although this does not mean that people could not use other sources of food at that time. Most likely, the creators of the SPT lived in Alaska before the time that Meiza and similar monuments date back to, and after that, but their traces elude us. It is possible that SPT did not come to Alaska from the south, but goes back to the same root as clovis, and this root should be looked for in Beringia. Unfortunately, most of the territory that this hypothetical proto-Clovis cultural community could have occupied is now flooded with the sea2.

The vast majority of the dating of the Clovis culture falls within the interval of 10.9 - 11.6 thousand years ago, which, with the introduction of an amendment, allows us to attribute the beginning of this culture to the time of 13.5 thousand years ago, or to the 12th millennium BC. This is synchronous with the rise of the Natuf culture in the Middle East and the emergence of pottery in East Asia. Here I see the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the review. Although the Clovisans did not make pottery or harvest barley, “the early Paleo-Indian cultures of North America exhibit the full range of cultural achievements characteristic of the Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia. These include the developed technology of processing stone, bone and tusk, the presence of traces of house-building, treasures of tools, the use of ocher, jewelry, ornament, burial practice. In other words, the people who settled America had a long path of development behind them, marked by many discoveries and achievements. Under the new conditions, their culture continued to change, and their social organization continued to become more complex, which by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. led to the emergence of medium-sized societies in the New World, and by the turn of the new era - states. America is not a separate world that initially developed independently, but a relatively late offshoot of the Eurasian world.

As it was said, the oldest Alaskan tradition of nenana dates back to 11-12 thousand years ago, which is half a thousand years earlier than Clovis. It is therefore likely that the Nenan people living in central Alaska, or, as suggested above, not yet discovered common ancestors of Clovis and the Northern Paleo-Indian Tradition, traveled up the Yukon Valley, and then migrated south along the so-called "Mackenzie Corridor" between the Laurentian and Cordillera ice sheets. There they created the clovis culture. The absence of human traces within the Mackenzie Corridor earlier than 10.5 thousand years ago prevents us from accepting this hypothesis as final. In addition, the Nenana industry does not have the technique of grooved chipping, which is so characteristic of the Clovis industry.

Concerning the issue of pre-Clovis colonization, Vasiliev does not deny its possibility, but rightly emphasizes that the list of sites on which this hypothesis is based has been changing for half a century as the age or reliability of some sites is refuted and new ones are discovered. Indirect considerations also indicate that the creators of the Clovis culture, wherever they came from, developed previously uninhabited territories. Being unfamiliar with local conditions, they transported raw materials for many hundreds of kilometers (without resorting to closer sources of flint) and almost did not use rock shelters convenient for habitation (but also probably unknown to them). The latter, however, may also be due to cultural tradition, because in Siberia people of the late Pleistocene also only temporarily visited rock shelters, “which contrasts sharply with the data on the Paleolithic of Europe and the Near East” (p. 118). Given the diversity of languages ​​and appearance of the Indians, geneticists and linguists have always tended to the hypothesis of the initial settlement of America before the peak of the last glaciation3. However, the estimates of these specialists concern only the estimated time of divergence between populations, but not the place where this divergence occurred, so the corresponding arguments do not carry much weight (already the very first groups of people who reached the areas of the New World located south of the glaciers could speak unrelated languages and racial diversity).

Vasiliev does not consider materials on the Paleolithic of Latin America, but only mentions the recognition by most archaeologists of the authenticity of the Monte Verde site in southern Chile with dates of about 15.5 - 14.5 thousand years ago. It should be noted that the expressed doubts about the synchronism of the images of coal, mastodon bones and artifacts discovered in Monte Verde are so serious4 that they do not allow us to see in this monument an indisputable proof of the appearance of man in America as early as the 14th millennium BC. It is likely that the personal ambitions of the researchers gave the discussion an unnecessary edge,5 but this does not change the essence of the matter. At the same time, the early dating of Monte Verde is not beyond the possibility if the first people who entered the New World moved by boat along southern Alaska and further spread along the coasts.

