For a long time, it was believed that the American continent was uninhabited until about 11,500 years ago when Asian and Siberian tribes, following mammoths in hunting, crossed the Bering Strait, which became passable during the Ice Age.
According to genetic analysis, present-day Native American tribes are indeed direct descendants of Asian tribes. However, genetic analysis also shows that today’s Native Americans are descendants of other peoples, meaning that when these Asian and Siberian tribes arrived on the North American continent, they encountered older cultures. This is the story of one of them – the Solutrean culture from northwestern France, which left descendants in the New World.
The Solutrean Culture
This culture was named after the place Solutré in France. It belongs to the late Paleolithic cultures and is considered the most developed culture in the then Europe. It reached its peak about 17,000 to 21,000 years ago. It differs from the surrounding cultures in terms of a high level of tool processing technique, and its unique characteristics include
dedicated to the production of spearheads shaped like willow leaves and those with a protruding edge on one end. They were the first to recognize the importance of heat treatment of the spearheads, which gave them extra strength and allowed them to easily penetrate mammoth skin.
Later on, they also worked on both sides of their spearheads, creating spears with two edges. At that time, such a technique was not found anywhere else in the world – except in the Clovis culture of the American continent!
During the middle period of the development of the Solutrean culture, we also find bone needles with holes, similar to those found among Inuit tribes who have preserved their traditional way of life to this day.
As Asian tribes were not familiar with such techniques for working spearheads, Native American tribes could not have inherited it from them. The only possible source of inheritance would have been the Solutrean culture. In fact, the production of spearheads is so similar that they can almost be interchangeable! The first person to notice this was Dr. Bruce Bradley, an archaeologist who is dedicated to the study of ancient technology. specialized in weapons and tools from the Stone Age.
The Age of American Cultures
Despite this unusual coincidence, there has long been resistance to connecting these two cultures. Namely, due to the unquestioned belief in the exclusive Asian origin of Native Americans, most scientists did not even consider seeking evidence of the existence of human culture on the American continent before that time. All excavations were interrupted before reaching deeper layers, until Jim Adovasio from Mercyhurst College in Pennsylvania continued to dig in layers that preceded the Clovis culture and came across a wealth of finds dating back as far as 16,000 years BC.
The first indications of this idea emerged as early as 1933, when a spear from the Clovis culture was found in New Mexico next to a mammoth fossil that was older than 11,500 years! However, the scientific community was not yet ready to explain this phenomenon.
Pre-Clovis cultural sites are mostly located In North America, there are several well-known archaeological sites, such as Cactus Hill in Virginia and Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, where Jim Adovasio conducted excavations. Cactus Hill is particularly significant because spearhead specimens dating back 16,000 years were found there, representing a link between the Solutrean and later Clovis cultures, as concluded by Bruce Bradly.
In South America, Tom Dillehay from the University of Kentucky explored Monte Verde in Chile and determined that the site was inhabited 12,500 years ago, which predates Asian settlement.
The Clovis culture emerged with the arrival of the first Asian tribes 9,500 years before Christ and adopted the knowledge of cultures that inhabited the American continent before them. One of these manifestations is the production of spearheads using highly advanced technology, which originated from the region of present-day France. The Clovis culture encompassed areas of present-day USA, northern Mexico, and southern Canada, and gave rise to other cultures. Native American tribes of North America developed.
Another feature clearly connects the Solutrean culture and the Clovis culture, and that is the discovered shelters with collections of finely crafted spear tips that are often painted with red earth color, which is unique to these two cultures, although the meaning is not fully understood.
All of these indicators indirectly pointed to a completely different history than the one that had long been accepted. These new findings undermined the reputation of established archaeologists and shook the modern Native American community, which also did not easily accept them. Tom Dillehay and Jim Adovasio were long accused of fabricating results or at least being unprofessional until new evidence from the field of genetics appeared, for which Douglas C. Wallace, the director of the Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics at the University of California, is responsible.
The recent genetic studies on the Ichigua tribe of Native Americans from North America have shown. direct connection to the typical European genotype, specifically from the time of the Solutrean culture. Moreover, they have shown a connection with a number of cultures that arrived on the American continent in waves between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago, and the Solutrean culture is just one of them!
Sharon Begley and Andrew Murr studied the preserved skulls of Paleo-Indian tribes and came across completely different races that lived side by side.
A journey across the Atlantic?
How could a European Paleolithic culture have influenced American cultures when, as far as we know, no developed ancient civilization managed to cross the Atlantic?
Scientists have offered the following explanation for this phenomenon: the flourishing period of the Solutrean culture coincided with the peak of the Ice Age. During this time, the snow pushed the tribes into the lowlands, and the hunting grounds became increasingly narrow. Most animals migrated in search of food. At the same time, the polar ice cap extended all the way across the northern Atlantic, and the The level of the world’s seas was much lower because a large part of the water had turned into ice. Research has shown that tribes turned to fishing only when faced with the threat of extreme food shortage, as it is a risky way of life that requires staying in a specific location. Faced with the threat of extinction, some members of the Solutrean culture ventured into the icy and unknown Atlantic.
Atlantis
A possible explanation for the connection between American and European Paleolithic cultures could also be the legendary Atlantis. Myths and legends of the peoples on both shores of the Atlantic are full of stories about a powerful civilization on the continent between Europe and America. This continent disappeared under the sea during a series of cataclysms. Traditions speak of hundreds of thousands of years that passed from the first cataclysm to the sinking of the last remnants of Atlantis mentioned by Plato in his Timaeus and Critias. If Atlantis existed, then the connection between American and European cultures could be a shared origin of those who During the catastrophes, they fled westward to America, or eastward to Europe.
Their technology and tools enabled them to build small open boats. Their advanced spear-making technology allowed them to convert them into harpoons. The invention of the needle allowed them to make waterproof clothing. These are all features they share with the Inuits who still live this way of life today and manage to cross great distances at sea.
In small wooden boats, with only a few people on board, they set off on the waves over long periods of time, following the ice line in the North Atlantic. After fishing, they would disembark onto the nearest ice floe. The boat could be turned around and transformed into a shelter from polar winds and frequent storms. After several months of travel, a small group of survivors would disembark on the northeast coast of America and from there they would set out to conquer the entire continent.
Their arrival and use of the new tools they brought is closely tied to the sudden extinction of large mammals. They encountered various animals there, such as mammoths, giant sloths, large black bears, etc. Dennis Stanford from the Smithsonian Institution has proposed a hypothetical reconstruction of their journey, studying similar endeavors among present-day Inuit who have maintained their way of life unchanged for millennia.
To challenge a person’s ability to create their own path through inevitable obstacles, as the Solutreans were long disputed in such an endeavor, would mean challenging the courage, endurance, and innovation of humanity itself.