sailing americas

When we were introduced to this reading, I thought it was going to focus on the way people came to the Americas and the way they traveled by boat. However, I did not expect the first section to focus so much on the early, early history. Today the Pacific Ocean is nothing compared to what it was back in earlier times. I could only imagine the difference between the boats of today compared to earlier versions. I agree with the author when he states that some researchers say humans have not been sailing for very long, yet cannot justify how people have migrated across the sea and across the water. It would only make sense for humans to travel across the seas in order to migrate to other countries. I find it weird and interesting to think that we currently live in a time where our sea levels are much higher than that of earlier times. To think that a previous coastline is submerged under the water is so fascinating. I guess this would explain why in the ocean you find areas that seem to “drop off”. It would be really cool if we had the ability to suck up the ocean water for one day just to investigate the area where these ancient coastlines existed to see if there are any boats or signs of civilization buried deep under the sand. But sucking up all the water and keeping the sea animals unharmed in the process is impossible, so we will have to deal with the little ability we have now.

Reading this article helps me to understand how difficult it is to really pinpoint the time when people inhabited the different continents. I would have thought that it was easier considering we have found a lot of fossils and traces of civilization. Then again, it definitely makes sense that we do not have much information on ancient peoples because as stated earlier, almost all of the ruins of boating is at sea levels much lower than ours today.

Throughout this reading, the author continues to comment how far people had to travel and how difficult it was for these people to travel across the ocean. It just amazes me how historians find this so impossible yet it happened. Somehow the ancient peoples defied the odds, worked hard, and managed to get across oceans.

The picture in the second section caught my attention. The map shows the glaciation during the Late Pleistocene age. It is so crazy to think that there was ice so much further than it was today. At first glance, it does not seem that it is much, but considering how long it takes to make a dent like that is unbelievable. It is also scary to think that we are still diminishing this today.

This article really opened my eyes to the issues that anthropologists and historians are facing in order to really find the way the original people traveled across the world.When more ancient peoples' boats are found, it will change the American history forever.