Relying primarily on the reader-archaeologist, Vasiliev, both in the course of work, and especially in final chapter 8 moves on to generalizations over high level, allowing also non-specialists to visualize the features of life of the population of Siberia and North America at the end of the Paleolithic. Typical was a seasonal change of habitat depending on the movement of herds of ungulates and resettlement for the summer on the sandy banks of rivers. As for the manufacture of stone tools, in Southern Siberia people were more often engaged in such activities in settlements, and in the south of the Far East in special workshops near the exit of raw materials (p. 118).

The shortcomings of Vasiliev's book are minor and purely technical. The author should phonetic transcription English-language names, which sometimes differs sharply from the graphic. If parkhill and denali are quite transparent, then in the case of Mesa or Agate Basin, it would be desirable to put English in brackets next to the Russian version. The maps showing the distribution of the monuments are made with too little resolution in relation to their linear dimensions, leaving the impression of some negligence, especially in comparison with the well-detailed plans of individual sites.

1 Clark D.W., Clark A.M. Batza Tyna: Trail to obsidian. Hull (Quebec): Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1993; Kunz M., Bever M., Adkins C. The Mesa Site” Paleoindians above the Arctic Circle. Anchorage: U.S. Department of the Interior, 2003. P. 56.

2 Kunz M., Bever M., Adkins. Op. cit, p. 62.

3 For recent work, see Oppenheimer S. The Real Eve. Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa. N.Y.: Carrol & Graf, 2003. P. 284-300. Justifying the probability of pre-Clovis migration, Oppenheimer, like many of his predecessors, relies on the early dating of the Meadowcroft site, but Vasiliev convincingly shows that this dating is erroneous.

4 Special Report: Monte Verde Revisited. Scientific American Discovery Archaeology. 1999 Vol. 1. No. 6.

5 Oppenheimer S. Op.cit., p. 287-290.

New data from genetics and archeology shed light on the history of the settlement of America

4.

Science news printable version

New data from genetics and archeology shed light on the history of the settlement of America
18.03.08 | Anthropology, Genetics, Archeology, Paleontology, Alexander Markov | comment

Excavation of one of the "mammoth kill sites" where the bones of killed mammoths and mastodons are found in association with numerous stone tools of the Clovis culture (Colby, central Wyoming). Photo from lithiccastinglab.com
The first people settled on the northeastern outskirts of the North American continent between 22 and 16 thousand years ago. The latest genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that the inhabitants of Alaska managed to penetrate south and quickly populate the Americas about 15 thousand years ago, when a passage opened in the ice sheet that covered most of North America. The Clovis culture, which made a significant contribution to the extermination of the American megafauna, originated about 13.1 thousand years ago, almost two millennia after the settlement of both Americas.

As you know, the first people entered America from Asia, using the land bridge - Beringia, which during the glaciation period connected Chukotka with Alaska. Until recently, it was believed that about 13.5 thousand years ago, settlers first passed through a narrow corridor between glaciers in western Canada and very quickly - in just a few centuries - settled throughout the New World up to the southern tip of South America. They soon invented an extremely effective hunting weapon(Clovis culture; see also Clovis culture) and killed most of the megafauna (large animals) on both continents (see: Mass extinction of large animals at the end of the Pleistocene).

However, new facts obtained by geneticists and archaeologists show that in reality the history of the settlement of America was somewhat more complex. Consideration of these facts is devoted to a review article by American anthropologists, published in the journal Science.

genetic data. The Asian origin of the Native Americans is now beyond doubt. Five variants (haplotypes) of mitochondrial DNA (A, B, C, D, X) are widespread in America, and all of them are also characteristic of the indigenous population of Southern Siberia from Altai to the Amur (see: I. A. Zakharov. Central Asian origin of the ancestors of the first Americans). Mitochondrial DNA, extracted from the bones of ancient Americans, is also clearly Asian in origin. This contradicts the recently expressed assumption about the connection of the Paleo-Indians with the Western European Paleolithic Solutrean culture (see also: Solutrean hypothesis).

