On the Dispersal of Hominini by Sea-Rafting

A Non-Thesis—Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts with a Major in Anthropology in the College of Graduate Studies University of Idaho by Ann Godoy Piersol

Major Professors: Lee Sappington, Ph.D and Don Tyler Ph.D Committee Members: Leslie L. Baker, Ph.D and Laura Putsche, Ph.D

May 2016 2

ABSTRACT

Floating islands have been accepted as an effective means of dispersal of a large variety of organisms across narrow and wide sea gaps. Here I explore the hypothesis that hominins may also have been conveyed on natural rafts across sea gaps and able to survive long enough to reproduce and establish a population, or add their genetic signature to already established inhabitants of the site upon which they disembark. A review of the colonization of several locations; South America by platyrrhine monkeys and caviomorph rodents, Sulawesi by the macaques and tarsiers monkeys, and Flores by Homo floresiensis, and the wide distribution of bottle gourds, reveals evidence that water barriers existed suggesting rafting as a mode of conveyance. Rafting substrata is composed of almost any material, including wide sections of coastlines and pumice rafts, typically a byproduct of natural disasters, and can be large enough to convey and sustain rafters across sea gaps, carried by wind and sea current to near or distant landforms. Throughout history there have been many reports of people rescued adrift at sea, demonstrating that as a species we are resourceful and will survive or adapt to any environment. The investigation of cranial morphology and genetic variation of initial populations of the Americas demonstrate that South American Paleocene remains are more similar to extant Australian, Melanesian, and Sub-Sahara populations, this variation is absent in North American remains. And finally, higher amount of Denisovan DNA is found primarily in Oceanic populations but missing from Eurasians suggesting possible rafting situations. All evidence supports the plausibility that rafting events have contributed to variation in the genetic mix of peoples around the world.

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Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Lee Sappington, Don Tyler, Leslie Baker, and Laura Putsche for their support and encouragement throughout this adventure. Special thanks to Don Tyler for his role in planting the seed that led to my thesis. My thanks to all for their reviews and comments which significantly helped to improve this paper.

I would also like to thank Linda Robison for her friendship, encouragement and review during this process.

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Dedication

To my children Benjamin, Keith, and Sara, my life, my reason for being,

and to Mark William Piersol, the love that completes my life

and

my happily ever after

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Table of Contents

Abstract 2 Acknowledgement 3 Dedication 4 Table of Contents 5

Introduction 6 Colonization Across Sea Gaps 7 Hominin Colonize Flores 12 Rafting Substrata 16 Oral Tradition of the Maori People of New Zealand 24 Pumice Colonization by Vegetation and Arthropods 26 Current, Wind and Glaciers 27 Drifting Scenarios 31 Human Specific Parasites 33 Survival at Sea 34 The Archaeological Record of the New World 38 Cranial Morphology and Genetic Variation 45 Summary 46 Conclusion 48 References 51 Figures Floating Pumice from the submarine eruption in 2012 of the Havre Caldera 1 in the Pacific Ocean 20 2 Global Tectonic and Volcanic Activity of the Last One Million Years 23 3 Volcanic Explosivity Index 24

Appendix A Archaeological sites of North and South America discussed in this paper 50 and vessel drift crossing times in days as discussed by Montenegro et al. (2005)

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INTRODUCTION

For decades scientists have been engaged in debate over the peopling of many isolated locations, for example, North and South America and the island of Flores in Indonesia. The findings of research conducted in regions of South America demonstrate that the genetic data and cranial morphology of the earliest South Americans are more similar to Australians, Melanesians, and Sub-Saharan Africans of today, than to Eurasians and Native Americans (Menendez et al.

2015; Neves and Hubbe 2005; Skoglund et al. 2015). By 880,000 years before present (BP) there is evidence of hominin occupation of Flores and in order for this island to be reached a wide sea gap had to be crossed (Morwood et al. 1998).

Many varieties of fauna and flora are and have been transported across water for short or extended distances by rafting (Bauer and Schreiber 1996; Bond et al. 2015; Bryan et al. 2004 and

2012; Bryan et al. 2012; Fraser et al. 2011; Houle 1998; Metcalfe et al. 2001, 409-416; Poux et al.

2006). The term “rafting” is an expression used to describe the dispersal of land organisms across water on floating objects, a term coined by Alfred Russell Wallace in the early nineteenth century

(Houle 1999; Wallace 1998). Rafting has also been used to explain the colonization by organisms in locations separated by water from their place of origin. Examples are the New World monkeys and caviomorph rodents of South America with proposed origins in Africa, and the macaques and tarsiers of Sulawesi with proposed origins in Southeast Asia (Smith 2001).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that hominins may have sporadically been carried away from shore, clinging to debris created by natural disasters, and conveyed across sea gaps surviving long enough to reproduce. Occupation of riverine and coastal environments by hominins is well documented in the archaeological record. These inhabitants exist in an environment prone to natural disasters that can create rafts upon which people may be swept out

7 to sea and set adrift. My investigation includes an overview of the archaeological record of the

New World genetic data and cranial morphology of early Americans and Melanesians. Also discussed in this paper are the different types of natural rafting media, the survival possibilities of primates for long distance trans-oceanic transport, and global tectonic and volcanic activity.

COLONIZATION ACROSS SEA GAPS

New World monkey fossils, with a presumed African palaeogene ancestry, are found in

South America with an approximate entrance during the Late Eocene. The accepted hypothesis for the appearance of Platyrrhini, the New World monkey in South America, is by rafting (Bauer and Schreiber 1996; Bond 2015; Houle 1999; Poux et al. 2006). The paleontological evidence suggests that Africa is the most likely continent of origin (Takai et al. 2000). However, South

America and Africa have been separated since the late Cretaceous, approximately 90 to 100 million years ago (Mya), leaving South America an island continent until its reconnection with North

America in the Pliocene 3 to 3.5 Mya (Bond et al. 2015; Bauer and Schreiber 1996; de Queiroz

2014; Poux, et al. 2006).

Platyrrhini is the formal name for New World monkeys that are distinct from other living monkeys. The distinguishing characteristics, thought to be primitive retentions in New World monkeys when compared to monkeys and apes of Africa and Asia, are three premolar teeth instead of two and ear canals that are not enclosed in complete bony tubes (Rosenberg and Hartwig 2001).

The earliest known New World monkey arrival, Perupithecus ucayaliensis, found in Amazonian

Peru resembles an Eocene African anthropoid Talahpithecus which existed approximately 38 to

39 million years ago (Bond et al. 2015; Bauer and Schreiber 1996). Talahpithecus, found in Dur

At-Talah in central Libya, is among the oldest African anthropoids found in three late middle

Eocene sites of Libya, Algeria, and Egypt (Chaimanee et al. 2012). Bond et al. (2015) suggest that

8 the Perupithecus may be members of a pre-platyrrhine anthropoid stock that differentiated in

Africa from anthropoid ancestors and that Talahpithecus may be an early representative of their radiation. An estimated timeframe for the divergence between catarrhini and platyrrhini is said to have occurred some 41 Mya in Africa, or possibly Asia (de Queiroz 2014). This scenario suggests a trans-Atlantic dispersal of primates by approximately 40 Mya (de Queiroz 2014; Houle 1999;

Poux et al. 2006).

Several hypotheses have surfaced that attempt to explain a transatlantic migration of New

World monkeys and rodents. One of these, the Gondwanan vicariance model, which refers to the break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana and propose a vicariance-mediated diversification via continental drift, the ocean becoming the physical barrier to gene flow, is problematic because approximately 2600 km separated South America from Africa since well after the breakup of

Gondwana and before the earliest fossil record of primates discovered in Amazonian Peru (de

Queiroz 2014; Bondoni de Oliveira et al. 2009). Other scenarios include the island hopping model, a “mode of dispersal in which organisms migrate across large water bodies through sets of islands,” and the land bridge model, a “mode of dispersal in which two land masses were connected in the past, but not anymore” (Bondoni de Oliveira et al. 2009:57). Bondoni de Oliveira et al. (2009) reconstructed the position of the African and South American continents between 20 and 50 Mya to evaluate the paleogeography of the region during the period of possible crossing of caviomorphs and platyrrhines. They modeled three factors, horizontal plate motion, thermal subsidence of the oceanic lithosphere, and global sea level fluctuations during the Cenozoic, at 20, 30, 40, and 50

Mya, in order to reconstruct a tenable scenario that would support an overseas migration to South

America. De Oleveira et al. (2009) report that based on their study, there is no complete connection between South America and Africa at 50 Mya, negating the land bridge model. They state that the

9 shortest distance between Africa and South America, in a straight line at 50 Mya was 1,000 km found between Sierra Leone and Paraiba state, in Brazil. They find that several islands of more than 200 m in length “persisted along the present-day submerged Rio Grande Rise and Walvis

Ridge,” at 50 Mya, but did not persist after 30 Mya and that the chance of migration by island hopping seems less feasible after 40 Mya (Bondoni de Oliveira et al. 2009:59).

De Queiroz (2014) argues against another hypothesis that proposes the overland journey of monkeys “via North America,” which postulates a journey across Asia, over Beringia, and down through North America, to finally cross the Caribbean and reach South America. He explains that although the distance of the required Caribbean water crossing is unknown, it’s a “moot point” because there is no fossil evidence in North America to support this method of dispersal (de

Queiroz 2014:214, 215). The climate of North America was temperate and more heavily forested between 51 and 26 Mya, and primate fossil evidence is found there for much of that time.

However, he points out that the primates discovered are not the right species of primate, for there are no monkey remains found in the fossil record of North America. While recent evidence of monkey remains dating to 20.9 Mya have been found in Panama, they have not been found in higher latitudes in North America and do not support this method of dispersal (Bloch et al. 2016).

