Abstract:

The investigation into the origins of the earliest humans in the Americas is a pivotal area of interdisciplinary research, offering critical insights into modern human intercontinental migration and ancient human environmental adaptation and survival strategies. Initially, the “Clovis First Model” proposed in the 1920s, dominated explanations of the peopling of the Americas, positing a single migration from Northeast Asia via a land bridge during the Last Glacial Maximum. However, the discovery of pre-Clovis sites has prompted a reevaluation, leading to alternative models such as the “Tripartite Model”.

Advancements in the identification of pre-Clovis sites and the development of ancient DNA technology have further refined these discussions. The “Multiple Migration Hypothesis” has emerged as a more integrative and universal framework, suggesting multiple migratory events from Northeast Asia to the Americas along both land bridge and Pacific coastal routes.

Methodologically, research has transitioned from reliance on singular archaeological data to a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating ancient DNA analysis, stone tool techno-functional studies, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. This shift underscores the necessity of integrating multidisciplinary data to construct a comprehensive evidence chain, providing a robust foundation for understanding the complex migratory patterns that shaped the peopling of the Americas.

Research on the initial peopling of the Americas has moved from an early “single-route, single-population, single-technology, single-subsistence” model to a phase in which multiple competing hypotheses coexist, and finally to the proposal of integrative, universal frameworks. Methodologically, it has shifted from simple artifact comparisons to the synthesis of ancient-DNA, lithic techno-functional, paleoenvironmental and other datasets, continuously widening and deepening the field. Several long-standing assumptions have been overturned, giving rise to new—and increasingly consensual—understandings within the scholarly community.With the steady influx of new discoveries and the growing power of analytical technologies, future work must pursue two complementary tracks. First, archaeology within the Americas itself needs to be intensified, especially on the now-submerged Pacific continental shelf and at sites that pre-date the Last Glacial Maximum. Second, collaborative archaeological investigations linking the Americas and Asia must be strengthened, ensuring that trans-continent comparative data inform every stage of the inquiry.

A wide range of evidence indicates that the ancestors of present-day Native Americans are closely related to Late Pleistocene populations of East and Northeast Asia. Consequently, research on the first peopling of the Americas is inseparable from the study of ancient humans and Paleolithic archaeology across Asia. Our investigations should adopt a transcontinental perspective that integrates the American and Asian landmasses within the broader framework of modern human origins. By linking the origin and evolution of modern humans in East Asia with prehistoric gene flow across Eurasia, we can provide a more comprehensive and macroscopic lens through which to understand the source and dispersal of the earliest inhabitants of the Americas.

Key words: America, modern human, ancient DNA, Pre-Clovis, multiple migration