The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery - Hardcover

Adovasio, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375505520 ISBN 13: 9780375505522

Publisher: Random House USA Inc, 2002

Synopsis

A leading archaeologist addresses the complex puzzle about the origins of the first humans to settle in North America, reassessing common myths about early human migration and lifestyle, arguing that the first Americans most likely arrived by boat, and exploring questions about the role of women in early American society, the origins of Native Americans, and more. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Authors

J. M. Adovasio, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute, generally rec-ognized as the finest small-college–based research and training program in North America. He has achieved international acclaim as the archaeologist in charge of the excavations at Meadowcroft Rockshelter, the earliest indisputably dated archaeological site in North America. He has taught and/or conducted research at the Smithsonian Institution, Youngstown State University, the University of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Institute, and, at present, Mercyhurst College. He lives near Erie, Pennsylvania.<br><br>Jake Page is a former editor of <i>Natural History</i> magazine and science editor of <i>Smithsonian</i> magazine, as well as founder of the Natural History Press and Smithsonian Books. An essay

J. M. Adovasio, Ph.D. is the founder and director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute, generally recognized as the finest small-college-based research and training program in North America.

From the Inside Flap

t J. M. Adovasio has spent the last thirty years at the center of one of our most fiery scientific debates: Who were the first humans in the Americas, and how and when did they get there? <br><br>H. L. Mencken said that “for every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” We all grew up thinking that the first Americans were a band of hunters who crossed the frozen Bering Strait during the Ice Age some twelve thousand years ago and whose descendants spread to the tip of South America in five hundred years. Now, in no small part because of J. M. Adovasio’s work, our notions of who first peopled the Western Hemisphere, how they arrived, and how they lived have been forever changed. <br><br>Adovasio begins <i>The First Americans </i>by putting his work into historical context, from the earliest European fantasies about where the Native Americans came from to the birth of modern archaeology and the origins of the dogma his own work ha

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375505520
• ISBN 13: 9780375505522
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328