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An 11,000 - yr - quondam settlement in Canada is challenging the theme that early autochthonal people were nomadic . The newly reveal village site of Âsowanânihk , which means " a berth to sweep " in the Cree speech , is one of the old archaeological land site retrieve on the continent and suggests that an organized society be in fundamental Canada far earlier than experts previously reckon .

" This internet site is shaking up everything we intend we know and could shift the narrative of other autochthonic civilizations in North America , " amateur archaeologist Dave Rondeau , who first identified the site in 2023 , said in a Feb. 4statement .

Two people standing in front of a cliff, looking at the different colored lines of soil running horizontally

Experts look at the eroding cliff where the site was discovered in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Evidence already recuperate from Âsowanânihk , situate in the Sturgeon Lake First Nation ( SLFN ) in central Saskatchewan , include Harlan Fisk Stone tools , firepits and bison os , agree to the instruction . A very large firepit suggests that the website was used for a long menstruation , or repeatedly for short periods , harmonise toGlenn Stuart , an archeologist at the University of Saskatchewan who is involved in the project . Such use indicate that the small town was likely a long - condition one , rather than a temporary hunting camp , where Indigenous hunters strategically harvested the extinctBison antiquus .

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Charcoal from one of the hearths wasradiocarbon - datedto about 10,700 year ago , Stuart told Live Science in an email . This mean that people were living in the village just after the last ice age terminate , when there was finally land suitable for plant to grow .

An illustration of two Indigenous people pulling hand cart-like contraptions

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Ruins of a large circular building on a plant plain with mountains in the background.

" This indicates that people arrived in this location as presently as it was inhabitable , " Stuart said , " and then continually reoccupied the situation for one thousand of years . Ancestral First Nations have been living in the surface area west of [ the city of ] Prince Albert for as long as it has been potential to survive in the region . "

" This discovery is a powerful reminder that our ancestors were here , edifice , thriving , and shaping the terra firma long before chronicle books acknowledged us , " SLFN Chief Christine Longjohn said in the statement . " This website speak for us , proving that our radical run cryptical and unploughed , " she said .

The web site of Âsowanânihk is presently being studied by archaeologists , including Stuart , alongside the SLFN ’s Âsowanânihk Council , which includes Elders , Knowledge Keepers and pedagogue . The council is also working with local stakeholder to protect the internet site , which was in the beginning identified because it was eroding out of a riverbank and now faces potential destruction from logging activities in the area .

Circular alignment of stones in the center of an image full of stones

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Against the background of a greenish and red rock are two images: one of a human skeleton emerging from the dirt and one of archaeologists in hard hats excavating it

A sunrise over a grassy field with two white lines indicating a road drawn on the image

a group of people excavate a site with mountains behind them

Three-dimensional rendering of an HIV virus

Remains of the Heroon, a small temple built for the burial cluster of Philip II at the Museum of the Royal Tombs inside the Great Tumulus of Aigai (Aegae)

The coin hoard, amounting to over $340,000, was possibly hidden by people fleeing political persecution.

a close-up of a handmade stone tool

a wrecked car underwater

a photo of the Milky Way reflecting off of an alpine lake at night

an illustration of Mars

three prepackaged sandwiches

Tunnel view of Yosemite National Park.

A satellite photo of an island with a giant river of orange lava