Attempts to establish, based on the analysis of mtDNA and Y-chromosome haplotypes, the time of divergence (separation) of Asian and American populations so far give rather contradictory results (the resulting dates vary from 25 to 15 thousand years). Estimates of the time of the beginning of the settlement of the Paleo-Indians south of the ice sheet are considered somewhat more reliable: 16.6–11.2 thousand years. These estimates are based on an analysis of three clades, or evolutionary lines, of subhaplogroup C1, widely distributed among Indians but not found in Asia. Apparently, these mtDNA variants arose already in the New World. Moreover, an analysis of the geographic distribution of various mtDNA haplotypes among modern Indians showed that the observed pattern is much easier to explain based on the assumption that the settlement began closer to the beginning, and not to the end of the indicated time interval (that is, rather 15-16, rather than 11- 12 thousand years ago).

Some anthropologists have suggested "two waves" of American settlement. This hypothesis was based on the fact that the oldest human skulls found in the New World (including the skull of the Kennewick Man, see links below) differ markedly in a number of dimensional indicators from the skulls of modern Indians. But the genetic data does not support the idea of ​​"two waves". On the contrary, the observed distribution of genetic variations strongly suggests that all genetic diversity Native Americans come from a single ancestral Asian gene pool, and widespread human settlement in both Americas took place only once. So, in all studied populations of Indians from Alaska to Brazil, the same allele (variant) of one of the microsatellite loci (see: Microsatellite) is found, which is not found anywhere outside the New World, with the exception of the Chukchi and Koryaks (this indicates that that all Indians descended from a single ancestral population). The ancient Americans, judging by the data of paleogenomics, had the same haplogroups as the modern Indians.

archeological data. Already 32 thousand years ago, people - carriers of the Upper Paleolithic culture - settled North East Asia up to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. This is evidenced, in particular, by archaeological finds made in the lower reaches of the Yana River, where items made of mammoth bone and woolly rhinoceros horns were found. The settlement of the Arctic occurred during a period of relatively warm climate before the onset of the last glacial maximum. It is possible that already in this distant era, the inhabitants of the Asian northeast penetrated into Alaska. Several mammoth bones were found there, about 28 thousand years old, possibly processed. However, the artificial origin of these objects is debatable, and no stone tools or other clear signs of human presence have been found in the vicinity.

The oldest indisputable traces of human presence in Alaska - stone tools, very similar to those produced by the Upper Paleolithic population of Siberia - are 14 thousand years old. The subsequent archaeological history of Alaska is quite complex. Many sites aged 12–13 thousand years with different types of stone industry have been found here. This may be indicative of adaptation. local population to a rapidly changing climate, but may also reflect tribal migrations.

40 thousand years ago, most of North America was covered with an ice sheet, which blocked the path from Alaska to the south. Alaska itself was not covered with ice. During periods of warming, two corridors opened in the ice sheet - along the Pacific coast and east of the Rocky Mountains - through which the ancient inhabitants of Alaska could pass to the south. The corridors were opened 32 thousand years ago, when people appeared in the lower reaches of the Yana, but 24 thousand years ago they closed again. People, apparently, did not have time to use them.

The coastal corridor reopened about 15 thousand years ago, and the eastern one somewhat later, 13–13.5 thousand years ago. However, the ancient hunters could theoretically bypass the obstacle by sea. On the island of Santa Rosa (Santa Rosa) off the coast of California, traces of the presence of a person aged 13.0-13.1 thousand years were found. This means that the population of America at that time already knew well what a boat or raft was.

