American Genesis: The American Indian and the Origins of Modern Man

18 AMERICAN GENESIS
Up until now, archaeologists and anthropologists firmly believed
that: (1) several million years ago, Homo habilis, the first
clear ancestor on man's lineage, appeared in Africa; (2) approximately
one million years ago, Homo erectus, a more advanced
form , appeared in Asia, Africa, and Europe; (3) about 180,000
years ago, "near men" called Neanderthals dominated Europe;
and finally, ( 4) fully modern man, our direct ancestors, appeared
in Europe 35,000 years ago, spreading into Africa and Asia and
eventually reaching North America 12,000 years ago. Since, according
to this scenario, there were no fully modern men anywhere
in the world 70,000 years ago, these new American discoveries,
mostly from North America, point to the astonishing thesis
that men like ourselves, subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, made
their world debut in the Americas, instead of in Europe. The
proverbial Garden of Eden may have been in North America in
southern California, and from this Garden the first fully modem
men may have ventured forth bearing cultural and technological
gifts to the rest of the world.
New information has come from far below the earth's surface,
from depths of fifteen to sixty feet, much deeper than the few feet
usually dug by archaeologists in the Americas. Steam shovels
working on hOusing sites, steep rain-etched gulleys, and exploratory
shafts have penetrated a thick earthen veil to offer a glimpse
of these ancient times. Buried under the virtually unexplored geological
strata of the American continents may be a message for all
of mankind: a saga of Our true origins-the saga of who man is
and where he has come from.
Ironically, ten years ago the famed Dr. Louis Leakey stood
alone when he suggested that there was an ancient prehistoric
bounty to be found in the Americas. The theory that modem man
first appeared in the Americas is quite a new theory, a turnabout
in archaeological thinking. Until recently, it has been an accepted
fact that successive waves of nomadic Asian hunters unwittingly
wandered across the now submerged Bering Land Bridge-the
land corridor which connected Asia to Alaska in glacial times-to
populate a new continent and become the first American Indians.