Archaeological study suggests that humans set foot in North America much earlier
New archaeological research in New Mexico suggests that humans arrived in North America 15,000 years earlier than previously thought. The results of the study were published in the trade journal ‘Nature’.
According to current scientific findings, humans would have set foot ashore from eastern Asia into northern America some 15,000 to 16,000 years ago.
A research team, led by Ciprian Ardelean at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas in Mexico, has recently excavated Chiquihuite Cave in the Mexican Astillero Mountains.
There they found nearly 2,000 stone tools, 239 of which were embedded in gravel layers dated to 25,000 and 32,000 years old. Ardelean concludes from this that the cave was used as a refuge during the winter.
Doubt
The investigation also raises controversy. Other experts claim that the stone tools were not real tools and may not be that old at all.
Furthermore, there is still no convincing genetic evidence of the human presence in America prior to 15,000 years ago, emphasizes geneticist David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
