Image credit: abroadintheyard.com
Zacatecas, Mexico – An archeologist group has found hunter tools and other evidence that humans could have lived in North America 30,000 years ago. Evidence includes hundreds of spear points, blades and other objects in a cavern in Central Mexico. Scientists report that the cavern could have been used as a makeshift shelter for hunter gatherers as early as 33,000 years ago.
This is approximately 15,000 years earlier than what scientists thought. Originally, the Clovis culture, a group of hunters, were considered the first American people about 12,000 years ago, but evidence of even older hunter tools contradicts that claim.
“It is a fundamental change in our way of thinking,” anthropologist Ruth Gruhn said to the Wall Street Journal, “Dates of around 30,000 years ago indicate that people have been on both continents twice as long as generally believed.” Gruhn speculates that the first humans came to North America 40,000 years ago. This would have been done by traveling from Asia to North America either by a land bridge or by sea. However, it is unlikely they traveled by sea according to scientists.
Scientists used processes called radiocarbon tests and optically stimulated luminescence, a process that requires using radiation, to date the tools. The most recent tool was 13,000 years old while the oldest was between 31,405 and 33,150 years old.
With these recent findings, will preconceptions of human history continue to shift?
Image credit: abroadintheyard.com
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