Equally plausible is the possibility that animals,mainly elk, bison and caribou, took the route after their herds had consumed what little vegetation was present on the Asiatic side. Men could have followed them as their meat supply moved east.
Nor do we know the time it took to cross from continent to continent.
In March 2006, two adventurers crossed the Bering Strait from east to west on foot by walking across a frozen section where the distance is 56 miles and the perilous journey took them 15 days.
They were an Englishman, Karl Bushby and a Frenchman, Dimitri Kieffer—and upon arrival,
they were arrested for not entering Russia through a border control station!
Eleven thousand years ago, the denizens of Northern Siberia were undoubtedly tougher than humans today and being accustomed to living in Arctic conditions, they could have made the crossing faster. Animals might have taken longer, lacking a human compulsion and having no curiosity as to their destination. But then, as far as we know, the humans knew nothing of the existence of continents although they could have had an awareness that a strait that used to be
water was now land.
Point Hope, the location of the Ipiutak village, is about 400 miles north of the narrowest section of the Bering Strait so the crossings of the migrants could have been longer in distance than that taken by the two modern adventurers. Another consideration is that by staying close to the shore of the land bridge, the migrants could have had access to fish and game to sustain their journey. This would have enabled them to have taken longer for the crossing.
Some of the excavations of Russian archaeologists in the Amur River district in Northern Siberia have revealed the remains of a number of prehistoric settlements very similar to Ipiutak.
Nor do we know the time it took to cross from continent to continent.
In March 2006, two adventurers crossed the Bering Strait from east to west on foot by walking across a frozen section where the distance is 56 miles and the perilous journey took them 15 days.
They were an Englishman, Karl Bushby and a Frenchman, Dimitri Kieffer—and upon arrival,
they were arrested for not entering Russia through a border control station!
Eleven thousand years ago, the denizens of Northern Siberia were undoubtedly tougher than humans today and being accustomed to living in Arctic conditions, they could have made the crossing faster. Animals might have taken longer, lacking a human compulsion and having no curiosity as to their destination. But then, as far as we know, the humans knew nothing of the existence of continents although they could have had an awareness that a strait that used to be
water was now land.
Point Hope, the location of the Ipiutak village, is about 400 miles north of the narrowest section of the Bering Strait so the crossings of the migrants could have been longer in distance than that taken by the two modern adventurers. Another consideration is that by staying close to the shore of the land bridge, the migrants could have had access to fish and game to sustain their journey. This would have enabled them to have taken longer for the crossing.
Some of the excavations of Russian archaeologists in the Amur River district in Northern Siberia have revealed the remains of a number of prehistoric settlements very similar to Ipiutak.
The climate in that region is just as hostile as in Northern Alaska, yet evidence has been found of large Paleolithic, Neolithic and even Bronze Age populations.
A further connection with the Asian continent has been identified in that the decorative carvings of the Ipiutak resemble those from North China 3,000 years ago, while other carvings resembled those of the Ainu peoples of Japan. The conclusion was that the people of Ipiutak had a material culture far more elaborate and imaginative than that found elsewhere in the Arctic.
When knowledge of a region’s earlier history is lacking, it can often be helpful to review the mythology of its past. Little attention has been paid, though, to the mythology of the Arctic, as the remoteness of its location and its harsh and forbidding climate have not made it worthwhile to give it more than a minimal attention.
Still, three streams of hyperphysical existence are associated with the Northern Polar regions...
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