Why is the Beringia theory so popular and well accepted?
Native Americans looked like people from East Asia. Geologists knew about the glaciers and that there was a land bridge. It was only logical that some people might have crossed over it. There were no accepted dates older than that for Native American artifacts though they weren’t looking for older sites and would discount them if they found it. It was an example of bias. Most scientists back in the early part of the 20th century and before didn’t think much of the ability of ancient people to come by boat. They weren’t even that ancient but people often see what they want to see. There was a lot of evidence of the Clovis people. They had several examples about the same age which was about 13,000 years ago and it seemed like they suddenly spread over much of North America. A logical assumption would be that a new group arrived. The assumption gains common acceptance and then people treat it like it is a fact and extend that to they were the first people. It wasn’t a terribly unreasonabl