The well-documented archaeological history of the Americas south of the glacier begins with the Clovis culture. The heyday of this culture of big game hunters was swift and transient. According to the latest updated radiocarbon dates, the oldest material traces of the Clovis culture are 13.2–13.1 thousand years old, and the youngest are 12.9–12.8 thousand years old. The Clovis culture spread so quickly across vast areas of North America that archaeologists cannot yet determine the area in which it first appeared: the accuracy of dating methods is insufficient for this. Just 2-4 centuries after its appearance, the Clovis culture disappeared just as rapidly.
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5.

Typical tools of the Clovis culture and the stages of their manufacture: A - points, B - blades. Image from the article in question in Science

Typical tools of the Clovis culture and the stages of their manufacture: A - points, B - blades. Image from the article in question in Science
Typical tools of the Clovis culture and the stages of their manufacture: A - points, B - blades. Image from the article in question in Science
The Clovis people were traditionally thought to have been nomadic hunter-gatherers capable of moving quickly over long distances. Their stone and bone tools were very perfect, multifunctional, made using original techniques and highly valued by their owners. Stone tools were made from high-quality flint and obsidian - materials that are far from being found everywhere, so people took care of them and carried them with them, sometimes taking them hundreds of kilometers from the place of manufacture. Clovis culture sites are small temporary camps where people did not live long, but stopped only to eat the next killed large animal, most often a mammoth or mastodon. In addition, huge accumulations of Clovis artifacts have been found in the southeastern United States and Texas - up to 650,000 pieces in one place. Basically it is a waste of the stone industry. It is possible that the Clovis people had their main "stone quarries" and "weapons workshops" here.

Apparently, the favorite prey of the Clovis people were proboscis - mammoths and mastodons. There are at least 12 undisputed Clovis proboscidean kill and butchery sites found in North America. This is a lot, given the short duration of the existence of the Clovis culture. For comparison, in the entire Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia (corresponding to a time period of about 30,000 years), only six such sites have been found. It is possible that the Clovis people contributed in no small way to the extinction of the American proboscis. They did not disdain even smaller prey: bison, deer, hares, and even reptiles and amphibians.

6.

"Fish-shaped" tip found in Belize. Photo from lithiccastinglab.com
The Clovis culture penetrated into Central and South America, but here it did not become as widespread as in North (only a small number of typical Clovis artifacts were found). On the other hand, Paleolithic sites with other types of stone tools have been found in South America, including those with characteristic tips resembling fish in shape (“fishtail points”). Some of these South American sites overlap in age with those of Clovis. It used to be thought that the culture of "fish" points originated from Clovis, but recent clarification of dating has shown that it is possible that both cultures are descended from some common and as yet undiscovered "ancestor".

Bones of an extinct wild horse were found at one of the South American sites. This means that the first settlers of South America probably also contributed to the extermination of large animals.

7.

The white color indicates the ice sheet during the period of its greatest distribution 24 thousand years ago, the dashed line outlines the edge of the glacier during the period of warming 15–12.5 thousand years ago, when two “corridors” opened from Alaska to the south. The red dots show the sites of the most important archaeological finds, including those mentioned in the note: 12 - a site in the lower reaches of the Yana (32 thousand years); 19 - mammoth bones with possible traces of processing (28 thousand years); 20 - Kennewick; 28 is the largest "workshop" of the Clovis culture in Texas (650,000 artifacts); 29- ancient finds in the state of Wisconsin (14.2–14.8 thousand years); 39 - South American site with horse bones (13.1 thousand years); 40 - Monte Verde (14.6 thousand years); 41, 43 - “fish-shaped” arrowheads were found here, the age of which (12.9–13.1 thousand years) coincides with the time of the existence of the Clovis culture. Rice. from the article in question in Science
During the second half of the 20th century, archaeologists repeatedly reported finds of more ancient traces of human presence in America than the sites of the Clovis culture. Most of these finds, after careful checks, turned out to be younger. However, for several sites, the “Pre-Clovisian” age is now recognized by most experts. In South America, this is the Monte Verde site in Chile, whose age is 14.6 thousand years. In the state of Wisconsin, at the very edge of the ice sheet that existed at that time, two sites of ancient mammoth lovers were discovered - either hunters or scavengers. The age of the sites is from 14.2 to 14.8 thousand years. In the same area, bones of mammoth legs were found with scratches from stone tools; the age of the bones is 16 thousand years, though the tools themselves were never found nearby. Several more finds have been made in Pennsylvania, Florida, Oregon, and other regions of the United States, with varying degrees of certainty indicating the presence of people in these places 14–15 thousand years ago. A few finds, the age of which was determined as even more ancient (over 15 thousand years), cause great doubts among specialists.

