Dennis J. Stanford in Cherokee, Iowa is an archaeologist and Director of the Paleo-Indian Program at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

. Along with Prof. Bruce Bradley, Stanford is known for advocating the Solutrean hypothesis

Solutrean hypothesis

The Solutrean hypothesis proposes that peoples from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers in the Americas, as evidenced by similarities in stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture from prehistoric Europe to that of the later Clovis tool-making culture found in the Americas. It was...

, which contends that stone tool technology of the Solutrean

Solutrean

The Solutrean industry is a relatively advanced flint tool-making style of the Upper Palaeolithic, from around 22,000 to 17,000 BP.-Details:...

 culture in prehistoric Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 may have influenced the development of the Clovis tool-making culture

Clovis culture

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that first appears 11,500 RCYBP , at the end of the last glacial period, characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools...

in the Americas.

He is one of the nation foremost authorities on the early inhabitants of North America.

External links

• Department of Anthropology Staff, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution