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America's Stone Age Explorers
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Program Overview
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NOVA investigates the evidence for and controversies surrounding who the first
Americans were, where they came from, and how they arrived in the Americas.
The program:
reports how a type of prehistoric spearhead—known as the Clovis
point—was found in 1933 in Clovis, New Mexico, and later discovered in
all 48 contiguous states, Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica. notes that mammoth bones found near the Clovis point were dated at 13,500
years ago, coinciding with the end of the last great Ice Age and mass extinction
of some 35 genera of big animals, or megafauna. presents the conventional, so-called Clovis-first theory—that
Clovis people crossed a now-submerged land bridge spanning the Bering Strait
and then made their way south via an ice-free corridor between the great ice
sheets that covered most of Canada. reviews controversial archeological evidence indicating the entry of
pre-Clovis people, and reports on a possible Ice Age migration route along the
Pacific coastline of Alaska. explains how mitochondrial DNA was used to strengthen the case that
people migrated to the Americas at least 20,000 years ago. relates the search for the origins of the Clovis point and recounts the
findings of similar spear points made by the Solutreans
of Ice Age France and Spain. reports on evidence from a site in Virginia that some scientists claim
bridges a 5,000-year gap between Solutrean and Clovis points. examines Inuit survival strategies to understand how prehistoric European
travelers could have made an Ice Age Atlantic Ocean crossing. voices criticisms of the transatlantic theory, for instance, that many
types of Solutrean artifacts and personal ornaments are not found in North
America. reports on an emerging new portrait of the first Americans as people who
arrived by various routes 20,000 years ago, spread throughout the country and
eventually started making the Clovis point—perhaps the first great
American invention—13,500 years ago.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program is taped off the air.
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