Subtotals. Today it is considered firmly established that America was inhabited by the species Homo sapiens. There have never been any Pithecanthropes, Neanderthals, Australopithecus and other ancient hominids in America (for a refutation of one of these theories, see the interview with Alexander Kuznetsov: part 1 and part 2). Although some Paleo-Indian skulls differ from modern ones, genetic analysis has shown that the entire indigenous population of America - both ancient and modern - descended from the same population of immigrants from southern Siberia. The first people appeared on the northeastern edge of the North American continent no earlier than 30 and no later than 13 thousand years ago, most likely between 22 and 16 thousand years ago. Judging by molecular genetic data, the settlement from Beringia to the south began no earlier than 16.6 thousand years ago, and the size of the “founders” population, from which the entire population of both Americas south of the glacier originated, did not exceed 5000 people. The theory of multiple waves of settlement was not confirmed (with the exception of the Eskimos and Aleuts, who came from Asia much later, but settled only in the far north of the American continent). The theory about the participation of Europeans in the ancient colonization of America has also been refuted.

One of the most important achievements recent years, according to the authors of the article, is that the Clovis people can no longer be considered the first settlers of both Americas south of the glacier. This theory (“Clovis-First model”) assumes that all the more ancient archaeological finds should be recognized as erroneous, and today it is impossible to agree with this. Moreover, this theory is not supported by data on geographical distribution genetic variations among the Indian population, which testify to an earlier and less rapid settlement of the Americas.

The authors of the article propose the following model of the settlement of the New World, which, from their point of view, best explains the totality of the available facts - both genetic and archaeological. Both Americas were settled about 15 thousand years ago - almost immediately after the coastal "corridor" opened, allowing the inhabitants of Alaska to penetrate south by land. Finds in Wisconsin and Chile show that both Americas were already inhabited 14.6 thousand years ago. The first Americans probably had boats, which could have contributed to their rapid settlement along the Pacific coast. The second suggested route of early migrations is westward along the southern edge of the ice sheet to Wisconsin and beyond. There could be especially many mammoths near the glacier, which were followed by ancient hunters.

The emergence of the Clovis culture was the result of two thousand years of development of ancient American mankind. Perhaps the center of origin of this culture was the south of the United States, because it was here that their main "working workshops" were found.

Another option is not excluded. The Clovis culture could have been created by the second wave of migrants from Alaska, who passed through the eastern “corridor” that opened 13–13.5 thousand years ago. However, if this hypothetical "second wave" did take place, it is extremely difficult to identify it by genetic methods, since the source of both "waves" was the same ancestral population that lived in Alaska.

The settlement of all continents (except Antarctica) occurred in the period from 40 to 10 thousand years ago. At the same time, it is obvious that it was possible to get, for example, to Australia only by water. The first settlers appeared on the territory of modern New Guinea and Australia about 40 thousand years ago.

By the time the Europeans arrived in America, it was inhabited by a large number of Indian tribes. But before today on the territory of both Americas: North and South - not a single Lower Paleolithic site was found. Consequently, America cannot claim to be the cradle of mankind. People here appear later as a result of migrations.