This is very different from the fossil record of Africa and southern Asia, where many early monkeys and near monkeys have been uncovered demonstrating that the fossil record “strongly indicate a dramatic leap from the Old World to South America rather than the long, slow route through North America” (de Queiroz 2014:215).

Caviomorph rodents are found in the South American fossil record in the middle Eocene with evidence for differentiation into the four major clades represented today by the late Eocene – early Oligocene (Arnal and Vucetich 2015). Cashel (1981:149) writes that similarities between

10 the Miocene African Phiomyid rodents, which appear in the same African Fayum strata that yield the first catarrhine primate remains, and those recently discovered from the late Eocene of Libya,

“are so extreme as to warrant proof of South Atlantic crossing because the caviomorphs are direct offshoots of the African rodent ancestor of the phiomyids.” The author adds that had there been other means of access between South America and other centers of mammalian evolution, a greater diversity of fauna would have appeared on the continent of South America. Cashel (1981:148) says, “Because the land faunas of Tertiary South America are generally conceded to be so dissimilar, the question of Tertiary land faunal relationships between the two continents comes down to the possibility of dispersion by rafting or by passive conveyance on islands that themselves are moving.” Bauer and Schreiber (1996) speculate that rafting on vegetation islands expelled from tropical rain forest rivers, which are produced as a result of powerful storms tearing at the land, may be the colonization route for terrestrial vertebrates to other regions.

Smith (2001) suggests that a reconstruction of a more recent scenario of primate distributions and migrations during the Quaternary, beginning 2.6 Mya to present day, that appear to have occurred across significant sea gaps in Southeast Asia, including in and near Wallacea, may be more relevant. He explains that rainforests had a substantially reduced distribution in

Southeast Asia, in particular during two periods of deforestation beginning 190,000 and 80,000 years ago, due to drought which was chiefly the case during glacial epochs when sea levels were lower and sea gaps narrower. On islands such as Sulawesi the rainforests and fauna may have been wiped out, with a high probability of the same occurring on Borneo and Java. The rainforest was the primary habitat for most primates, and those surviving primates spread out to rainforest refugia in the Mentawai archipelago, which lies west of Sumatra as well as in west Java, southern

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India, northern Vietnam, and other areas. The surviving rainforest primates spread widely from these refugia throughout that last 15,000 - 10,000 years during the postglacial epoch.

Smith (2001) adds that sea level fluctuations were of greater amplitude than previously during the last 800,000 years, as low as 230 m with an average of 90 m below current sea levels.

Rainforest distribution, sea level height, and sea gaps changed between humid periods during the

Quaternary, and with extensive rainforests, and higher sea levels, came wider sea gaps.

Conversely, during periods when sea gaps were at their narrowest with land bridges exposed and at their most extensive, rainforests and their dependent organisms (including most primates) would have been “ecologically most restrictive” (Smith 2001:411). Savanna fauna, including hominids, would not have been restricted by these events, and during the Quaternary these mammals migrated between Australia and New Guinea. Smith (2001) reports that based on a review of palynological evidence of the area, the climate was too dry to support any but limited rainforest refugia during glacial epochs when sea level was lower and greater land mass exposed. Because these conditions would have prevented primate migrations across areas not suitable as habitats, these moves would have occurred during wetter periods of interglacial or postglacial epochs. Most primate species of Borneo arrived either between 130,000 to 80,000 years ago or 20,000 years ago.

Smith (2001) adds that in order to reach Borneo and Sulawesi, the macaques and tarsiers, species that have colonized these islands, had to cross a wider sea gap of approximately 110 km during a time when higher sea levels would have prevented overland migration, with the sea gap present for most of the Cainozoic (Cenozoic). During either of these time periods with wetter conditions, rainforests would have been more extensive and sea levels higher; the only alternative to overland movement was by reaching the islands by rafting across a wide sea gap (Smith 2001).

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Whether a consideration is made of the transfer from Africa of monkeys, caviomorphs or any number of other species (both vertebrate and invertebrate) to the island continent of South

America across open seas, or the crossing of a sea gap by primates that inhabit the islands of

Borneo or Sulawesi, the accepted scientific scenario in most articles reviewed was a transfer across open water by rafting. Houle (1999:541) states that “both paleowinds and paleocurrents were favorable” for an Atlantic crossing out of Africa, Bond et al. (2015:541) suggest that a rafting scenario is feasible and that “perhaps more than one rafting event carried more than one taxon successfully across the Atlantic” to South America, and Smith (2001:411) states that, “dispersal patterns of primates other than hominids therefore appear to require at least some and possibly much colonization across sea gaps.”

HOMININ COLONIZE FLORES

So, were hominins also swept away on natural rafts and deposited on lands far distant from their origins? A significant illustration is the presence of Hominins on the East Indonesian island of Flores by 880,000 years ago (Bednarik 1997; Smith 2001; Morwood et al. 1998; Morwood and

Jungers 2009). Dennell et al. (2013) state that to date, Flores is the only oceanic island with an archaeological record that demonstrates hominin occupation prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens.

Morwood et al. (1998:174) report the excavation of Mata Menge located in the Ola Bula Formation on the upper Ae Sissa River basin in central Flores, revealing the remains of “large Stegodon (S. trigonocephalus florensis), crocodile, giant rat (Hooijeromis nusatenggara), freshwater mollusks, and rounded volcanic pebbles.” The Meta Menge deposits include 45 stone tools manufactured of volcanic rock and chert that were designated as artifacts on the basis of, “well defined flake scars, ring cracks, bulbs of percussion and systematic edge damage suggestive of retouch”

(Morwood et al. 1998:174). Morwood et al. (1998:174) add that 14 of these met the technological

13 criteria and of these, 4 examined under high magnification showed “edge damage, striations, polishing and residues indicating use in the processing of plant material.” These tools were dated by fission track to approximately 0.88 ± 0.07 Mya. Additionally, Dennell et al. (2013) report that evidence for hominin occupation of Flores at Wolo Sege where artifacts were found in association with Stegodon sondaari dated by 40Ar/39Ar to at least 1.02 ±0.02 Mya (Dennell et al. 2013).

Morwood et al. (1998) state that these islands between the Southeast Asian (Sunda) and Australian

(Sahul) continental shelves were accessible only by crossing a sea gap. During the lowest sea levels of the last glacial maximum the shortest sea gap would have been a distance of approximately 19 km. The fauna on these islands, before human intervention, consisted of species that were capable of navigating through water by “swimming, rafting on flotsam, or by flying in sufficient numbers to establish biologically viable populations” (Morwood et al. 1998:174). The authors suggest that since there was no connection to the Southeast Asian or Australian mainland

(this they support by citing the “impoverished nature” of the fauna on Flores for the duration of this sequence), then “Homo erectus in this region had the capacity to make water crossings”

(Morwood et al. 1998:176), sometime between 800,000 or 900,000 years ago. Morwood et al.

(1998) added, however, that outside this area there is no evidence that H. erectus had the technology to “undertake even limited crossings,” until the end of the Pleistocene and suggest that what is currently understood about the cognitive abilities of H. erectus may need reexamination

(Morwood et al. 1998:176). However, a recent, more detailed analysis of H. floresiensis remains from deposits spanning ~95 ka to ~17 ka put forth by Morwood and Jungers (2009:640) indicate that “the individuals recovered from Liang Bua retain a wide-ranging suite of primitive morphological traits indicating that they may be descendants of a pre-erectus hominin species in

Asia,” and agree with suggestions by Smith (2001) and de Queiroz (2005) that “given these

14 circumstances the arrival of hominins by 880 ka was probably the result of an extremely rare event, such as a tsunami. In such a scenario, a small colonizing group could have accidentally crossed to the island while clinging to a natural raft of vegetation or an up-rooted tree washed out to sea”

(Morwood and Jungers 2009:645).

Ian Davidson (2001:399) argues that “the early stone tools from Flores, while remarkable and important, indicate a sea-crossing by some means, but this does not constitute evidence of deliberate activity, as the later sea-crossing into Australia did demonstrate the beginning of that process of emergence of the full range of human abilities.” Determining when our ancestors became more like humans, he says, is crucial to the interpretation of the early evidence from Flores.

The author points out that several cognitive abilities are necessary to accomplish this type of operation. He states that symbolic representation is essential in coordinating the construction of a seaworthy craft, gathering provisions for such a journey, and then intentionally navigating away from Southeast Asia, but he adds, that similar organizational behavior is not demonstrated elsewhere in the world during this period of time. When considering evolutionary evidence,

Davidson (2001) states that hominins of modern Indonesia do not seem to have contributed to modern populations in any region, not having spread into the northern regions of Asia, nor into

Australia, even though they survived for approximately 700,000 years. Additionally, Smith (2001) states that “it is therefore probable that both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens crossed sea gaps in

Wallacea (the region lying between the Sunda and Sahul Shelves, including islands such as Flores and Sulawesi) in Pleistocene times,” and, “the most credible alternative mechanism is passive drift on rafts of vegetation carried to sea by rivers in flood” (Smith 2001:410). Van Den Bergh et al.

(2008) agree, suggesting that “early Pleistocene sea crossings by hominins were likely random events, e.g., as a result of natural disasters such as tsunamis, which occur frequently in this

15 tectonically active region,” citing the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 that hit the coastline of Aceh,

Sumatra and towed people into the sea who survived on natural rafts even though they were carried long distances by the ocean currents (Van Den Bergh et al. 2008:32).

