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archeological breakthrough across the Americas have shaped our understanding ofwhen and how human first reached the so - call New World . The tale told by artifacts excavate from sites all the way from Alaska to Chile is hotly debated .
According to the Clovis First theory , people hybridise from Siberia into North America just over 13,000 years ago via the Bering Land Bridge — a mass of country that come forth when the last crank age lour ocean grade — and disseminate across the Americas .
People who occupied the Clovis site in New Mexico made distinctive stone weapons and spearpoints known as Clovis points (pictured).
But in recent decades , archaeologist have unearthed muchearlier evidence of people across North and South America , pushing back the date for this milestone in human account and casting uncertainty onhow the first Americans have there .
From giant sloth bones carved into pendants to underwater caches of mastodon os , here are 13 of the oldest archeologic site in the Americas .
1. Clovis, New Mexico
closely to a ravine called Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mexico sits an archaeologic site , discovered in 1929 , that has determine our understanding of how the Americas were peopled .
The internet site was called Clovis due to its propinquity to a town of that name and , throughout the 1930s , buckle under Isidor Feinstein Stone artifacts , hearths and os belonging to nonextant animals — including mammoth — demo grounds of butcherydating to 13,000 years ago .
Spearpoints discovered in Clovis have total to specify a mathematical group of masses who were long believe to be the first humans to arrive in the Americas , as well as their culture . These typical spearpoints were chip from stone into finger - farseeing projectiles that are now known as " Clovis I points " and were find oneself affiliate with animal castanets .
Archaeologists excavated fragments of mammoth tusks at Swan Point, which is the oldest archaeological site in Alaska.
Ancient archeologic sites across the Americas are define in relation back to Clovis , with " pre - Clovis " site referring to grounds that humans came from Asia far earlier than 13,000 year ago .
2. Swan Point, Alaska
Swan Point is located in east - central Alaska and is the oldest be intimate archaeological site in the state , as well as theonly web site in Alaskashowing evidence of humans hunting mammoths . excavation have uncovered grounds of human job — such as hearths , tools and animate being bones — dating to more than 14,000 years ago .
Based on what has been recovered from the hilltop site , archeologist recall early occupants may havecamped there and survived by hunt gamein the besiege wetland , now known as the Shaw Creek Flats .
tool discovered at Swan Point let in projectile points made of stone and antler , fragment of an adze for chopping Sir Henry Joseph Wood or bone , scrapers for skinning and an awl to pierce animal hides . These objects , together with a mammoth ivory , paint a picture the site may have been a gigantic bone workshop at some point in prehistory .
Cooper’s Ferry, in western Idaho, is one of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas.
3. Cooper’s Ferry, Idaho
Cooper ’s Ferry is a prehistorical settlement at the confluence of Rock Creek and the lower Salmon River in westerly Idaho . Between 2009 and 2018,archaeologists unearthed 189 artifactsthat suggest the site was occupy by humansbetween 16,000 and 15,000 year ago — including a hearth cavity , creature castanets , chunks of fusain , Harlan Stone tool and flakes of John Rock shaved off during the toolmaking physical process .
The internet site also contained dozens of spearpoints and blades carved out of Lucy Stone , as well as tooth fragment from an nonextant species of knight . The spearpoints are pinkie - sized and unfluted ( imply it ’s not grooved or ridged ) , which is distinctive of a weapon - hit custom known as the westerly halt point custom , which is distinct from the Clovis point custom .
4. Paisley Caves, Oregon
The Paisley Caves are a meshing of eight cave and rock shelters in the Summer Lake Basin , in due south - central Oregon . They were carved out by the piss of an ancient lake — Lake Chewaucan — which has since dried up .
Archaeologists first unearth the caves in the late 1930s , unwrap fragment of obsidian and ivory tools , brute bones , wooden artifactsand basketball hoop .
Morerecent studiesof the caves have also discover and analyse human coprolite , or fossilised feces , which enabled archaeologists to nail human occupation to14,500 yr ago . The age of the fossilized poop , along with the uncovering of a serrated bone tool , suggests that pre - Clovis humans occupied the caves . The desiccated poop also made it possible to redo these early occupants ' diet , which partly consisted ofgrasses , large bird and now - extinct jumbo bison .
Three spear points that were discovered during excavations at Paisley Caves in Oregon.
5. Page-Ladson, Florida
Page - Ladson is an subaquatic archaeological web site place at the bottom of a 30 - foot - deep ( 9 meters ) sinkhole in the Aucilla River , in northern Florida . A former Navy sealskin accidentally identify the land site while scuba diving in the other 1980s , when he recognise bones belong to an extinct metal money of proboscidean .
Since then , archaeologists have uncovered stone putz and the remains of other extinct animals — let in prehistoric camels , bison and mastodon — thatdate to 14,550 geezerhood ago . A mastodon tusk unearthed at the site bear cut marks that were in all probability made by humans , although it is nameless whether they butcher the fauna or scavenged its cadaver .
6. Monte Verde II, Chile
Monte Verde II is one of four excavated arena in the Monte Verde archeologic complex , locate near Puerto Montt , in the Los Lagos region of southern Chile . Astudypublished originally this yr dates artefact and structures excavate at Monte Verde II to 14,550 years ago .
The site bear the ruins of a 60 - foundation - long ( 18 m ) wood frame that may have affirm a collapsible shelter - like social system , as well as wooden artifacts , stone tools , hearths , food remains and animal bone — include those of half a dozen mastodont . Inside the woodwind frame , archaeologists discovered 100 of microscopic flecks of hide tissue embedded in the earth , suggesting the floor was covered with animal skin .