Perhaps the settlement of this continent by people began about 40 - 30 thousand years ago, as evidenced by the finds of the most ancient tools found in California, Texas and Nevada. Their age, according to the radiocarbon dating method, is 35-40 thousand years. At that time, the ocean level was 60 m lower than the modern one. Therefore, on the site of the Bering Strait, there was an isthmus - Beringia, which connected Asia and America during the Ice Age. At present, there is “only” 90 km between Cape Seward (America) and Cape Vostochny (Asia). This distance was covered by land by the first settlers from Asia. In all likelihood, there were two migration waves from Asia.

They were hunter-gatherer tribes. They crossed from one continent to another, apparently chasing herds of animals, in pursuit of "meat eldorado". Hunting, mostly driven, was carried out on large animals: mammoths, horses (they were found in those days on both sides of the ocean), antelopes, bison. They hunted from 3 to 6 times a month, since the meat, depending on the size of the animal, could be enough for the tribe for five to ten days. As a rule, young men were also engaged in the individual hunting of small animals.

The first inhabitants of the continent led a nomadic lifestyle. For full development It took about 18 thousand years for the “Asian migrants” of the American continent, which corresponds to a change of almost 600 generations. A characteristic feature of the life of a number of American Indian tribes is the fact that they never made the transition to a settled life. Until the conquests of the Europeans, they were engaged in hunting and gathering, and in coastal areas - fishing.

The proof that migration from the Old World took place before the beginning of the Neolithic era is the absence of a potter's wheel, wheeled transport, metal tools among the Indians (before the arrival of Europeans in America during the Great geographical discoveries), since these innovations appeared in Eurasia, when the New World was already "isolated" and began to develop independently.

It seems probable that the settlement was also carried out from the south of South America. Tribes from Australia could have penetrated here through Antarctica. It is known that Antarctica was by no means always covered with ice. The similarity of representatives of a number of Indian tribes with the Tasmanian and Australoid type is obvious. True, if one adheres to the "Asian" version of the settlement of America, then one does not contradict the other. There is a theory according to which the settlement of Australia was carried out by immigrants from Southeast Asia. It is possible that there was a meeting between two migratory flows from Asia to South America.

Penetration to another continent - Australia occurred at the turn of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Due to the lower level of the ocean, “island bridges” probably existed, when the settlers did not just go into the unknown of the open ocean, but moved to another island, which they either saw or knew about its existence. Moving in this way from one island chain of the Malay and Sunda archipelago to another, people eventually ended up in some endemic kingdom of flora and fauna - Australia. Presumably, the ancestral home of the Australians was also Asia. But the migration took place so long ago that it is impossible to find any close relationship of the language of the Australians with any other people. Them physical type close to the Tasmanians, but the latter were completely exterminated by Europeans by the middle of the 19th century.

Australian society, due to its isolation in to a large extent stagnated. The natives of Australia did not know agriculture, and they managed to domesticate only the dingo dog. For tens of thousands of years, they never got out of the infantile state of humanity, time seemed to stop for them. The Europeans found the Australians at the level of hunters and gatherers, wandering from place to place as the feeding landscape became scarce.

The starting point in the development of Oceania was Indonesia. It was from here that the settlers went through Micronesia to central regions Pacific Ocean. First, they mastered the Tahiti archipelago, then the Marquesas Islands, and then the islands of Tonga and Samoa. Apparently, their migration processes were "facilitated" by the presence of a group of coral islands between the Marshall Islands and Hawaii. Now these islands are located at a depth of 500 to 1000 m. The similarity of the Polynesian and Micronesian languages ​​with the group of Malay languages ​​speaks of the "Asian trace".

There is also an "American" theory of the settlement of Oceania. Its founder is the monk X. Zuniga. He is in early XIX in. published treatise, in which he argued that currents and winds from the east dominate in the tropical and subtropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, so the South American Indians, "relying" on the forces of nature, were able to reach the islands of Oceania using balsa rafts. The likelihood of such travels has been confirmed by many travelers. But the palm in confirming the theory of the settlement of Polynesia from the east rightfully belongs to the outstanding Norwegian scientist - traveler Thor Heyerdahl, who in 1947, just like in antiquity, managed to get from the shores of the city of Callao on the Kon-Tiki balsa raft ( Peru) to the Tuamotu Islands.