Ruxton and Wilkinson (2012:510) conclude their investigation on accidental versus planned colonization of islands by suggesting that:

…the accidental arrival of a group of individuals on an island would be around half as likely to lead to a flourishing population as the arrival of a planned colonization of the same size, and that this difference could be entirely counteracted by the infrequent arrival of small numbers of individuals arriving in the centuries after the initial colonization by similar accidental circumstances. We accept that the chain of events required for natural events to deposit a number of live hominins on a previously uninhabited island means that it would be highly improbable in any particular year for any particular island. However, evidence from Flores suggests that to evaluate the importance of this mechanism we must think in terms of hundreds of thousands of years, and even for cases of colonization by H. sapiens we need to be thinking in tens of thousands of years as in the Australian example. It is also important to remember that there are 6,000 – 10,000 inhabited islands in the Pacific alone. So while such an event may be unlikely for any particular island, it may not be that surprising that it occasionally happens somewhere. Therefore it is important to distinguish between highly improbable and impossible events. If H. erectus lacked the required social and technological sophistication to build substantial watercraft, then deliberate seafaring by them would not have been highly improbable but impossible, while accidental arrival on an island would be merely improbable (for any particular island in any particular year). But given the large number of islands, tsunamis and river flood events, such colonisation might be quite likely to happen to at least some islands over a time period of archaeological interest.

RAFTING SUBSTRATA

In his book, Island Life (1998) published originally in 1880, Alfred Russell Wallace argues that the most effective means of dispersal over sea of arboreal mammalia is “…by means of floating trees, or those floating islands which are often formed at the mouths of great rivers”

(Wallace 1998:69). Included in this text is Sir Charles Lyell’s description of floating islands,

“…on which trees and shrubs were growing on a stratum of soil which even formed a white beach

16 round the margin of each raft” (Wallace 1998:69). After hurricanes, Wallace (1998) says, similar rafts can be seen with trees growing on them among the Philippine Islands, carried along by the wind and sea current they may move hundreds of miles away from their point of origin (Wallace

1998).

Powers (1911:303) opens his article entitled “Floating Islands,” with the following statement,

If one should see in a story the statement that a floating island 100 feet square, upon which were growing trees thirty feet in height, was used by the hero as a place of refuge, and that the island traveled 1,000 miles out to sea, he would probably accuse the author of an abuse of the imagination. But such an island – without the hero – was seen off the coast of North America and is known to have traveled at least 1,000 miles. St. John in 1862, (1974:16) describes floating islands in his book, Life in the Forests of the

Far East (1974), which he witnessed during his years in Borneo. He says,

During our passage we observed some of those floating islands which wander over the face of the sea, at the mercy of wind and wave. I remember once that the signal man gave notice that a three-masted vessel was ahead. We all fixed our telescopes on her, as at sea the slightest incident awakens interest: her masts appeared to rake in an extraordinary manner. As we steamed toward her our mistake was soon discovered; it was a floating island, with unusually tall nipa palms upon it that were bending gracefully before the breeze. St John (1974:16-17) also states,

On one occasion a man was found at sea making one of these his resting-place. Doubtless he abandoned his island home cheerfully, though he fell into the hands of enemies. He told us that his pirate companions, in hurried flight, had left him on the bank of a hostile river, and so seeing a diminutive island floating to the sea, he swam off and got upon it, and had been there many days, living upon the fruit he had found on the palm stems. Shero (1933:52) makes reference to floating blocks of vegetation on the Nile called “sudd” that were said to cause obstructions to navigation that required elaborate engineering projects to

17 clear the river and keep it navigable. He wrote, “These peaty blocks of decayed vegetation and soil are compressed by the current so that in parts they can support an elephant…”

Dammerman, (1948) studied the destruction and rejuvenation of Krakatau. The author reports that Krakatau was the largest volcano of three on the island, along with its smaller volcanoes, Danan and Perboewatan. This island is part of an island group which included Verlaten and Lang islands that are situated in the Straits of Sunda. For several months volcanic eruptions in all three volcanoes succeeded one another [May – August 1883], until the final astounding explosion destroyed Danan and Perboewantan, both of which sank into the ocean, destroying most of the island, leaving only half of Krakatau above sea level. In October 1883, scientists reported that all three islands, including what remained of Krakatau, were covered with a thick layer of ash and pumice, which had covered or swept away the entirety of fauna and flora. Dammerman

(1948:8) quotes S. J. Hickson’s (A Naturalist in Celebes 1889) report of a possible recolonization by arboreal animals of the area:

Some days after the eruption of Kratatau in 1883 a female green monkey was found floating on some drifting timber in the Sunda Straits. She was terribly scorched, but completely recovered, and is, I believe, still alive” (Dammerman 1948).

The author goes on to suggest that the return of vertebrate and invertebrate life occurred by active and passive means. In the active modes of dispersal he describes birds and insects flying or, for those animals capable of it, swimming to reach the island. He states that another method of crossing the sea gap was by passive conveyance on driftwood or other flotsam. Dammerman

(1948:250) states, “Sometimes whole islands with trees still erect are met with[,] and other growths such as nipa palms and clumps of bamboo, while whole chunks washed off from the coast, river- banks or mangroves may be found floating out to sea.”

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Houle (1999) provides information about a large floating island that was reported in 1881 on a river near Waterloo in the Province of Quebec. This large island later broke up and the largest of these islands measured 60 X 23 meters having trees that reached 15 meters in height (Houle

1999).

On the Brazilian Amazon, accumulations of aquatic plant life form floating islands the indigenous people call Matupás. De Freitas et al. (2015) write about the traditional knowledge and use of Matupá vegetation islands. These islands form by accruals of grasses that form floating blocks that are inundated by currents during the wet season, but surface as blocks of “rotten grasses” during the dry season. This process repeats seasonally and while adrift, provide a substrate of partially decayed material on which various plant species including trees establish themselves, eventually becoming floating islands with forest areas of several hectares which may measure as much as 12 meters in height. The local inhabitants harvest the soil of the matupás, reporting that it is an excellent natural fertilizer and use it to cultivate vegetables and herbs in raised beds. Some people interviewed by de Freitas et al. (2015) reported planting directly on the matupás during the dried-out stage from where the soil is gathered for raised bed cultivation, but they do not use the fully formed matupás in this manner because the floating islands would require clearing and burning to sustain crops (de Freitas et al. 2015).

Thiel and Haye (2006) suggest three “rafting routes” in their discussion of connectivity between local populations, which they characterize as frequent, intermittent and episodic. The authors state that,

…frequent rafting routes are found in bays, lagoons and estuaries, and they are typically facilitated by substrata of biotic origin (seagrass, saltmarsh vegetation, intermediate-sized algae and mangroves). Intermittent rafting routes are found along temperate continental shores where they are facilitated primarily by giant kelps. In the subtropics and Arctic intermittent rafting routes facilitated by wood

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are particularly important. Episodic rafting routes, which often cross vast areas of open ocean (biogeographic barriers), are facilitated by volcanic pumice, floating trees and occasionally by giant kelps when these are pushed beyond intermittent routes by strong winds or currents. Dispersal events occur in a highly sporadic manner, in this latter category of rafting route, but when they happen, large amounts of floating substrata and rafters may be dispersed simultaneously (Thiel and Haye 2006:323).

Thiel and Haye (2006) add that a flotilla of objects constantly drifts across the oceans of the world, identifying the most important of these as macroalgae, wood, volcanic pumice, and plastics as rafting agents, each differing significantly in their suitability for sustaining rafting organisms, in particular in their food value and durability. The authors suggest that some organisms are better adapted for rafting than others and that rafting journeys favor those travelers that can remain on board the raft to feed, grow, and reproduce. Other important factors that must be considered are the distance the raft travels and its durability. Thiel and Haye (2006) state that rafts with substrata of biotic origins, which they describe as made up of floating animal and plant material, provide a “high food value,” but these rafts are not as durable as those of abiotic origin, described as volcanic pumice or plastics, which have no food value but can float for long periods of time, often longer than a year (Bryan et al. 2004; Thiel and Haye 2006:330).

Thiel and Haye (2006) add that after natural disasters a large quantity of rafting substrata may become suddenly available. Such events as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, flooding and tsunamis produce enormous amounts of terrestrial debris that may reach the world’s oceans are caught up in predominant current systems that then transport the floating debris, depending on their composition, for short or long distances. In areas with high tectonic activity that result in tsunamis, terrestrial debris is dumped into the sea, including wide stretches of coastlines that are battered, then freed by wave activity. Volcanic eruptions that trigger these tsunami events are reported to occur on the order of decades to centuries, whereas tropical cyclones

20 or flood events which also produce high quantities of debris occur yearly. Volcanic pumice is found in areas with high volcanic activity and these occur, for example, along the Pacific Rim and parts of the Mediterranean Sea (Thiel and Haye 2006).

A volcanic subaerial eruption of the Havre Seamount in 2012, a magnitude 5 eruption on the volcanic explosivity index (VEI), produced a single raft of floating pumice >400 km2 in one day that was encountered drifting in the South Pacific (Carey et al. 2014; Jutzeler et al. 2014). The pumice raft pictured in Figure 1 below was reported by members of the Royal New Zealand Navy.

FIGURE 1. Floating Pumice from the submarine eruption in 2012 of the Havre caldera in the Pacific Ocean. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2186631/New-Zealand-Navy-floating- rock-shelf-Pacific.html The description by sailors serving on board the HMNZC Canterbury of this pumice

“island” was that it measured approximately 300 miles in length, more than 30 miles in width, and sat approximately two feet above the surface of the waves; additionally it resembled the edge of

21 an ice shelf (Bryner 2012; Daily Mail 10 August 2012). Jutzeler et al. (2014:1) define pumice rafts as, “…floating mobile accumulations of low-density pumice clasts generated by silicic volcanic eruptions,” that can, “…drift for years before becoming waterlogged and sink, or become stranded on shorelines. They went on to say, “The 2012 eruption of the of the Harve caldera volcano was the first to unambiguously demonstrate that deep submarine (>700 mbsl) silicic eruptions can create pumice rafts (Jutzeler et al. 2014:2).”

