Did humans cross the Bering Strait after the land bridge disappeared?

The Bering Land Bridge once connected Russia to Alaska and was a crossing point for some of the first humans to populate the Americas. But during certain periods, the bridge was either impassable or submerged due to sea level rise, seemingly stranding later waves of people on both sides.

But was it possible for early humans to traverse the Bering Strait by boat? And if so, what evidence exists to support their crossings?

According to John Hoffecker, a research fellow emeritus of early human History at the University of Colorado Boulder, recent evidence has shown "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the Bering Land Bridge first emerged around 35,700 years ago before disappearing again about 12,000 years ago, near the end of the last ice age, when glaciers melted and sea level began to rise.

At times, the bridge would have resembled the tundra of northern Alaska and been home to large maMMAls, Hoffecker said. But that wasn't always the case. Recent research on the region's paleoclimate posits that the bridge was often locked up in impassable ice except during brief windows from 24,500 to 22,000 years ago and 16,400 to 14,800 years ago. Archaeological and genetic evidence supports the idea that early humans, including members of the Clovis culture, may have crossed the land bridge around 14,000 years ago during one of these stretches.

Related: How did humans first reach the Americas?

Successive waves of people streamed across the Bering Strait, including members of a group known as the Paleo-Inuit or Paleo-Eskimo who had appeared in the Arctic by 4,500 years ago and belonged to a culture called the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt). It's less clear, however, how they did so.

Andrew Tremayne, an archaeologist who previously conducted research in Alaska for the National Park Service, said that ASTt peoples were likely advanced mariners, and artifacts found on islands in the Bering Strait and in Alaska today suggest that ASTt people may have been in the area as early as 5,000 years ago. In the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, in 2013, Tremayne and his team found stone tools from Siberia at an ASTt site dated to about 4,000 years ago.