7. White Sands, New Mexico
White Sands National Park , located in southerly New Mexico , is the world ’s largest gypsum dunefield . It contains some of the earliest"unequivocal grounds " of peoplein the Americas in the build of23,000 - to-21,000 - year - old footprint .
These step are still visiblethanks to a megadroughtthat frown the water level of an ancient and now dried - up lake called Lake Otero , exposing swampy ground that continue tracks leave behind by humans and animal . The archeological site hold in 61 human tracks , mostly from teenager and tiddler .
8. Meadowcroft rock shelters, Pennsylvania
The Meadowcroft rock and roll shelter are a National Historic Landmark , located in southwestern Pennsylvania , that contain evidence of human occupationdating to 16,000 years ago .
The situation was first discovered in 1955 by a husbandman , who found a flint tongue , flint flakes and burnt bones in a woodchuck hole . archeologist did n’t excavate Meadowcroft until the 1970s , when they uncovered a encompassing array of human artifacts , including endocarp shaft , spearpoints and wooden instruments .
Meadowcroft ride atop a yellow sandstone mountain and feature a monolithic rock overhang chip at out by the flow H2O of nearby Cross Creek . While being close to this lively source of fresh water , the site would have also kept its early resident safe from flooding .
A mastodon tusk discovered at the Page-Ladson archaeological site in Florida bears cut marks left by humans.
9. Debra L. Friedkin Site
Located about 40 miles ( 64 klick ) northwest of Austin , Texas , the Debra L. Friedkin archaeological land site held weapons and peter possibly dating to 15,500 years ago .
archeologist have unearth 100,000 artifacts from the website , which sit just north of Buttermilk Creek . These items include blades , scrapers and a orbitual core from which stone utensil were struck . They also found thousands of chert pieces — scraps and flakes create during tool production — that are at least 13,500 days older .
Someclaims about the site are controversial , notably regarding the find of 11 spearhead that archaeologists have estimated could be 15,500 yr old . Some experts have raised doubts about the methods used in a2018 work , which employed optically stimulated glow instead of carbon 14 - date techniques .
A small, multifaceted basalt tool excavated at Monte Verde I, an excavation site neighboring Monte Verde II in Chile.
10. Bluefish Caves, Canada
The Bluefish Caves are a web of three small cavities overlooking the Bluefish River in Canada ’s northern Yukon Territory . The site was first discovered during an air sketch in 1975 , and a 10 - yr - foresighted dig project begin in 1977 .
Archaeologists discovered asmall act of tool and 36,000 mammal bone — include from mammoth and extinct horses — some of which assume cut Deutsche Mark and have since beendated to 24,000 years ago . Some expert remain skeptical of those results , as well as of those from a2021 studythat dated several long - debated flakes and fragment of mammoth bone to 28,000 age ago .
11. Cueva del Chiquihuite, Mexico
The Cueva del Chiquihuite , or Chiquihuite Cave , is fix in the desert mountains of north - central Mexico and curb evidence suggesting there werepeople in North America as betimes as 31,500 years ago .
A2020 studydescribes thousands of stone fragments , cock and weapon that were found in the cave but were made of a type of limestone source elsewhere . archeologist also unearthed bit of fusain dating as far back as 32,000 class ago , but they are unable to recount whether these were made by humans or in innate events .
Experts question the results link up to Chiquihuite Cave , with some contend that the stone artifacts could have been created by natural processes . The cave also lack evidence typically associate with human occupation , such as fireside and animal osseous tissue with cut marks . Traces of human DNA were found inside the cave , but experts suspect this could be pollution from mod humans .
Archaeologists discovered 23,000-year-old fossilized footprints in White Sands National Park, New Mexico.
12. Santa Elina Rock Shelter
Located in the Mato Grosso state in central Brazil , the Santa Elina rock and roll shelter has exposed unusual grounds of early humans : three pendants made from giant sloth ivory .
The discovery locate people in South America between 25,000 and 27,000 days ago , whileearlier studiesdescribing one C of stone artifacts and 1,000 examples of rock artwork indicate humans were there over 20,000 year ago .
The pendants are made of sloth osteoderms — bony deposits that form the protective armour over the skin of animals such as armadillos — and boast tiny , smooth holes likely practise and polish up by humans . While some experts indicate that these jam could not have been created by natural processes , others maintain that the grounds is n’t solid enough to prove that humans occupied the site so betimes .
An ongoing archaeological dig at the Meadowcroft National Historic Site in Pennsylvania.
13. Pedra Furada
Pedra Furada — a large rock tax shelter located in Serra da Capivara National Park , in Brazil ' Piauí state — is one of the most controversial archeologic website in the Americas .
— Some of the first ice age human being who ventured into Americas came from China , DNA cogitation paint a picture
— The 1st American cowboys may have been enslaved Africans , DNA grounds suggests
A spearpoint made out of chert, a type of sedimentary rock, could be 15,500 years old, but experts are divided.
— old human - made structure in the Americas is old than the Egyptian pyramid
mining in the 1970s and eighties bring out gemstone artifacts and hearths that suggested the site wasoccupied by humans 32,000 years agoand even as far back as50,000 age ago .
But a2022 studyfound that capuchin monkeys living in the interior parking area are adequate to of create objects out of stone that closely resemble those launch at Pedra Furada . This determination — combine with the lack of any other touch of human presence , such as fireside or food remains — suggests the land site was not inhabit by humans until much later .
The Bluefish Caves in Canada’s northern Yukon Territory look out onto the Bluefish River.
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Archaeologists explore the vast Chiquihuite Cave in the Chiapas Highlands of northwest Mexico.
Researchers in Brazil found three giant ground sloth osteoderms that were polished and had holes in them.
Rock paintings at the Pedra Furada archaeological site indicate humans occupied the caves, but probably not as early as 30,000 years ago.