Pumice, a common product of explosive volcanism, is a highly unusual geological material consisting of very vesicular silicic to mafic glass foam. Its physical characteristics are described in terms of its vesicularity, and the shape, size, and distribution of its vesicle population. After studying the hydrodynamic behavior of Taupo 1800a pumice from the Taupo Volcanic Zone in central North Island of New Zealand, Manville et al. (2002) concluded that large pumice clasts will remain afloat, slowly absorb water, and eventually become water-logged and sink, but pumice can float several years before sinking (Manville et al. 1998; Manville et al. 2002; Risso et al. 2002).

Another important characteristic of pumice is that when saturated, pumice clasts will sink at rates proportional to the grain size, and having low density they can become water-logged or dry out and remobilize (Manville et al. 2002; Vella and Huppert 2007).

As reported above, pumice rafts may be transported, as well as convey organisms, as they drift over great distances on ocean currents. There are historic reports of pumice rafts formed at sea, a result of subaerial eruptions, which have drifted for long periods of time. Pumice rafts from the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa drifted for more than six months after the eruption. Large rafts and individual fragments were reported to wash up on the east coast of Africa (Risso et al. 2002; Vella and Huppert 2007). In their discussion of the significance of the role of sea-rafted pumice, Bryan, et al. (2004) state that floating pumice may be dense and stable enough to transport larger objects

22 and material. They report that after the 1883 eruption of Krakatau, pumice rafts were observed transporting “bones of eruption victims >6000 km to east Africa in 10 months; other pumice masses transporting trees (and possibly seeds) to Micronesia; and some floating masses were so thick as to support standing men” (Bryan et al. 2004:149). As another example, pumice blocks

(rarely smaller than 5 cm or larger than 30 cm) were found on the shorelines of Tierra del Fuego

(Argentina) and the South Shetland Islands (Antarctic), having originated in the South Sandwich

Islands that were produced by a subaerial eruption that occurred in 1962 (Risso et al. 2002). Risso et al. (2002) report that pumice from this eruption was carried eastward by the Antarctic

Circumpolar Current and distributed on southern Australian shores as well as the southwest coast of Tasmania (reported by local residents), and remained in the southern waters of Australasia for years. The authors suggest that the pumice may have been stranded on different beaches along the journey, partially or entirely dehydrating, “thus recovering their original floating potential,” before remobilizing and being swept out to sea by the next large tide, (Risso et al. 2002:421). Risso et al.

(2002) report that pumice from the South Sandwich Islands eruption drifted more than 20,000 km on ocean currents to Drake Passage and almost around the Antarctic, then up to the southern end of Argentina, demonstrating the long expanse pumice can drift (Risso et al. 2002).

Earth’s major tectonic and volcanic features which have been and continue to be active over the last million years have been charted on the map in Figure 2 below. The sites located on this map were identified by obvious features that survive such as volcanoes, lava flows, and fault scarps (Lowman 1997). Eruptions vary in magnitude and duration, display a variety of eruptive styles and processes, and are measured according to “the height of eruptive cloud, volume of eruptive products, distances to which objects of a particular size were thrown, and explosive energy coupled with air wave (measured by recording barographs)” (Siebert et al. 2010:28).

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FIGURE 2. Global Tectonic and Volcanic Activity of the Last One Million Years (Lowman, 1997) http://denali.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/lowman/lowman.html Similar to the Richter magnitude scale for earthquakes, volcanologists have developed the

Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI) to categorize the magnitude of volcanic eruptions. Newhall and

Self (1982) developed this gauge adopting five parameters which are used to estimate an explosive eruption. These are characterized by magnitude, intensity, dispersive power, violence and destructive potential (Newhall and Self 1982). The VEI, a simple 0-8 index of increasing explosivity (each interval representing an increase by approximately a factor of ten), combines characteristics such as total volume of explosive products, eruptive cloud height, and duration of the eruption in its calculation. For example, eruptions with an explosive component but no other descriptive information are assigned the Volcanic Explosive Index 2 stage (see Figure 3). The

24 large majority of explosive eruptions are of small-to-moderate size (Seibert et al. 2010). Siebert et al. (2010) state that, “like earthquakes, the frequency of eruptions decreases with increasing size,” and that “there are many small, fewer medium sized and far fewer large eruptions,” adding that submarine eruptions are the most common (Siebert et al. 2010:38).

Plume Volume of VEI Description Height Material Classification Frequency Duration Example 0 Non-explosive <100 m Variable Hawaiian Daily Variable Kilauea Hawaiian/ 1 Small/Gentle 100-1000 m <0.001 km3 Strombolian Daily <1 hour Stromboli Moderate/ 0.001-0.01 Strombolian/ 2 Explosive 1-5 km km3 Vulcanian Weekly 1-6 hours Galeras (1992) Moderate/large 0.01-0.1 Vulcanian/ 3 Severe 3-15 km km3 Plinian Yearly 1-12 hours Nevado Del Ruiz (1985) Large/ Vulcanian/ Galunggung (1982) 4 Cataclysmic 10-25 km 0.1-1 km3 Plinian 10s of years 1-12 hours Rainier (250 BC) Very large/ St. Helens (1980) 5 Paroxysmal >25 km 1-10 km3 Plinian 100s of years 6-12 hours Vesuvius (AD 79) Pinatubo (1991) Very large/ Plinian/ Ultra- Novarupta (1912) 6 Colossal >25 km 10s of km3 Plinian 100s of years >12 hours Krakatoa (1883) Tambora (1812) Very large/ 100s of 1000s of Long Valley Caldera 7 Supercolossal >25 km km3 Ultra-Plinian years >12 hours (760,000 years ago) Toba (73,000 years ago) Very large/ 1000s of 10,000s of Yellowstone caldera 8 Megacolossal >25 km km3 Ultra Plinian years >12 hours (2 million years ago) FIGURE 3 Volcanic Explosivity Index. The Volcanic Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA) provides information on global volcanic activity to enable risk assessments of volcanic hazards data and contains a vast database of prehistoric and historic eruptions. (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/vogripa/)

Pumice rafts have occurred in major oceans all through the last 200 years and throughout the Holocene, and the highest frequency of these events has transpired in the Pacific Ocean.

Pumice’s characteristics of global availability, durability, longevity, and remobilization, as well as unrestricted movement over the ocean basins, makes its value as a rafting vehicle for organism dispersal over large distances across the seas potentially its greatest asset (Bryan et al. 2012).

ORAL TRADITION OF THE MAORI PEOPLE OF NEW ZEALAND

Taneatua, from whom the Ngati-Hamua and Warahoe tribes of Rangitaiki River (see genealogy) are descended, is said to have been a taniwha, inasmuch as, according to the Maoris, he also came to New Zealand without the aid of a canoe, and thereby emulated the wonderful voyage of Hoake and Taukata, who not only

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made the voyage from Hawaiki to Whaka, tane on a lump of pumice, but also taught Toi and his people how to build canoes;… (W. E. Gudgeon 1892:219) and, According to Arawa tradition Tura had no canoe, but floated hither on a lump of pumice stone aided of course by a powerful Karakia (W. E. Gudgeon 1894:49).

The rich oral tradition of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, was described in papers produced by W. E. Gudgeon and published in The Journal of Polynesian Society in 1892 and 1894. The Maori, in their oral histories, speak of migration by canoe but also include migration stories of the journeys of their ancestors from Hawaiki to New Zealand, re-counting the arrival on the island of several people by means of floating on pumice stone.

Barber and Barber (2006:2) argue that nonliterate peoples developed a means for storing and transmitting important information in myths and that we, who now have writing, have lost the key to understanding how to decode the information that, compressed into these stories, “appear to us as mostly gibberish,” that we attempt to interpret, and generally “dismiss them as silly.”

They add that “…myths were constructed to encode real and important data…,” into linguistic patterns that when compressed would fit into memory (Barber and Barber 2006:2). The authors call this technique “Memory Crunch,” and define it as, “When all accumulated wisdom must be stored in the brain and transmitted orally [as in a nonliterate society], people reserve the formal oral tradition for transmitting the information they consider most important, often for survival”

(Barber and Barber 2006:5). Barber and Barber (2006:3) argue that “…myth is transmitted through language, and it is the same human brain with its peculiar design features that must handle both language and the data it encodes into language.” Gudgeon’s (1892, 1894) ethnographies which includes the arrival on pumice stone of the Maori to New Zealand may be a description of a genuine rafting event(s).

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PUMICE COLONIZATION BY VEGETATION AND ARTHROPODS

Although pumice begins as an abiotic substrate, there is evidence that colonization by vegetation occurs rapidly, and stranded pumice may remobilize with a sustainable food source for rafters. A review of the literature on the colonization by vegetation and arthropods of “pristine landscapes” (barren pumice fields created by pyroclastic flows from volcanic activity) reveals vegetation reestablishment within the first year following an eruption. Wood and Moral (1988) report that two species of weedy natives, Anaphalis margaritacea and Epilobium angustifolium,

(by long distance dispersal) were established by 1981 on the Pumice Plains, area that were produced after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, which left the landscape, a 20 km2 area “essentially devoid of plants in 1980” (Wood and Moral 1988:1228). Wood and Moral

(1988) add that scattered seedlings of Douglas fir, western hemlock and noble fir were present.

However, they were few in number and immature.

