EDarly Arrivals To North America

The Early Arrivals

Archaeologists believed for many years that the ancient Clovis people moved to North America from Siberia about 11,500 years ago.

Now, some are challenging the “Clovis First” idea after archaeologists found pre-Clovis sites dating back more than 15,000 years, including a new one in Mexico: It showed that people had been living in the Americas about 33,000 years ago, according to the BBC.

Writing in a new study, researchers found nearly 2,000 stone tools at the Chiquihuite Cave in central Mexico, suggesting that the cave was used by the ancient people for at least 20,000 years.

“Anyone can see that these are deliberately manufactured stone tools and there are lots of them,” said co-author Thomas Higham.

Higham added that stones tools dating back almost 30,000 years have been previously found in Brazil. He said the findings could change the way archaeologists study the early occupation of the Americas.

Even so, archeologists wonder how these pre-Clovis people arrived. Some believe they came via the now-melted Beringian land bridge that connects present-day Alaska with Siberia during the last Ice Age. Before then, the Beringia was not easy to traverse, possibly very boggy.

Higham suggested that only a few crossed the area using coastal routes and eventually settled in America using some type of maritime technology.

While people seem to have been in the Americas before 26,000 years ago, they were probably thin on the ground, scientists say. It’s only much later, between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago that populations increased substantially when temperatures spiked at the end of the last Ice Age.