The past few decades has seen a raging ideological debate and controversies on whether humans migrated to the new world from Europe in early pre-historic times. The proponents primarily set their basis on the Solutrean hypothesis that was proposed in the year 1998. The theory claims that the earliest American settlers emerged from Europe. This hypothesis tends to contrast with the conventional archaeological orthodoxy claiming that North America was initially populated by Asians.
The Solutrean hypothesis asserts that the Solutreans migrated to North America from Europe during ice age by boat. It is a culture that was endowed with various techniques of making stone tools. There stone tool methodologies were advanced to Clovis technology that was duly spread in North America.

The current discoveries elicit some doubts on legitimacy of Clovis first theory. There is a suggestion that human beings existed earlier than what is alleged by Solutrean theory. Geologists have raised notable doubts on existence of the Canadian ice-free corridor during such a critical period. This elucidates the likelihood that people initially traveled southwards from Beringia along the Pacific shore. As the early hunters enhanced their contributions towards Pleistocene megafauna’s the extinction, the act was probably hastened by the aspect of climate change. One of the most noteworthy evidence regarding the presence of human beings in the New World much earlier than the previous thoughts is ascertained by Monte Verde’s excavations. This involved an excavation aimed towards uncovering the settlement evidence encompassing 20 to 30 individuals. The wrecks of various huts were duly preserved.

After several controversial years, there is a currently an overall expectation that various artifacts found in this site are dated over 12,000 BCE. This was the time Clovis people traversed the Southern region via the Canadian Rockies. The claim therefore asserts that Monte Verde’s ancestors might have crossed Beringia land bridge around 18,000 years ago.

For the past 50 years, most archaeologists have often been adamant with the prevailing facts and theories behind the entrance of humans into the new world. The history particularly begins at the end of ice age. In this case, ice age depicts a moment when there were lower sea levels that allowed big-game hunters thriving along eastern Siberia to follow their prey towards Alaska alongside Bering land bridge. As Canada’s ice caps receded and gave a clear path southwards, the unpopulated continent was swept by the colonists. These kinds of alleged pioneers were termed by archaeologists as the Clovis culture. This conclusion was arrived at after finding distinctive stone tools near Clovis in 1920s.

As the reserves for Clovis tools were uncovered in North America in subsequent decades, the entire archaeologists championing for an ideology that the initial Americans comprised Clovis people. With regards to this allegation, any other evidence encompassing the presence of humans in the New World dismissed. This means that the Clovis time is the main determinant and any other occurrence before this time is invalid.

The findings that were convened in the past few years, as well as re-examination of the older findings—for instance the mastodon rib — clearly shows that human beings arrived in the American continent before the arrival of Clovis people. This allegation has sparked greater interest amongst various archeological experts, thereby opening it up for fresh approaches and ideologies. It is a factor that has enhanced collaboration between archaeologists and Geneticists to come up with a concrete evidence on controversies pertaining the people who came first, the arrival time, as well as the critical analysis of whether the alleged humans travelled by foot or by boat, and the techniques they used to explore the New World.