Sugg and Edwards (1998) report that all biota was eliminated from an area of about 80 km2 in the area north of the crater of St. Helens in 1980. In 1981, they report, arthropods were observed recolonizing the mineral surface of the pyroclastic flows, diverse arthropods reaching the pumice field immediately after the eruption. During the first 3 years, representatives of at least 150 families from 18 orders reached the devastated zone, 19 species with evidence of established breeding populations by 1985 (Sugg and Edwards 1998). Dammerman (1948) concluded, from observations following the eruption of Krakatau, that the primary successional sequence began with heterotrophic scavengers surviving on the organic debris conveyed to the island by wind and ocean currents (Dammerman 1948).

Surtsey is a newly formed island which is part of the Vestmannaeyiar Islands (Westmann

Islands) off the southern coast of Iceland. Fridriksson (1987) reports that the subaerial eruption

27 which culminated with the gradual buildup of the island began in November 1963 and lasted for

3.5 years reaching 2.7 km2 in size. In 1965 the first vascular plants were discovered growing on the island (Fridriksson 1987).

Similarly, the eruption of Parícutin Volcano, located in Michoacán, Mexico, began in 1943 and continued until 1952. Rejmánek et al. (1982) report that by 1957, two species of vascular plants were found thriving on the cinder cone, then 12 by 1958, 13 by 1959, 17 by 1960, and by

1977 there were 39 species recorded. The principal plants that colonized the successive layers of pyroclastic material of Parícutin were small shrubs and grasses (Rejmánek et al. 1982).

CURRENT, WIND AND GLACIERS

Floating rafts, whether they are sections of giant kelps, sections of coastlines, or remobilized pumice, are conveyed into the sea by natural disasters and then set adrift; the wind and current are the locomotives that carry them to undetermined destinations. It is important, therefore, to consider the effect of wind and current on floating objects. The oceans are in constant motion, with the tide generating the alternate rise and fall of the sea, and the current producing horizontal movements. Wind and water density drive surface and subsurface currents throughout the world’s oceans. Global winds drag on the water’s surface, influenced by the Coriolis force, which deflects winds in the Northern Hemisphere to the right in a clockwise spiral and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere in a counter-clockwise spiral. These ocean-circling currents, called gyres, occur north and south of the equator. Wind affects only the upper 100 meters of the ocean’s surface; the deep-ocean currents that flow thousands of meters below the surface are driven by differences in the water’s density, controlled by temperature (thermos) and salinity (haline), a process known as thermohaline circulation. Open ocean currents flow in complex patterns that are

28 affected by wind, the water’s salinity, temperature and the rotation of the Earth (NOAA Web

2016).

Rabassa and Ponce (2013) report that the middle and late Pleistocene climate was characterized by climatic cycles that included glacial and interglacial stages. The glacial stages, also known as stadials (characterized by low global temperatures, low sea levels, and a time when ice sheets and glaciers were extensive), lasted approximately 80,000 – 90,000 years. The interglacial periods are brief periods of milder climate (10,000 – 20,000 years in duration) that occur between cooler glacial periods. These periods are also known as interstadials. These alternating warm and cool periods of the Earth are identified as marine isotope stages (MIS) which correspond to moments with distinct global temperatures and climates. MIS 5 was the last full interglacial period and MIS 1, the current interglacial period. MIS 3, which occurred 60,000 –

30,000 cal BP, lasted at least 25,000 years and is considered a long interstadial epoch.

During the last glaciation there were at least six paleoclimatic episodes. As the North

American Ice Sheets outgrew the continental boundaries they broke throwing off huge amounts of icebergs and associated debris into the North Atlantic Ocean, these episodes were called Heinrich events. As the icebergs melted, large amounts of rocks of continental origin dropped to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The icebergs were discharged from the Laurentide Ice Sheet into the

Atlantic Ocean. As the icebergs melted they produced an abundance of fresh water and created a southward extension of cold polar waters which resulted in a worldwide temperature drop. This would have interrupted the thermoholine circulation (water cycling from deep currents to surface and back to deep), limiting the northernmost reach of the Gulf Stream. As the ice sheets stabilized, the Gulf Stream was reestablished causing warming trends. Sharp increases in middle to high latitudinal temperatures led to warm interstadial stages called Dansgaard-Oeschgar (D-O) events.

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These events were characterized by rapid warming (c. 3 - 5˚C), lasting a century or less per event

(e.g., seventy-thousand years ago). During D-O 19 in MIS 4 the temperature rose by 16˚C. During these events a much larger evaporation rate and a moisture transfer from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Ocean across Central America would have occurred. The increased salinity of the Atlantic Ocean would have reinforced the thermoholine circulation and the Gulf Stream would have warmed the whole of the Northern Atlantic including Greenland. The atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere would have heated very quickly but for such a short duration that sea levels did not rise.

An important concern relative to the human migration into the Americas during the late

Pleistocene is the availability of the Bering Land Bridge and sea levels during the proposed time for migrations. Rabassa and Ponce (2013) postulate that the Bering Strait began to close approximately 82,000 calendar years before present (cal BP) when sea levels dropped 45 meters below present position and remained continuously closed until about 11,500 cal BP. An area of land encompassing approximately 1,200,000 km2 was exposed during these 70,000 years (Rabassa and Ponce 2013).

Rabassa and Ponce (2013) concluded that migration into the Americas might have occurred in several population waves. These would have occurred during one or more of the D-O paleoclimate events during MIS 3 dating between about 52,000 and 28,000 years BP, when the

Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Caps were not merged and the Yukon Corridor was open. During this time the coastal route was free of ice and sea levels were still low enough to access Beringia and the climate was milder and wetter than it would have been during the last glacial maximum circa 24,000 cal BP (Rabassa and Ponce 2013).

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DRIFTING SCENARIOS

Kistler et al. (2014) studied the wide distribution and dispersal of bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria), one of the first domesticated plants and the only plant with global distribution during pre-Columbian times. The bottle gourd has its origins in Africa, but by as early as 11,000 years ago was being used by humans in Asia, and by 10,000 years ago in the Americas. Using an ocean current drift model, the authors found that the wild African gourds may have floated across the

Atlantic during the Late Pleistocene. Once in the New World the bottle gourds became established in the Neotropics via dispersal by megafaunal mammals and domesticated near established centers of food crop domestication centers. Kistler et al. (2014) report that the phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that all New World archaeological gourds have a direct genetic relationship to their

African counterparts, indicating that pre-Columbian gourds are not of Eurasian gourd lineages, and were not brought to the New World out of northeast Asia and across Beringia, and instead were dispersed from Africa, with diverse wild gourds circulating across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kistler et al. (2014) conducted oceanic drift simulations to test the plausibility of the dispersal of bottle gourds across the ocean on a scale sufficient enough to explain the level of diversity in the archaeological record of the New World. The author based the oceanic drift simulations on wind values (National Center for Environmental Protection/National Center for

Atmospheric Research), and surface current data (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the

Ocean Consortium). These datasets were “the best fit of numerical model output to empirical observations, and are used to calibrate models that simulate drifting object displacement overtime based on currents and winds” (Kistler et al. 2014:2939 ). Kistler et al. (2014:2939) varied model parameters (drifter sensitivity to wind speed, deflection angle between drifter and wind direction, and intensity of wind-induced currents) to include the full range of possible variations in Late

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Pleistocene circulation patterns. The seeds of the fruits of domesticated bottle gourds are known to remain viable after floating in seawater for nearly a year and based on this criteria Kistler et al.

(2014) constrained the duration of individual drift events to 1 year, ensuring that this time-frame was not exceeded.

Kistler et al. (2014) found strong support for trans-Atlantic crossings within the specified time-frame, with the majority crossing between 20° S and the equator, within a drifting period of approximately 9 months but as few as 100 days. Gourds that dispersed from Africa within these latitudes led to successful crossings using every combination of model parameters and, no matter the latitude of departure from Africa, more than 80% of drifting gourds landed in the New World within this latitude zone. The second highest successful landings, at 16%, originated between 10°

N and 20° N, but drifters with a point of origin between the equator and 10° N only rarely arrived in the Americas, and those that originated from latitudes poleward of ±20° hardly ever made a successful crossing. They suggest that African gourds drifting out to sea (with the help of inland rivers for example), and reaching the ocean within the tropical zone had a good chance of a successful trans-Atlantic crossing and germinating once they made landfall (Kistler et al. 2014).

In their pursuit of modelling pre-historic human crossings into the Americas, Montenegro et al. (2005) examined how the ocean and atmosphere behave to provide reliable temporal and spatial constraints on the fundamental aspect of a transoceanic crossing. In their simulation experiments, Montenegro et al. (2005:1324) situated “vessels” along coastlines of the western

Pacific Ocean and eastern Atlantic Ocean, recording the movements of these vessels. Because information is not available regarding the seafaring abilities of early peoples, Montenegro et al.

(2005) designed their experiment setting specific parameters. These parameters include; voyagers are equipped with a small, non-sailing vessel, an assumption that migrants are unable to maintain

32 a constant bearing in the open ocean, the researchers determine vessel displacement as a function of currents, winds, and boat type, they do not take into account the effects of storms and waves and in their experiment, and the simulated vessels did not sink. The purpose of the authors’ simulation was to reproduce only unintentional crossings, they suggest that this type of scenario may have occurred if a coastal seafarer lost sight of land, was unable to navigate, and began to drift.

The simulations conducted by Montenegro et al. (2005), included boats set adrift and boats that were paddled. The paddled boats were paddled in the direction of the wind with the vessel motion defined as drifting, incorporating five paddling speeds (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 km/h.).

