Hortensia de los Santos

Reevaluating Early Human Migration

Evidence for a South to North Population Movement Through the Drake Passage into the Americas

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Abstract

Traditional models of human migration into the Americas posit an entry via Beringia around 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, followed by a southward expansion. However, recent discoveries, including evidence from Monte Verde (Chile), Pedra Furada (Brazil), and Santa Elina (Brazil), suggest significantly earlier human presence in South America (~30,000 years ago or more).

This paper examines the possibility of an alternative migration route, hypothesizing that early humans may have entered South America first, potentially using an Antarctic-to-South America pathway via the Drake Passage, before migrating northward.

We integrate paleoclimatic data, oceanographic models, and fossilization rates to assess the feasibility of this hypothesis, considering pre-Younger Dryas flooding events and paleontological gaps caused by extreme environmental shifts.

1. Introduction

• 1.1 Traditional Beringia Hypothesis
  • The widely accepted model suggests humans entered North America via Beringia, around 15,000 years ago.
  • Evidence includes genetic studies linking Native Americans with Siberian populations.
• 1.2 Challenges to the Beringia-First Model
Key sites challenging the model include:
• - Monte Verde (~14,500 years ago, Chile)
• - Pedra Furada (~50,000 years ago, Brazil)
• - Santa Elina (~27,000 years ago, Brazil)

These findings suggest a need to explore alternative routes into South America.

• 1.3 The Need for an Alternative Model
• If South America was inhabited earlier than 15,000 years ago, then migration via Beringia alone does not explain this pattern.
• The potential role of Antarctica and the Drake Passage as a migration route remains unexplored.
• This study examines whether early humans could have entered South America first, migrating northward to North America.

2. Geological & Climatic Feasibility

• 2.1 Paleogeography of Antarctica & South America (~50,000 to 20,000 years ago)
• Before 34 million years ago, Antarctica had a warmer climate, supporting forests and animal life.
• By 50,000 years ago, Antarctica was fully glaciated, but potential ice-free coastal refuges may have existed. ☟Read about Antarctica new information
• 2.2 Ocean Currents and Possible Seafaring Migration
  • Early humans were maritime-adapted and reached Australia by 50,000 years ago.
  • Could they have also reached Antarctica and South America?
  • The Antarctic Circumpolar Current presents navigational challenges, but Polynesian-style drift voyaging may have been possible.
• 2.3 The Younger Dryas & Preservation of Early Sites
  • The Younger Dryas Floods (~12,800 years ago) would have destroyed early human sites. This would explain the lack of fossilized human remains from before 20,000 years ago.

3. Fossilization Rate Analysis

• 3.1 Estimating the Probability of Fossilized Human Remains
  • Fossilization is extremely rare (~0.01% or less of individuals are preserved).
  • The Younger Dryas Flooding likely reduced fossilization rates even further (~10x reduction).
• 3.2 Where Should We Expect Fossil Evidence?
  • Potential locations for fossil evidence:
    • - Cave systems in Patagonia (southern Chile & Argentina)
    • - Submerged coastal regions of South America
    • - Antarctic Peninsula (if ice-free refuges existed)
    • - Drake Passage Islands (e.g., South Georgia, Falkland Islands)

4. Alternative Historical & Maritime Evidence

• 4.1 The Piri Reis Map & Theories of Pre-Ice Age Navigation
  • Some researchers speculate that the Piri Reis Map (1513 CE) shows an ice-free Antarctica.
  • Could early humans have mapped or migrated along the Antarctic coast?
• 4.2 Polynesian & South American Contact
  • Polynesians reached South America before Europeans (~1000 CE), suggesting early long-distance oceanic migration was possible.
  • Could similar navigation methods have been used thousands of years earlier?

5. Conclusion & Future Research Directions

• 5.1 Summary of the Hypothesis
  • South America shows signs of early human presence (~30,000 years ago or earlier).
  • Traditional Beringia-first models do not fully explain these findings.
  • An Antarctic-South American migration route via the Drake Passage is feasible if:
    • - Early humans had seafaring capabilities.
    • - Ice-free refuges existed in coastal Antarctica.
    • - Fossil evidence was later destroyed or submerged.
• 5.2 Predictions for Future Archaeological Research
  • Future research should focus on:
    • - LIDAR scanning of Antarctica for buried settlements.
    • - Searching for submerged pre-Younger Dryas sites near Patagonia.
    • - Genetic studies linking South American populations to unexpected lineages.

  NEW DATA FOUND

  Revisiting the Age of Ice: Implications for Human Migration Across Antarctica

  • Recent advances in radiometric dating have revealed significant discrepancies in the estimated ages of deep glacial ice. A 2025 study on the Skytrain Ice Rise in West Antarctica, using the ³⁶Cl/¹⁰Be ratio, suggested basal ice as old as 552,000 years. In sharp contrast, a 2019 study employing the more precise ⁸¹Kr (krypton-81) method at the Guliya Ice Cap in the Tibetan Plateau yielded maximum ages between 15,000 and 74,000 years, calling older estimates into question.
  • This disparity underscores the limitations and assumptions behind traditional dating methods—particularly those reliant on cosmogenic nuclide accumulation, which can be skewed by prior exposure, erosion, or environmental variables. The ⁸¹Kr method, with its sensitivity and lower susceptibility to contamination, suggests that vast areas of ice once thought to be hundreds of thousands of years old may, in fact, be much younger.
  • If Antarctic ice is significantly younger than assumed, this raises compelling possibilities: that the continent may have been partially or seasonally ice-free in the relatively recent past, particularly during interglacial periods. This scenario aligns with ancient cartographic evidence—such as the Piri Reis map—and global myths describing lost southern lands. It also opens the door to prehistoric migration routes across or from Antarctica toward South America, predating known civilizations.
  • Such a re-evaluation lends credence to the idea that early human cultures, potentially advanced and now buried beneath the ice, once traversed a world far different from the one described by mainstream archaeology.
  References:
  • 1. Kappelt, N., Wolff, E., Christl, M., Vockenhuber, C., Gautschi, P., & Muscheler, R. (2025). 500-thousand-year-old basal ice at Skytrain Ice Rise, West Antarctica, estimated with the 36Cl/10Be ratio. EGUsphere. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1780
  • 2. Tian, L., Ritterbusch, F., Gu, J.-Q., Hu, S.-M., Jiang, W., Lu, Z.-T., Wang, D., & Yang, G.-M. (2019). 81Kr Dating at the Guliya Ice Cap, Tibetan Plateau. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(13), 7583–7591. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082464