| The question of whether Europeans migrated to | | | | bifaces and the remains of extinct fauna |
| and inhabited the Americas prior to the | | | | recovered in the deepest culture-bearing |
| modern discovery by Columbus has been of | | | | stratum of several sites across the United |
| longstanding interest and controversy. In | | | | States. Hibben noted that the flaking |
| fact, for over 200 years scholars have asked | | | | technology of the artifacts recovered from |
| whether late Pleistocene (18,000-13,000 years | | | | one of these sites - Sandia Cave in New |
| ago) or early to middle Holocene | | | | Mexico - more closely resembled the Solutrean |
| (12,000-5,000 years ago) Europeans also might | | | | technology of Paleolithic era France than |
| have migrated to the Americas prior to | | | | Clovis era fluted points from North America. |
| Columbus' 1492 discovery. The question had | | | | The Solutrean hypothesis, as a result of this |
| been posed so often that by 1891 a volume | | | | cursory evidence and the fact that the |
| entitled "America Not Discovered by | | | | Clovis-first model is no longer feasible, |
| Columbus," by Rasmus B. Anderson, contained a | | | | postulates that Upper Palaeolithic peoples |
| bibliography with over 350 entries on the | | | | from Europe utilizing Solutrean lithic |
| topic. It listed claims of America's | | | | technology migrated into the Americas during |
| discovery not only by Europeans, but also by | | | | the late Pleistocene (18,000-13,000 years |
| Chinese, Arabs, Welsh, Venetians, Portuguese, | | | | ago), most likely along the partially frozen |
| and Poles. However, the majority of the | | | | North Atlantic. Evidence supporting such an |
| references supported the notion of Vikings as | | | | argument, however, has remained elusive and |
| the first Old World cultural group to reach | | | | highly controversial. One of the most |
| the Americas. | | | | noteworthy limitations of the Solutrean |
| | | | hypothesis is the fact that primarily because |
| This hypothesis was confirmed in 1960 when | | | | the Solutrean ended in Europe at least 5,000 |
| Norse ruins at L'Anse aux Meadows on the | | | | years before the first recognized lithic |
| northern tip of Newfoundland were found by | | | | technology has been conclusively dated for |
| Helge Ingstad. Evidence from L'Anse aux | | | | the Americas. |
| Meadows and a few other sites found on the | | | | |
| north Atlantic coast indicates that | | | | Likewise, archaeological, |
| Norse-related peoples settled a few outposts | | | | craniomorphological, and genetic evidence |
| of a couple dozen individuals in North | | | | argues against any pre-Columbus European |
| America around 1,000 years ago. These | | | | contact or settlement of the Americas. In |
| outposts did not, however, lead to a viable, | | | | fact, there is a growing body of evidence and |
| unique population in the Americas. Instead, | | | | a number of sites that demonstrate long-term |
| they most likely only lasted a season or two, | | | | indigenous growth and cultural development in |
| based on radiocarbon dates obtained from the | | | | the Americas. Sites such as Gault and Cueva |
| sites. Thus, if there was any contact with | | | | Quebrada in Texas, Monte Verde in Chile, |
| American Indians or First Nation peoples by | | | | Meadowcroft in Pennsylvania, and Cactus Hill |
| Old World cultural groups, it would have been | | | | in Virginia all point to a pre-Clovis initial |
| scant and short-term. | | | | settling of the Western Hemisphere. So did |
| | | | Europeans discover the Americas before |
| More recently, several sites and lines of | | | | Columbus? The evidence says yes. Did they |
| evidence have been cited as supporting an | | | | migrate to, or settle, the Americas prior to |
| even earlier possible migration of Europeans | | | | Columbus' modern-day colonial discovery? The |
| into the Americas. Originally proposed by | | | | evidence says no. The only people who |
| Nels C. Nelson in 1936 and later supported by | | | | migrated to, and settled, the Americas before |
| Frank Hibben, the Solutrean hypothesis has | | | | the modern European colonial period, based on |
| gained popularity in years as the | | | | the latest empirical evidence, were the |
| Clovis-first model of the peopling of the | | | | ancestors of today's American Indian, Alaskan |
| Americas has been slowly debunked. The | | | | Native, and First Nation peoples. |
| Solutrean hypothesis is based on leaf-shaped | | | | |