These experiments were conducted in present day (up to 8,000 (ka) BP), and Glacial Maximum

(at around 21 ka BP) conditions using current, wind, and land and sea-ice distribution for each different period examined. The authors modeled vessel movement over one year intervals, a duration they anticipated the voyagers would survive, and in order to assess the impact of seasonal changes the simulations were conducted during a period of 9 consecutive years with seasonal start dates of January 1st, April 1st, July 1st and October 1st. A vessel’s motion was solely measured by the influence of winds and currents in its vicinity. Montenegro et al. (2005) also used the United

States Coast Guard (USCG) Leeway Drift Method to estimate boat velocities from local wind and current values, a scheme adopted by the USCG for search and rescue missions.

Montenegro et al. (2005) report that most simulations yielded a large number of completed crossings. These are their findings:

Most Atlantic routes occur at low latitudes, while all Pacific ones are observed in mid- to high-latitudes. This is a direct consequence of the mean oceanic and atmospheric flows that favor east to west displacement in the tropical Atlantic and west to east movement in the mid-latitude Pacific. The no-paddling crossings with the highest probability of occurrence (13%) are the ones between southern Africa and South America. Crossings from northern Africa to South America, from

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Australia to New Zealand, and from New Zealand to South America have rates of occurrence ≥5%. The fastest crossing times appear on the short routes from Scandinavia to Iceland/Greenland and from Australia to New Zealand at 32 and 23 days, respectively. The fastest transoceanic crossings occurred between Central Europe and Iceland/Greenland in 72 days, Japan and North America in 83 days, northern Africa and South America in 91 days and Japan and Alaska in 104 days. The absence of Atlantic crossings near the Equator is a result of weak winds (doldrums) and the east flowing Equatorial Counter Current. While a similar wind and current system pushed some vessels to the east in the Equatorial Pacific, the longer length of the crossing at those latitudes prevented boats from reaching the Americas within the stipulated duration of the experiments. “In the North Pacific, the fastest Japan to Alaska crossings start in April, but the fastest Japan to North America crossings occurred in the simulations beginning in January. These results confirm the simulation presented by Callaghan (2003b), in which approximately 1% of drift starting from central and northern Japan in January reached the Canadian coast within 180 days. In his experiments, like in ours, January is also the month with the largest number of crossings. The paddling experiments tend to present shorter times and larger percentages of completed crossings than the no-paddling ones. Furthermore, in most cases crossing times decrease and percentages increase with paddling speed. Paddling acts to augment the wind effects on vessel drift in the simulation. On occasion, higher paddling speeds bring about longer crossing times. We believe that this happens when faster paddling succeeds in pushing boats out of swift ocean currents. This mechanism may be the cause of the increase in crossing times observed in the Jp-NA route, where vessels probably moved out of the NE flowing Kuroshio Current off Japan (Montenegro et al. 2005: 1327-1328).

HUMAN SPECIFIC PARASITES

Montenegro et al. (2005) also point out that the presence of parasites, cold-intolerant and human specific in pre-Columbian sites of North and South America support the notion of a transoceanic migration into the New World (Montenegro et al. 2005, 2006). Trichuris trichiura

(whipworm) and Enterobius (pinworm) as well as Ascaris lumbricoides (intestinal roundworm) and Ancylostoma duodenale (hookworm) are exclusively human parasites that have co-evolved with the hominid lineage for 400,000 years (Araujo et al. 2008). Araujo et al. (2008) state that these nematodes are called heirloom parasites. Remains of these parasites are found in Old World archaeological sites [whipworm, pinworm, and hookworm eggs] having evolved with the hominid

34 host in tropical and subtropical regions and accompanying early Homo groups out of Africa successfully, until environmental conditions prevented transmission. These specific intestinal parasites are found on archaeological material in the New World. Araujo et al. (2008) state that the lifecycles of the whipworm and the hookworm require certain conditions to survive. Optimal conditions are warm, moist and shaded soils. Whipworm eggs are laid in the intestine which pass in host feces, and require three weeks to reach the infective stage. The hookworm also pass eggs with feces which hatch in warm, moist soil and survive by consuming bacteria as it progresses through three stages before they finally enter the human host through the skin. Montenegro et al.

(2006) report that adult hookworms attached to intestinal mucosa of a Peruvian mummy were found that dated to 890-950 years BP. The biological requirements for these parasites would not have been met in the Arctic cold. Today these species do not occur in traditional populations of the Arctic region, but pinworm do. Araujo et al. (2008) add that the pinworm is dependent on habitation not climate conditions for transmission. This nematode would have been the only parasite that could have accompanied humans on the Bering land bridge crossing. Araujo et al.

(2008) conclude that the pinworm was transported unimpeded in humans across Beringia but not hookworm and whipworm, only a rapid migration by seafaring peoples would have brought these nematodes to the Americas (Araujo et al. 2008).

SURVIVAL AT SEA

Assuming people got caught up in a natural disaster, were carried out to sea on a floating island clinging for their lives, what chance would they have of surviving with little or no fresh water or food and adrift at sea? Van Den Bergh et al. (2007) report:

“The Indian Ocean Tsunami that struck the coast of Aceh on December 26, 2004, has proven that humans who cannot swim and were dragged into the sea by a tsunami can survive for several days on natural rafts, floating large distances with the surface currents (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4151059.stm). A

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pregnant woman who could not swim was rescued after 5 days from a floating sago tree and another man clinging to a tree was saved 160 km from the coast following 8 days at sea” (Van Den Bergh et al. 2007: 32).

This event, described by Van Den Bergh et al. (2007) was triggered by an earthquake measuring 9.1 magnitude, its epicenter very near Sumatra in the Indian Ocean that triggered the tsunami that devastated coastal communities in the region.

A cursory search of news articles for individuals who survived after being lost at sea reveals many stories chronicling their dreadful circumstances. The events presented by news organizations describe harrowing experiences of events lasting from days to many months. Here

I include some headlines and short descriptions. The first example was published by People

Magazine (2005): “Six Days Lost at Sea,” a report retelling the fate of two teenage boys 15, and

17 years of age, that set out for a day of fishing off the coast of Sullivans Island, North Charleston,

South Carolina. The teenagers said they met with bad weather 20 minutes after they launched their 15 foot fishing boat and were set adrift. One of the young men reported surviving by drinking rainwater and by eating jellyfish, of these he said he caught and ate at least 100. The boys were rescued by two fisherman who found them seven days after they set out, and 111 miles from

Sullivans Island.

A Fox News Latino (2012) article, “Lost at Sea Victim Sues Cruise Line For Passing By,” chronicled the survival of one man, part of a three man fishing crew, whose journey originated on the Pacific Coast of the Panama Canal. On their return home, after a successful night of fishing, the motor on their boat failed and they were set adrift. The survivor said that he and his fellow crewmates had started out with about five gallons of water and some food which had mostly been consumed before they had begun their return trip. The survivor, an 18 year old male, said he and his friends had lived on the fish they had caught until it spoiled, then they ate coconuts they

36 gathered from “passing rafts of debris.” Tragically, the survivor reports that they sighted a cruise ship (while the other members of his crew were still alive) after drifting for 16 days but weren’t able to get any help. Twenty-eight days after his journey began, despite his crewmembers’ passing, he was found by fishermen off the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, more than 600 miles from where he and his friends had set out.

Discovery News (2013) reports, “Fishermen Survive a Month Adrift in Pacific.” Two men,

20 and 40 years of age set out on a fishing trip on board an aluminum boat from Kiribati, an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. During the trip, the men’s outboard engine failed and currents took them out to sea. They survived by consuming raw fish and rain water and were found by a fishing vessel 700 km from their home after 26 days at sea.

CNN (2010) reports, “After 50 Days Lost at Sea, 3 Teens Rescued.” This article tells of three teenagers that had attempted to row between two islands in the New Zealand territory of

Tokelau and had instead been lost at sea. One source of nourishment reported by the news organization was that the boys caught and ate a seagull that had landed on their boat and were able to collect rainwater. They were rescued in a desolate part of the Pacific northeast of Fiji, by the crew of a tuna boat 800 miles away from their point of origin.

CNN (2015) reports, “US sailor rescued after 66 days lost at sea,” an article about a 37- year old man who set sail in a 35-foot sailboat a few miles off the South Carolina coast. The survivor reports that his sailboat capsized three times breaking the mast and destroying his navigational equipment, setting him adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. His shoulder was broken when the boat capsized and until it healed he was unable to make any repairs. He had some provisions but when they ran out he collected rainwater and caught fish to live on. He was rescued by a

German container ship 200 miles from North Carolina after 66 days lost at sea.

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Another article, this one presented by NPR (2013) entitled, “Real-Life Shipwreck Survivor

Helped ‘Life of Pi’ Get Lost At Sea,” reports about a man whose sailboat sank and who drifted for

76 days on a six foot rubber life raft in the Atlantic Ocean. NPR (2013) report that he survived by collecting rainwater and eating raw fish until he was rescued by fishermen.

Yet another article, this time published by Sky News (2012) recaps the story of a 41-year old man who drifted in the Pacific for more than 100 days entitled, “Shark ‘Rescues’ Man Lost at Sea for 15 Weeks.” In this article a man had traveled to the Capital of Kiribati from his home on the island of Maiana in the Pacific that had decided to return home with his brother-in-law by boat. The men fished and spent the night onboard the 15-foot wooden boat. The following morning they found they had drifted out of sight of Maiana and were out of fuel. They had some food but no water. His brother-in-law died from dehydration. He was able stay alive by collecting enough fresh water when the rain finally came and staying out of the sun as much as possible. He reported hearing a sound up against the side of the boat and when he checked he saw a shark scratching up against the boat. He said that he thought the shark was guiding him to a fishing boat in the distance that finally rescued him later that day off Majuro Island in the Marshall Islands.

