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A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 3 sepTember 2019

This undated photo provided by Loren Davis in August 2019 shows an overview of the Cooper’s Ferry canyon in western Idaho.
Associated Press
Idaho artifacts suggest Pacific entry for first Americans

By MALCOLM RITTER carded food, Davis said. Idaho long before the cor- A migration from the Hok- Michael Waters of the Cen-
AP Science Writer The site is between 15,280 ridor opened, citing oth- kaido area could have ter for the Study of the First
NEW YORK (AP) — Scien- and 16,560 years old, for an ers’ research that says it skirted the southern coast Americans at Texas A&M
tists say they’ve found arti- approximate age of 16,000 was open by about 14,800 of Beringea before head- said he prefers an age of
facts in Idaho that indicate years, analysis indicated. It years ago. The best expla- ing south along the Pacific, between 14,200 years and
people were living there was occupied repeatedly nation, he said, is that “they he said. Experts familiar 15,000 years ago. That
around 16,000 years ago, over time, researchers said. came down the coast and with the work gave differ- would put it in the time
providing new evidence What does it all mean? For took a left-hand turn south ing opinions on the site’s frame of several sites in Tex-
that the first Americans en- one thing, the researchers of the ice, and went up the age, reflecting the difficulty as, Wisconsin and Oregon,
tered their new home by said, the calculated age Columbia River Basin.” of interpreting data for as- he said. As for the Japan
following the Pacific coast. argues for one side of a The site also revealed a signing ages to artifacts. A connection, “I think they’re
The discovery also points to debate about just how the style of stone projectile site in Texas has also been on to something there.”
Japan as a possible origin first Americans arrived. point that resembles arti- dated to about 16,000 Waters called the site “a
or influence for the migra- The traditional narrative is facts of similar age on the years, but Davis said the great discovery.”
tion, said study leader Lo- that the peopling of the Japanese island of Hok- technique used for Coo- Ben Potter of the University
ren Davis of Oregon State Americas began after a kaido. So that supports the per’s Ferry is more precise. of Alaska in Fairbanks ques-
University. migration crossed a now- idea that the migration Dennis Jenkins, senior re- tioned the reported age of
Other experts were split on submerged land bridge that led to the first Ameri- search archaeologist at the artifacts. He said the
what the findings mean called Beringia that used cans may have begun in the University of Oregon’s most secure age estimates
and how old they are, not to extend from Siberia to that area, when Hokkaido Museum of Natural and do not precede the open-
an unusual reaction in the Alaska. The migration’s was part of a larger land Cultural History, said the ing of the ice-free corridor,
contentious topic of early progress south from there mass, Davis said. Or it could Idaho site appears to go so the new paper doesn’t
humans in the New World. was blocked for a while by have started somewhere back 16,000 years. He also rule out that possible entry
Davis and colleagues re- massive ice sheets in Cana- else in northeast Asia, but said the paper provides “a point. He also said he was
ported Thursday in the da, but eventually a gap in still reflect a cultural con- major advance” by linking not convinced by the com-
journal Science on their ex- the ice opened and peo- tribution of the Hokkaido early Americans to Japan parison with the Japanese
cavation of the Cooper’s ple moved through this so- area, he said. more firmly than before. artifacts.q
Ferry site in western Idaho. called “ice-free corridor.”
In the oldest part of the But in recent years, as sci-
site, they found 43 flakes entists have found earlier Australia lowers Great Barrier
that had evidently been and earlier signs of humans
chipped off of stones in living in the Americas, some Reef outlook to ‘very poor’
the process of making tools have argued that people
like those found in younger had shown up before that By ROD McGUIRK
areas of the site. They also corridor appeared. So CANBERRA, Australia
found four such flakes that maybe they traveled the (AP) — The government
had been modified to be Pacific instead, either on agency that manages
used for a task like cutting foot or by boat, or both. Australia’s Great Barrier
or scraping, and pieces Davis said his paper indi- Reef has downgraded
of bone that indicate dis- cates people were living in its outlook for the corals’
condition from “poor” to
“very poor” due to warm-
ing oceans.
The Great Barrier Reef
Marine Park Authority’s In this Nov. 25, 2016, photo, fish swim along the edges
condition report, which is of a coral reef off Great Keppel Island in Australia.
updated every five years, Associated Press
is the latest bad news for work off the northeast The report issued Friday
the 345,400 square kilo- Australian coast as cli- finds the greatest threat
meter (133,360 square mate change and coral to the reef remains cli-
miles) colorful coral net- bleaching take their toll. mate change. q