Paleolithic:  "The cultural period beginning with the earliest chipped stone tools, about 750,000 years ago, until the beginning of the Mesolithic Age, about 15,000 years ago." 

	Although experts disagree on the earliest settlement of immigrants in North America, it is universally conceded that Paleolithic humans crossed the "land-bridge", (known as Beringia), caused by a drop in the water level of the Bering Sea, at the Bering Strait either prior to the first Wisconsin stage of the ice age (70,000 - 50,000 BC) or the second stage (50,000 - 40,000 BC). Sea levels fell as much as 500 feet due to the impounding of water by the forming ice. Conversely, when the ice melted, the sea levels rose and Beringia submerged. While it may be difficult to comprehend immigrants arriving here as early as 70,000 BC, the theory becomes credible when placed in the context that Paleolithic and pre-Paleolithic artifacts have been unearthed on other continents that date back to 750,000 B.C.
	[Back]    [Next]   [Up]   [New Search] 'Indian' segment written in December, 1997 by David Lodge	After crossing Beringia, these prehistoric Indians (called prehistoric because they pre-date written history) or ‘Amerinds’ settled in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Eventually they migrated south following the forming of an "ice-free corridor" that allowed them to move through Alberta and Saskatchewan. In time, this route disappeared when the two great ice sheets merged around 20,000 - 15,000 BC.