Stone tools show earlier human arrival in North America
July 23, 2020
Archaeological evidence discovered in central Mexico suggests humans were living in the Americas at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought. Scientists found hundreds of sophisticated tools at the site.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/M. Thomsen
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A study published on Wednesday revealed that North America was likely inhabited by humans as early as 26,500 years ago, much earlier than most scientists accept.
The discovery came from the analysis of tools excavated from a cave in central Mexico which now provide strong evidence humans were living in North America some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Published in the journal Nature, the study focused on artifacts — including 1,900 stone implements — found in the high-altitude Chiquihuite Cave.
Some of the stone tools were found to be more than 30,000 years oldImage: picture-alliance/AP/C. Ardelean
Imported tools
The stone tools, a unique find in the Americas, revealed a "mature technology," which the study's authors believe was brought from elsewhere.
"Our results provide new evidence for the antiquity of humans in the Americas," Ciprian Ardelean, an archaeologist at the Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas and lead author of the study said.
Ardelean said that radiocarbon dating results put a few of the artifacts within an age range of 33,000 to 31,000 years old, although scientists are still trying to verify this.
No traces of human bones or DNA were found at the site. "It is likely that humans used this site on a relatively constant basis, perhaps in recurrent seasonal episodes part of larger migratory cycles," the study concluded.
Image: Reuters/D. Gandy
Archaeologists take sides
Until recently, the widely accepted theory of human arrival in the Americas stipulates that early ancestors crossed a land bridge from present-day Russia to Alaska some 13,500 years ago and moved south through a corridor between two massive ice sheets.
The theory is fiercely debated among experts and the new study will likely be heavily contested as well.
"That happens every time that anybody finds sites older than 16,000 years — the first reaction is denial or hard acceptance," said Ardelean, who first excavated the cave in 2012 but did not discover the oldest items until 2017.
Anthropology professor Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who was not involved in the cave study, said the proposed dates may ultimately be considered valid if they can stand up to further scrutiny.
He doesn't question that some of the artifacts are likely man-made, but said he'd like to see other evidence of human occupation of the cave, like hearths, butchered bones and burned edible plant remains.
Famous mummies and their histories
After a mummy is discovered, rumors often fly regarding its origin and cause of death. Sometimes it is even thought to be an alien find! Here are some famous mummies and the histories behind them and their discoveries.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/EURAC/V. J. Musi
Ata
Are these the remains of an alien? That's what many people wondered after this mummy was found in the Chilean Atacama desert in 2003. A documentary was produced on the possible extraterrestrial find. But the remains were identified as a human. Researchers believe the 15-centimeter (6-inch) long figure was probably a prematurely born fetus with various bone and cranial deformities.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Bhattacharya S et al./COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY
Tutankhamun
In 1922 British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the mummy of pharaoh Tutankhamun in an almost untouched tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Experts speculated for decades whether or not the child king had been murdered. Finally, in 2005, a tomographic computer analysis using wave penetration, similar to a CAT scan, proved that he had died from injuries sustained while he hunting.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/epa/AP/B. Curtis
Rosalia Lombardo
Rosalia, considered the world's most beautiful mummy, has been resting in a Catholic Capuchin tomb in Palermo, Italy, for almost 100 years. She died of the Spanish flu shortly before her second birthday. The little girl seems to be simply sleeping. It's not known how her embalmer managed to preserve her so well. All that's known is that Alfredo Salafia used formaldehyde.
Palermo not only houses the world's most beautiful mummy but also a rather eerie collection of skeletons: The remains of rich people buried in their cloths can be found in the Capuchin cloister's catacombs. In roughly 1600, the religious order's friars discovered that the corpses had only partially decomposed. The friars then arranged them along the walls, where they can now be viewed by tourists.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Brix
Ötzi
In 1991 a couple from Nuremberg discovered a glacier mummy while hiking in the Alps around the valley of Ötz, hence the name "Ötzi." In 2000 researchers tried to clarify the cause of death of this Neolithic man, whose remains had been naturally preserved by extreme cold temperatures. The man is thought to have died between 3359 and 3105 B.C. from an arrow attack.
Image: AP
Scythian warriors
In 2003 an international research team discovered mummies of Scythian warriors in Mongolia. They are only half as old as Ötzi. These Indo-European nomads lived in the vast steppes of Eurasia. This mummy, preserved by ice, was dressed in groundhog fur and wore felt boots.
This bog man, discovered by a peat digger in Neu Versen in 1900, remains the most famous example of a total of 60 bog men that have been discovered in Lower Saxony to date. Over the course of 1,700 years, substances contained in the bog colored the mummy's hair red, hence the nickname "Red Franz." The bog's soil acids preserved his body.
Image: cc-by-Axel Hindemith
The child mummy of Detmold
Although this mummy of a baby was found in Peru, it has been named after the Lippisches Landesmuseum in Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, which received it for conservation purposes in 1987. The baby, which died of a heart defect, is one of the world's oldest mummies: at around 6,500 years old, it's even older than Tutankhamun and Ötzi.
