Quotes

A date of 30,000 BP is consistent with the population of Outer Micronesia and a date of 12,500 BP for population of Monte Verde, Chile (Dillehay 2000:65-66; Cowen 2005:304; Dillehay 1997:32; Dillehay and Meltzer 1999:61). Could travel between the two locations happen within the 17,500 years between them? There is a lot of research that states that this was not possible, as Professor Patrick Kirch describes, “Transport distances in Remote Oceania are an order of magnitude greater than those within the Near Oceanic ‘voyaging nursery’. They could never be successfully crossed with the crude technology we infer for early humans in the Pleistocene, or even the early Holocene” (Kirch 2000: 303). The issue is deep ocean travel over thousands of kilometers. With no stops for fresh water or food, it would have been extremely difficult. However, it is quite possible that there were stops on this excursion. The planet was in the latest episode of ice advance between 22,000 – 18,000 BP (Cowen 2005:299). At that point in time the sea levels not only dropped to form the Beringia land bridge, but the sea level also dropped in all the oceans. Follow this link to two maps: one indicates ice coverage in the late Pleistocene and the other indicates current Pacific Ocean depths. Not only does the Beringia land bridge appear, but all islands throughout the world would have increased their size as the waters retreated. Islands that are today covered by ocean could have breached the surface. In addition to this drop in sea level, a geological phenomenon known as isostasy is involved.



According to Professors James Monore and Reed Wicander, “When the Pleistocene ice sheets formed and increased in their size, their weight caused the crust to respond by slowly subsiding deeper into the mantle. In some places, the surface was depressed by as much as 300 m below pre-glacial elevations. As the ice sheets disappeared, the downwarped areas gradually rebounded to their former positions” (Monore and Wicander 2005:528). In the southern hemisphere, the ice accumulated not only on the high mountains of the Andes, but also upon Antarctica. The drop in sea level was also influenced by isostasy due to the weight of this ice. According to geophysicists Jerry Mitrovica and Richard Peltier of the University of Toronto, “the great weight of glacial ice near the poles would have pressed down the land beneath it, which in turn would have pushed up the sea floor in a surrounding ring at mid-latitudes” (Kerr: 2003:1889). Unlike the northern hemisphere, the ice advance in the southern hemisphere would have taken place over the oceans that border Antarctica. The northern reach of the Antarctic Ice Sheet may have reached further north than previously thought. Based upon a study of kelp by Zoologist Ceridwen Fraser, “The best explanation for the genetic similarity in kelp – across enormous distances in the sub-Antarctic – is the sea ice wiped it out from many regions previously thought to have been ice free” (Shaw 2009:22). The Antarctic ice sheet would have had the same affect on the southern hemisphere’s climate as the ice sheets covering areas of the northern hemisphere affected the climate of that hemisphere.

According to Philippe Huybrechts, "Finally, in addition to the expansion of grounded ice, mention should be made of the ice extent in the Southern Ocean. From lithological changes, sedimentation rate changes and distribution of ice-rafted detritus in Antarctic deep-sea sediments, Cooke and Hays (1982) predict that the winter sea-ice Cover during the late Wisconsin was probably about double of today's, with a surface area of 40 X 106 km2 and extending to 46's in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Summer sea ice 18000 years ago was probably similar to today's winter coverage. Denton et al. (1986) proposed that the Antarctic ice sheet was bounded by an extensive ice shelf in dynamic equilibrium with the grounded portions of the ice sheet. They believe that the ice shelf merged imperceptibly with the permanent pack ice and possibly extended as far as 800 km beyond the continental shelf limit. Similarly, Johnson and Andrews (1986) argue that during the late Wisconsin the Antarctic continent was entirely encircled by a vast ice shelf. According to their reconstruction, this ice shelf may have extended to 55's” (Huybrechts 1991). One of the changes in the Pacific Ocean caused by the large amount of ice was the ocean currents. Weather patterns, which influence ocean currents, were affected by this as well, “This increase in aridity may have been due to the a shift in the position of the cold Humboldt Current, which had been well to the south along the west coast of South America during the late Pleistocene. As this current moved northward during the early Holocene, the North Pacific anticyclonic systems were displaced northward, creating rainfall reductions in the mountains and probably along the coast as well” (Yesner 1996:246). 

If these conditions of the late Pleistocene south Pacific correlate with habitable lands that could have been used as supply stops or even temporary settlements, then it is quite possible that humans continued their journey eastward across the Pacific. Following the path of habitable lands and the West Wind Drift current they could have made landfall on the South American coast. If this is the case, then why do the archaeological records of some of the Pacific Islands begin within the past 2000 years (Kirch 2000:251-255). This can be explained in a logical format. Imagine, you are on an island and your family has lived there for generations. Your grandfather tells you of a time when the shore used to be further out in the sea. Humans, knowing of this rise in sea level but only over a period of generations, would think that their island was sinking would make plans to travel to safety. It is this environmental change that would cause concern as “sea levels rose rapidly during the early Holocene, and throughout much of the central Pacific they reached a level 1 – 1.5 meters higher than at present by about 4,000 – 6,000 years ago. Thus archaeological sites dating to this time period are frequently found on older beach terraces, sometimes a considerable distance inland from present coastlines” (Kirch 2000:58). Some of these islands completely disappear beneath the waves due to both sea level rise and land rebound of Antarctica causing a subsidence of the land in the middle latitudes. The islands that did not disappear below the sea still lost their human populations because the humans living there would not have known how far inland the sea was to come.

The sea level rise not only affected the islands of the Pacific Ocean but all other areas of land that were once below water. This includes lakes and rivers as an increase in sea level results in higher water levels for not only the oceans but for all the water that flows into the oceans (Monroe and Wicander 2005:526-528). This included the Monte Verde site as “In the subarctic pine forests of the low southern Cordillera people lived briefly along the sandy bank of a little creek until it backed up and capped their former settlement with a thin layer of peat” (Moseley 2001:89). Though Monte Verde is 70 km from the Pacific Ocean it was located in next to a freshwater water source (Dillehay 2000:160-163).

Further evidence