Alaska's Role in the Peopling of the Americas
Alaska is conspicuously seen as the entrance between the old and the new worlds. Statistics reveal that it has been used in many examples of the peopling of the Americas. Due to presence of numerous archeological sites, Alaska has the potential of giving solid proof including the Americas colonization (Bever). Alaska constitutes 27 sites with 114 radio carbon dates. The late Pleistocene Alaska anthropological records are categorized into three complexes including the nana complex, Mesa complex and the microblade-bearing Denali complex (Bever). These records have contradictory explanations due to their diversity. Moreover, the younger Dryas climatic event corresponds with them. Despite of lacking dated sites that are older than the original proof of human settlement in South Americas, Alaska is still considered the door to the New World in reference to DNA research (Bever).
The Beringia or Bering Land Bridge Theory
However, the Beringia or Bering Land Bridge is one of the commonest theory that explains that Alaska and Siberia are the last land masses occupied by human beings during the ice age (Fiedel). This theory claims that Beringia gave passage to ancestors of Native Americans between forty thousand and fifteen thousand years ago after it emerged from the sea, drained by water locking effect and spread out ice leaving bear land mass. Based on current studies that compare this theory to migration, the earliest date, based on the footprint left in the Mexican volcanic might be wildly off track. In addition to archeological prove that exists, the oldest fossils of the known human remains are dated 13, 000 years ago. This matches the studies of DNA that reveals the genetic composition of ancestors of the Native Americans comprises of those from people from eastern Siberia who travelled less than 20000 year ago across Beringia (Schurr). However, the time they are they left and the time difference is clarified by the existence of Laurentide and Cordilleran that obstructed entry to North America. They were forced to wait until the ice age in Beringia is over. Due to warming up of the environmental conditions, melting of ice commenced, giving way for the migrants to continue with their journey.
Sources
Bever, Michael R. Too Little, Too Late? The Radiocarbon Chronology of Alaska and the Peopling of the New World. American Antiquity 71: 595-620, 2006.
Fiedel, Stuart J. The Kennewick Follies: "New" Theories about the Peopling of the Americas. Journal of Anthropological Research 60:75-110, 2004.
Schurr, Theodore G. Mitochondial DNA and the Peopling of the New World. American Scientist 88:246-253, 2000.
