The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery by J. M. Adovasio and J. Page immerses the reader in a fascinating and eventful story of the first people on the American continents. For years there has been controversy about who the first Americans were and when they appeared. This historical and archaeological mystery has plagued generations of historians. Known as the founder and director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute in Erie, Pennsylvania, Adovasio lifts the veil of mystery over this age-old narrative. In his research, he uses the help of a science writer and editor, Jake Page. He lays out his thoughts clearly and concisely in the book, backing them up with objective arguments as well as appropriate terminology. Despite the book’s scientific bias, the layman, far from confusing theories and practices, will not find it boring – the author manages time after time to find words that hold the reader’s interest.
The discussion begins with Adovasio’s early work in the Meadowcroft rock shelter near Pittsburgh, making him a famous fixture in the scientific community. The story is notable because, in this shelter, he found charcoal, previously thought to have been burned in two hearths. This find established the location of people in these surroundings nearly 4,000 years before they set foot on this continent. The book provides a glimpse into both the processes of scientific fossilization and tangled academic discord. Adovasio enters into a polemic with the generally accepted understanding of the origins of Americans, claiming to have found himself caught up in promoting a bogus scientific position. He justifies this by saying that every anthropologist has his position and reputation, which must be maintained by any means, even fraudulent ones. Most historians and archaeologists believe that nomadic tribes traveled across the Bering Strait at the time of the last glacial period. Adovasio, on the other hand, argues that people had been present in that region thousands of years before the tribes of mammoth hunters arrived. Moreover, the contributions of women were much greater than researchers used to believe.
Intellectual confrontations are also based on the fact that now the representatives of different ethnicities claim that they are the descendants of the first people on the American continents. In substantiating his arguments, the author offers the reader an overview of both early European fantasies about the origins of Native Americans and present-day archaeological practices and tools. At the same time, he presents a new perspective on the complexities of exposing scientific dogma, demonstrating that such problems are usually complicated and thankless affairs. Thus, in his educational book, Adovasio incorporates findings from different areas of science, reconsidering and exploring the fundamentals of the natural sciences. The book provides researchers with data that could further be used to conduct the study of time. In addition, the discussion covers some facts about Ice Age weather conditions and ecosystems that involve a wide range of flora and megafauna. Although extinct, the remains of the plant and animal species common for that period have been discovered. In addition, Adovasio studies various controversial hypotheses about the extinction of numerous mammals during the Ice Age.
To summarize, this book provides an extensive basis for challenging established scientific theory about the origins of the first Americans and all dating of ancient history in general. This work can also be considered as a way to study one of the most controversial and continuous scientific debates. Overall, the book is a valuable contribution to the existing research literature on archaeology and one of its under-researched areas – the study of the first people on the American continents.