The New York Times (2006) published this article, “After 9 Months Adrift at Sea,

Survivors Tell Their Stories,” about three survivors (out of five) that set out on a shark fishing expedition on a 29-foot boat and ran out of fuel. The three fishermen that survived reported staying alive by collecting rainwater, catching and eating fish and seabirds. They were rescued by a fishing boat near the Marshall Islands having drifted nearly 5,000 miles west.

The Guardian (2015) reports in their article entitled, “Lost at Sea: the Man Who Vanished for 14 Months” of a 36 year old man with a companion that had set out on a fishing trip, in a small boat and had been blown off course in a storm off the coast of Mexico. His crewmate died on the

38 trip and many months later he drifted close to Tile Island, a tropical island part of the Ebon Atoll.

The survivor swam ashore 438 days and nearly 7,000 miles from where he had begun his journey.

The survivor claims to have survived by collecting rainwater, and by catching turtles and fish.

The last example to be included in this report, is an article by Discovery News, (2014) telling of a man rescued on Ebon Atoll, after his “24-foot fiberglass boat with propellerless engines washed up onto the reef.” This article reports that two men left Mexico, one died on the trip and one was rescued 16 months and 8,000 miles from where he began his trip, having stayed alive by eating turtles, birds, fish, and when there was no rain, drinking turtle blood. The survivor was disoriented, but reports that a crewman died at sea.

Gleick (1996) reports that the minimum water requirement for humans is about three liters of fluid per day under average temperate climate conditions, and depending on the surrounding environmental conditions and personal physiological characteristics. The United States

Department of Agriculture in their Dietary Guidelines For Americans for 2015-2020 recommend a daily caloric intake of 2,400 calories for males engaged at a physical activity level of “sedentary,” and between the ages of 16 to 40. If these stories are to be believed, then these survivors were able to collect at least sufficient rainwater, fishes, turtles, birds and coconuts, to stay alive. These people managed to survive faced with possible dehydration, starvation, hypothermia, hyperthermia, heat stroke, sunburn, drowning, shark attacks, exhaustion, hallucinations, and the loss of any will to live, on a daily basis. These remarkable reports are a tribute to human endurance and demonstrate the viability of transoceanic conveyance of people.

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD OF THE NEW WORLD

The osteological (skeletal remains) database of First Americans contains information about remains described as having a generalized morphology, found over a large geographic area. The

39 remains were largely found in Central and South America, not in North America. Pitblado (2011) reports that craniofacial characteristic studies of South American remains show the oldest New

World human skeletal remains align with contemporary Africans and Australians and not with contemporary Northeast Asians. In North America, the skeletal characteristics indicate East

Asian, North Asian, Polynesian and European origins. Osteologists have said that the generalized appearance of First American skeletal remains is similar to the remains found in early sites from

China and Europe, these as early as 40,000 to 24,000 years BP. This may mean that the original settlement of the Americas predates the origin of more specialized skeletal morphology of

Northeast Asians which the osteologists believe initiated during the Pleistocene and Holocene transition. Pitblado (2011) states that this may indicate a migration of people into the Americas prior to the Pleistocene – Holocene boundary before 13,000 cal BP and supports a peopling date of about 15,000 years ago with multiple migration strategies by an entirely different genetic population, evidence she says, that conflicts with the current genetic data.

Dillehay and Sabloff (2009) considered the lithic archaeological record reporting dates for microblade and burin industries found in Central Alaska at a site that dates to 14,000 years ago

[Swan Point] with upper Paleolithic traditions originating in Siberia about 32,000 years ago, arguing for an earlier colonization of the Americas. They state that the archaeological record of

South America is different from North America. Clovis cultural evidence can be found across the

North American continent but in South America, there is no evidence of a single, widespread dominant culture. The earliest technologies found in South America are a variety of bifacial style points that were used for short periods before different technologies appeared, also found were expedient unifacial tools. Dillehay and Sabloff (2009) also remark on a succession of radically different artifact industries in the Andes, eastern Brazil and Patagonia. They suggest that the only

40 possible link between North and South America may be the presence of fluting on Clovis and

Fishtail points.

With few exceptions, the First Americans that inhabited coastal areas exploited marine resources seasonally throughout the year. As direct archaeological evidence for coastal migration,

Pitblado (2011) cites Paisley 5 Mile Caves, Oregon with human coprolites dating to 14,270 cal BP and the Monte Verde site that dates to 14,600 cal BP. These sites predate the availability of the ice free corridor (IFC) for pedestrian entry into the New World. Arlington Springs, an island off the coast of California, was only accessible by watercraft and human remains were found there that are dated to 13,100 cal BP. Pitblado’s (2011) theory is that there were two migratory waves of hunter gatherers with fundamentally different lifeways that reached the Americas. She goes on to say as evidence for a Pre-Clovis migration, that a very old stemmed point tradition had been found called the Intermountain West which reflects the archaeological remains of early coastal colonists that moved inland prior to the establishment of the Clovis Culture. As indirect evidence for coastal migration she reports that the Pacific coast of North, Central, and South America and the Atlantic coast of South America have very early sites that reflect at least a part time maritime resource procurement strategy. People had knowledge of sea resources and had begun exploiting those over 14,000 years ago, possessing a familiarity with sea and other aquatic resources. She concludes that both pedestrian travel down the ice free corridor and coastal migration played important roles in the colonization of the Americas.

Madsen (2015), conducted a similar review of archaeological data of the initial peopling of the Americas and agrees that most of the New World was occupied by ~13.0-13.5 ka. He goes on to say that it would have taken at the very least 500 – 1000 years, “and likely much longer,” for people in small foraging groups to disperse across the Americas and develop diverse technological

41 tool kits and subsistence adaptations. This observation suggests that it would be highly unlikely for foragers to travel across the Bering land bridge and occupy the southern tip of South America by 14,600 ka. The author suggests that an initial peopling of 14 ka BP would be a reasonable baseline for the peopling of the Americas using only “well-defined and widely accepted early cultural traditions” (Madsen 2015:223). Madsen (2015:233) discusses the three accepted models for the initial peopling of the New World and states that “none of the three basic models for the initial peopling of the Americas can be entirely discounted.” The author argues that no data exist to support or contradict the Atlantic ice coast model (Solutrean Hypothesis), other than lithic similarities; that the Pacific coast model has some “ancillary” data that supports the idea of foraging populations following the west coast of the Americas, but little direct evidence has surfaced that offers conclusive support. And finally, Madsen (2015) argues that several issues regarding the IFC/Clovis First theory need to be considered. The author points out that the IFC may not have been open early enough to accommodate the wide dispersal of Clovis people by 13 ka BP, that there is evidence that contemporary groups occupied both North and South America based on diverse lithic technologies in the archaeological record, that early Clovis sites have been excavated far south of the IFC, and finally, archaeological evidence exists that supports colonization in the Americas well before the appearance of Clovis lithic technologies.

Madsen (2015) examines available archaeological evidence that may support an initial occupation and dispersal of people across the Americas before ~14 ka. He says that “conclusive” evidence that supports early occupation (other than uncontaminated human remains with direct radiometric dating) is “direct radiometric dating of uncontaminated artifacts of indisputable human origins”, such as “knotted cordage on shaved wooden stakes, human fecal remains, or charcoal from what is clearly a hearth” (Madsen 2015:234). The next criteria that he calls “probable or

42 suggestive” evidence was defined as “isolated artifacts in solid stratigraphic and well-dated context” and “directly dated animal bones with breakage patterns that suggest human intervention”

(Madsen 2015:234). The author identifies three categories that offer at least some evidence of anatomically modern human occupation, “very probable: ~14-17 ka” (234), “possible: 17 – 30 ka”

(237), and “unlikely: >30 ka” (Madsen 2015:239).

A few of the sites Madsen (2015) identifies as very probable, located in North America and part of the continental US, are Paisley Caves in the Great Basin area of Oregon, with direct radiometric dating between ~14.1 and 14.5 ka, identifying it as the only indisputably human evidence (coprolites) in North America. The Schaefer and Hebior sites, both located in southeastern Wisconsin, which lay near the front of the Laurentide ice sheet, have mammoth remains with 14C dates at Schaefer between ~ 14.4 – 14.9 ka, and at Hebior between ~14.4 – 14.6 ka, as well as the Gault site in Texas with lithic materials that underlie Clovis materials in a well stratified manner, has optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates to >15 ka. Two others sites

Madsen (2015) lists in North America are the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, which has six radiocarbon dates in its earliest level (Stratum II), the earliest of these dated to ~17.4 ka.

Page-Ladson is the other site, a sinkhole along the Aucilla River in the Florida panhandle which is an underwater excavation with seven undisturbed stratigraphic sites associated with the earliest cultural deposit which range between ~14.2 and 14.6 ka. Continuing the very probable, but in

South America, the author reports; Monte Verde, which is located near the Pacific coast in Chile, as having indisputably human artifacts (wood from house floors, including wooden stakes with cordage) that range from 14.3 to 15.3 ka, Huaca Prieta, a Pacific coastal site in northern Peru with the earliest occupation dated to ~13.3 – 14.2 ka, Taima-Taima, located on the coastal plains of

Venezuela (possible butchering site) 14C date the depositional area to between ~13.8 – 16.3 ka, at

43 the Tequendama site, a rockshelter located in the Columbian highlands, excavations produced charcoal from two hearths associated with broken and burned bones and numerous non-diagnostic lithic tools provided 14C of 11.7 – 14.5 ka, and other sites. He points out that unless there’s an acceptable argument against the veracity of the archaeological interpretation of these sites, we must accept that people started to disperse south of the ice sheets by at least 15.5 – 16.5 ka assuming a 1,000 year timeframe for dispersal throughout North America and 2,000 years for dispersal throughout both Americas.

