Archaeologists uncover increasing evidence that the initial Americans were skilled mariners, rather than overland settlers. A fresh study by an international team of scientists casts doubt on the classic theory that the first people reached the Americas via the land ice bridge—Beringia. According to the work, published in the journal Science Advances, migration likely began from the coastal regions of Northeast Asia and proceeded by sea. This voyage might have commenced from a territory encompassing Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.
Genetic data suggests that the ancestral population of Native Americans formed in Northeast Asia approximately 25,000 years ago and endured a prolonged period of isolation. Researchers propose that this “stagnation period” took place in the coastal zone of Hokkaido-Sakhalin-Kurils, where conditions were considerably milder than in icy Beringia.
A central piece of support for the hypothesis is archaeological similarity. Stone spear points and blades found in North America and on Hokkaido share an almost identical elliptical shape, bifacial working, and robust cross-section. These implements, dated to 18–20 millennia ago, appear in Beringia several thousand years later. The investigators assert that the technological flow proceeded from Asia to America, not the reverse, indicating a unified cultural tradition.
During the peak of the last glacial maximum (around 29–18 thousand years ago), inland routes across Beringia were extremely perilous and, according to archaeology, remained unused. Concurrently, there is proof that people on the Japanese islands already possessed maritime abilities about 35,000 years ago. This suggests that migrants advanced along the shore, utilizing marine resources via the “kelp highway.”
The paper’s authors note that these early seafarers might have constituted a “ghost population” that left no direct genetic trace in modern peoples but played a vital role in populating the continent.
“We now view findings from Japan as part of a worldwide dispersal process of humans,” notes Associate Professor Masami Izuho. If the hypothesis is validated by further investigation of submerged coastal areas, it will alter the perception of humanity’s final expansion: not as a random crossing over ice, but as a deliberate oceanic venture by expert navigators.
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