mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Picture */Interview with Dennis Stanford Continued/* We also should not discount ideas of coastal migration particularly around the Pacific Rim. With the southern Asian populations that were apparently moving out of China and Indo-China, they moved as far as Australia by at least 40,000 years ago if not 100,000 years ago. In order to do that you have to be able to navigate some pretty rough ocean travel. And it seems to me that if folks are able to do that then there's no question in my mind that they can move across the coastal areas of the northern Pacific Rim and move down through the coastal regions of British Columbia and clearly get as far south in South America as Tiera del Fuego. I would say that 99% of Paleo archeologists haven't given maritime tradition and Paleo Indians much play at all. Some people are beginning to talk about the coastal migration, but I think it's time we talk about it a whole bunch. These people had water craft. If you look at the distribution of Clovis sites in the East, they seem to be associated with the large rivers and you can follow them up and down these rivers and, I think it's a matter of time before we find a site where there are boats preserved. These people are using the rivers as ways to get around, ways to transport flint. One of the real interesting facets of Clovis technology is that they select the best flint possible. Look at this speciment here. That's a marvelous artifact. Look at the rock, the color. It was chosen for these colors, it was flaked to incorporate this red here at the tip. It has a prominent white stripe coming all the way across the center section. So they're playing with the colors. They're going out of their way, sometimes several hundred kilometers - or more - to get raw materials. There's probably a lot of reasons for that. This raw material here, the guy had to go some 300 kilometers to pick up (from where we found the artifact) while in fact, there was excellent chert within 50 miles of where he was. We see that over and over again, they were selecting for specific rocks. They have to be the highest quality. Now why that is, I'm not sure. I think it probably goes back to some of the ideas about respect for the game. These people are hunting mammoths and probably having to fend off saber-toothed tigers and cave bears. They've got some pretty wild critters out there that they're dealing with. And one way to deal with it of course is through magic - through more power - and you can get more power if you select the right rock, particulary colored rocks, it shows respect for your animals. Well they're doing that and in the process, particularly on the East Coast, they're moving great amounts of rock up and down these river valleys. The only way you're going to do that to the extent that we see it, is either a long, long time period, which is probably going on, but it would be a whole lot easier to pack these rocks up and down the river by boat too. So I think water craft plays a big part in the peopling of the New World. Not only from the arrival but through the distribution over the entire continent. And I think we're going to have to start thinking in terms of people with boats. We're beginning to get a whole new picture. It's clear that it's much more complex. But that's* *what's so exciting because some day we will know. All we have to do is keep plugging away and keep an open mind on what we're seeing out there and play with some of these ideas that we might at first blush say, "Oh that's ridiculous*, *we'd never say that..." but I think if we keep going we'll be surprised at what we find. Humans are humans* *and these are modern humans just like you and me, with well developed brains that can reason and figure out. Ocean going travel isn't that much and they could do it. And it's going to be real fun to get the answer to that one. Picture Photo © Smithsonian * Strong yet flexible, the skin boat which can carry more than 40 people, is a technology found among the ancient, northern sea peoples of Europe, Asia and North America.* Picture Photo © T.W. Timreck * Clovis people traveled great distances to obtain beautiful materials for these points.* */We're beginning to get a whole new picture. It's clear that it's much more complex. But that's what's so exciting because some day we will know./* Home <../index.html> | Northern Traces <../html/ancient.html> | Introduction | <../html/introduction.html> Kennewick Man <../html/kennewick_man.html>| Dennis Stanford <../html/dennis_stanford.html> Copyright © 1997. Smithsonian Institution.