In the “possible 17-30 ka” timeframe he lists sites such as the Cactus Hill site, a stratified dune site on the coastal plains of southern Virginia and the East coast of North America, the earliest cultural deposition is 14C dated to ~17 ka for a “blade horizon.” (Madsen 2015:237) Madsen

(2015) includes the Miles Point site, which is located in the Delmarva Peninsula, situated between

Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, reporting that a series of artifacts were discovered in situ

(blade flakes, quartz hammerstones and an anvil, a polyhedral core, a bipolar wedge or core, and a small square based projectile point) as well as eroding from a soil horizon which dated to ~25-

30 ka, and on Parson’s Island, also part of the Delmarva Peninsula, thin bipointed laurel leaf bifaces where found in situ, the earliest associated with charcoal dating to ~20.5 ka, finally, several sites on the Central Great Plains of North America (Cooperton, Hamburger, Jensen, La Sena,

Lovewell II, Prettyman and Shaffert), have direct dating of mammoth bones between ~18.9 – 23.4 ka.

In South America, Madsen (2015:238) reports of a series of rockshelters in eastern Brazil

“thought to date to the last full glacial interval.” At one of these, Vale da Pedra Furada, which is a stratified site, charcoal was found in a cultural zone and along with OSL age estimates of the same levels, date the densest concentration of artifacts to ~24 ka, at Tira Peia, with multiple

44 assemblages in successive layers, has an age estimate of ~20 ka at one of its earlier levels, in Sitio de Meio, charcoal found in two horizons and “what appears to be a structure within the earliest cultural depositions” are 14C dated to ~24.2 and ~30 ka (Madsen 2015:238).

Madsen (2015) reports that a date range of >17 ka for particular sites is disputed because in some cases their reporting is incomplete, or there may be problems about association with other artifacts. For example, the Delmarva sites are not fully excavated and reported. The author does have an “unlikely: >30 ka” range and includes sites such as the Monte Verde I in Chile, with a possible cultural horizon that lays under the ~14.5 ka cultural layer, that may date to ~31 ka, and possible cut marks on bones in a cave in Uruguay suggesting human butchering of animals at ~30 ka. He also mentions that several mammoth sites in the central Great Plains of North America, may show “human-caused breakage patterns” that date to ~33 – 39 ka, in what has been called the

“Mammoth Steppe Hypothesis” (Madsen 2015:239).

A recent study by a combined French and Brazilian team provides data in support of the antiquity of the Vale da Pedra Furada in Brazil, undertaken in a “pluridiciplinary” approach by

Lahaye et al. (2014).

“The results of technological and functional studies suggest the existence of different successive human occupations during the Pleistocene in this region. Moreover, the geological and geomorphological studies shed new light on our understanding of sedimentary processes and confirm that the levels were not subject to any significant post-depositional processes. This is also confirmed by macro- analysis of quartz artifact surfaces. The chronological study has recently been completed employing both radiocarbon and luminescence techniques: radiocarbon dates were obtained on charcoal, multi-grain and single-grain OSL ages on sedimentary quartz grains. The results obtained with the different methods are consistent with each other: the most recent archaeological level is dated to around 8, and the oldest to 24 ka, indicating the open-air site of Vale da Pedra Furada to be a succession of human occupations beginning from OIS 2” (Lahaye et al. 2014:1).

45

CRANIAL MORPHOLOGY AND GENETIC VARIATION

Neves and Hubbe (2005:18309) studied the cranial morphology of early Americans from

Lagoa Santa, Brazil, and found that “the earliest South Americans tend to be more similar to present Australians, Melanesians, and Sub-Sahara Africans.” The authors conducted three different quantitative analyses with resulting data demonstrating that the first South Americans exhibit a very different cranial morphology from late and modern Northeastern Asians and

Amerindians. The Amerindian cranial features are short and wide neurocrania, high, orthognatic faces, and relatively high and narrow orbits and noses, whereas the first South American cranial characteristics are narrow and long neurocrania, prognatic, low faces, and relatively low and broad orbits and noses, and these traits are very similar to present day Australians/Melanesians and less so, although still similar with Sub-Saharan Africans. Neves and Hubbe (2005) point out that these cranial traits are not restricted to Lagoa Santa, but are also found in other distant and ecologically different places in the Americas, such as Southern Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Florida (US), and in other places in Brazil.

Menendez et al. (2015) found similar results in the early American remains examined in the Argentinean Pampas, finding major craniometrics differences between early and late South

American samples. The authors report that the craniometrics differences do not exist among all

South American areas, finding more deviation between the early and late Holocene American samples of the Argentinean Pampas. Menendez et al. (2015:259) say that “the main changes between the early and late samples include neurocranial length, height and breadth, facial breadth, masticatory height, and to a lesser extent bizgomatic breadth, basion-bregma height, occipital length, and biasterionic breadth.” The authors add that their findings are in agreement with previously recognized patterns found in early skulls of late Pleistocene and early Holocene samples

46 that “are characterized by a long and narrow cranial vault (i.e., dolichocephalic morphology), while more recent populations exhibit a shorter and wider cranial vault, that is, a brachycephalic morphology” (Menendez et al. 2015:260).

Genetic research by Skoglund et al. (2015) supports the biological variation of New World morphology. Skoglund et al. (2015:104) conducted an analysis of genome-wide data and found that “…some Amazonian Native Americans descend partly from a Native American founding population that carried ancestry more closely related to indigenous Australians, New Guineans and

Andaman Islanders than to any present-day Eurasians or Native Americans,” and this ancestry is not found in the populations of present-day North and Central America, nor in the ~12.6 ka BP

Clovis (Anzick) remains found in Montana, United States.

Another interesting biological variation is found in the genetic makeup of the Melanesian population. B. Vernot et al. (2016) report that gene flow occurred between Neanderthal,

Denisovan, and the ancestors of modern humans, pointing out that “all non-African populations derive ~2% of their ancestry from Neanderthals, whereas substantial levels of Denisovan ancestry

(~2-4%) are only found in Oceanic populations, although low levels of Denisovan ancestry may be more widespread” (B. Vernot et al. 2016:235). They report that in European populations they see a strong skew of Neanderthal but not Denisovan, contrasting with the Melanesians who exhibit a marked skew in both Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry (B. Vernot et al. 2016).

SUMMARY

Many scientists agree with the theory that organisms are conveyed by rafting. Rafting occurs between islands and continents on floating islands that cross narrow sea gaps, or occur during transoceanic voyages. In any of these situations the rafters are passive passengers. Of these

47 rafters, both fauna and flora have established viable colonies on coastlines, and in some cases have become invasive species.

We know that natural disasters produce great quantities of debris, both biotic and abiotic.

This material makes its way to the sea and is carried by wind and current across great distances.

This debris is composed of many different materials. Examples are sections of continental or island coastlines that, complete with vegetation and trees, are ripped away by cyclone, hurricane or tsunami and set adrift. Another example is floating pumice, which is expelled by terrestrial or subaerial volcanic activity and can form large floating rafts. These rafts float, sink or become stranded on coastlines and dehydrate. Pumice is colonized by vegetation and organisms within a short period of time, and then may remobilize providing a stable, durable platform for rafters.

The sea is in constant motion providing a surface upon which debris of all size is conveyed until it abuts with landforms. The debris traversing open water offers a surface for organisms to cling to and be conveyed across sea gaps of short or long distances. Many of the earliest archaeological sites in the Americas are located along coastal areas. Both Kistler et al. (2014) and

Montenegro et al. (2005) demonstrated with their simulated drift experiments that bottle gourds and vessels drift successfully, carried by wind and current, across large sea gaps, within acceptable timeframes for hominin survival. I have plotted the sites mentioned in this study as well as the simulated vessel drift experiment trajectories lanes proposed by Montenegro et al. (2005) and find that vessel arrival, on either coast of the Americas, match the earliest sites plotted (Appendix A).

Human specific parasites require certain conditions to survive, optimal conditions are warm, moist and shaded soils and would not have survived the Arctic environment of Beringia.

Hookworm and whipworm are two human specific parasites found in archaeological sites in the

48

New World, and only a rapid migration by seafaring peoples would have brought these nematodes to the Americas.

The study of genetic data and cranial morphology found in the archaeological record of the

Paleocene and Holocene remains of South Americans, that demonstrates a similarity to present day Australians, Melanesians, and Sub-Saharan Africans, an interesting discovery of biological variation not found in the remains of early North Americans, and the amount of Denisovan DNA found primarily in Oceanic populations, but missing from Eurasians, suggest possible rafting events.

CONCLUSION

Rafting opportunities occur after natural disasters when tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, and cyclones carve away large stretches of coastline that are set adrift. Also during tectonic activity, subaerial volcanic eruptions expel material that produce large floating pumice rafts. Pumice can be stranded on continental or island shores and dehydrate, and within a short time a variety of vascular plants will establish on this abiotic material and then it may remobilize. People may become rafters along with fauna and flora on any of these floating islands. I think that earlier peoples, without the advantage of recent technology, were better prepared to survive in more archaic environments, although, anecdotal evidence of survival at sea supports modern man’s capacity to make due with available materials and survive for extended periods of time. Archaic people were transported on extended or limited journeys to distant lands and were able to disembark, reproduce, and adapt to new environments and leave their genetic signature for us to find in the archaeological record. And data from archaeological investigation supports an unexplained admixture of foreign genetic material in isolated populations. With all this evidence

49 the results of my research can only support the hypothesis that “rafting” as a means of passive conveyance of hominins across sea gaps and around the world is plausible.

50

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