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Alice Roberts

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The Incredible Human Journey: Episode 5: The Americas

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The Americas

Episode 5

Episode 5: The Americas

BBC Two - The Incredible Human Journey, The Americas

Dr Alice Roberts investigates the possible routes taken by humans to reach the Americas.

Alice Roberts investigates how humans may have reached North and South America, looking at routes across the Canadian ice sheet and from Australia across the Pacific.

For Stone Age people, reaching North and South America seems impossible - on each side vast oceans, and to the north an impenetrable ice sheet that covered the whole of Canada. So how did the first Americans get there?

Dr Alice Roberts discovers evidence for an ancient corridor through the Canadian ice sheet that may have allowed those first people through. But there are problems - in particular some very ancient finds in southern Chile seem to suggest a very different way in to the Americas. Amazingly, an ancient human skull discovered in Brazil even points to an Australasian origin of the Americans. Could a route from Australia across the Pacific have been possible? A surprising answer to the problem eventually comes from a Canadian forensic scientist more used to solving murder cases.

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Dr Alice Roberts tells the story of how humans left Africa to colonise the world.

Dr Alice Roberts travels the globe to discover the incredible story of how humans left Africa to colonise the world.

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