Apparently both theories are correct. And the settlement of Oceania was carried out by settlers both from Asia and from America.

Half of the first "Pilgrim Fathers" could not stand the first cruel winter - about fifty survived until spring. Local Indians, seeing the suffering of white people, helped Europeans look for game and edible plants, showed what kind of grain can be grown on local, very problematic soil.

The harvest was bountiful. In the fall, for the harvest festival in 1621, the surviving colonists invited the leader and members of the Scuanto Indian tribe, whose care they survived in the new harsh conditions. The holiday and the feast shared with the Indians, became the first celebration of Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the last Thursday of November, became one of the National holidays of the United States. Then the tradition of celebrating remained "only for whites."

And the first American colony, Plymouth, grew up on the lands of the same tribe, which then almost completely died out from chicken pox imported by Europeans. The "Pecot massacre", when the inhabitants of several Pequot villages were burned along with their houses, was also the work of the Plymouth colonists. The Indians began to resist, but it was too late: even the most destructive raids, when dozens of settlements and cities in New England were destroyed, could not change anything. The liberated lands were part of New England, which later became a colony of Massachusetts Bay. Newly arrived Puritans from Great Britain settled in neighboring small towns and settlements, built their own. Between 1630 and 1643 New England received about 20 thousand people, almost 45 thousand moved south or went to the islands of Central America.

One of the popular similes used in describing America is Melting Pot(The authorship of this expression is attributed to various people, including the philosopher and writer R. W. Emerson and the authors of the collection “ New Rome, or the United States of the World” C. Geppu and T. Pesche. However, it became widespread after the production of a play of the same name (Columbia Theatre, Washington, 1908), written by Israel Zanguill, a British journalist and playwright.). Until 1775 this boiler was not yet too hot; the colonists of North America were not bound by either a single confession, or social equality, or ethnic homogeneity. Read about America's "melting pot" in the article US Culture and Patriotism.

A third of Pennsylvania was already inhabited by Lutheran Germans, Anabaptist Mennonites, and representatives of other faiths and sects. Benjamin Franklin was terribly worried that they were not English. But their children spoke English without exception: among the ancestors of white Americans, most of all Germans and Englishmen. Maryland received English Catholics, French Huguenots spread throughout South Carolina. Delaware was preferred by the Swedes. Poles, Germans and Italians settled in Virginia. Settlers often ended up in the New World under the so-called contract: someone richer paid for their transportation, but they had to work for four years on the spot. The relocation of young women was paid for by male bachelors - most often in tobacco, at 120 pounds each. The contract could be resold and the signatory could be forced to work off debts to another person. It was white slavery.

The life of the settlements was regulated very harsh laws with severe punishments, Puritan religious institutions sometimes turned into wild cruelty: we recall, for example, the witch hunt in Salem. Two-thirds of the settlers died on the way or in the first months after the landing. Sometimes they could not withstand the oppression of the "masters" and went to undeveloped lands or Indian territories and settled there, and when they began to be pursued, they fought back or went even further. The border between developed and undeveloped territory continuously moved to the west. Free land invaders were called squatters or pioneers. Thus, a farming civilization of courageous, cruel and mocking people was created, who did not tolerate attacks on their freedom, but did not recognize the rights of other people, for example, Indians.

Criminals, voluntary and involuntary, murderers, prostitutes, beggars, counterfeiters were sent to America At special auctions they could be bought for seven years of hard work. England, whose prisons were overcrowded, willingly sent prisoners of war from Scotland and Ireland there. The Irish had a doubly hard time: the first British settlers met them with hostility.