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Archaeological discoveries across the Americas have shaped our discernment ofwhen and how humans first reached the so - called New World . The story told by artifact unearthed from sites all the fashion from Alaska to Chile is hotly deliberate .
According to the Clovis First possibility , multitude crossed from Siberia into North America just over 13,000 years ago via the Bering Land Bridge — a stack of land that emerge when the last water ice age lowered ocean levels — and circulate 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 late tenner , archeologist have unearthed muchearlier evidence of people across North and South America , labour back the day of the month for this milestone in human history and casting dubiety onhow the first Americans got there .
From giant sloth bones carved into pendent to underwater cache of mastodon ivory , here are 13 of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas .
1. Clovis, New Mexico
closely to a ravine called Blackwater Draw in easterly New Mexico posture an archaeological site , describe in 1929 , that has shaped our intellect of how the Americas were peopled .
The site was holler Clovis due to its propinquity to a townsfolk of that name and , throughout the 1930s , yielded I. F. Stone artifacts , hearths and bones belong to extinct animate being — including mammoths — show evidence of butcherydating to 13,000 years ago .
Spearpoints discovered in Clovis have come to define a group of citizenry who were long believed to be the first humans to arrive in the Americas , as well as their culture . These typical spearpoint were chipped from stone into finger - foresightful projectiles that are now lie with as " Clovis level " and were rule associated with brute bones .
Archaeologists excavated fragments of mammoth tusks at Swan Point, which is the oldest archaeological site in Alaska.
Ancient archaeological sites across the Americas are specify in relation to Clovis , with " pre - Clovis " site referring to evidence that mankind came from Asia far earlier than 13,000 years ago .
2. Swan Point, Alaska
Swan Point is turn up in Orient - central Alaska and is the oldest cognize archeologic internet site in the land , as well as theonly site in Alaskashowing evidence of humans hunting mammoth . Excavations have uncovered evidence of human line of work — such as hearth , shaft and animate being bones — dating to more than 14,000 year ago .
free-base on what has been recovered from the hilltop land site , archaeologists think early occupants may havecamped there and survived by hunt gamein the surround wetlands , now known as the Shaw Creek Flats .
Tools identify at Swan Point include projectile degree made of stone and antlers , fragments of an adze for chopping Ellen Price Wood or bone , scrapers for skinning and an awl to thrust animal hides . These objects , together with a mammoth tusk , intimate the web site may have been a mammoth bone workshop at some gunpoint 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 colony at the confluence of Rock Creek and the humiliated Salmon River in western Idaho . Between 2009 and 2018,archaeologists excavate 189 artifactsthat indicate the web site was occupy by humansbetween 16,000 and 15,000 years ago — including a hearth pit , creature bones , glob of oxford gray , pit tools and flakes of rock shave off during the toolmaking mental process .
The site also contained dozens of spear-point and blades carve out of I. F. Stone , as well as tooth sherd from an extinct species of horse . The spearpoint are pinky - sized and unfluted ( meaning it ’s not grooved or ridged ) , which is distinctive of a weapon - make tradition known as the western stemmed point custom , which is distinct from the Clovis item custom .
4. Paisley Caves, Oregon
The Paisley Caves are a electronic web of eight caves and rock shelters in the Summer Lake Basin , in south - cardinal Oregon . They were carved out by the waters of an ancient lake — Lake Chewaucan — which has since dried up .
Archaeologists first excavate the caves in the late 1930s , revealing sherd of obsidian and bone tools , animate being osseous tissue , wooden artifactsand handbasket .
Morerecent studiesof the caves have also found and analyzed human coprolites , or fossilized feces , which enabled archeologist to pinpoint human moving in to14,500 days ago . The age of the fossilised poop , along with the breakthrough of a serrate bone tool , suggests that pre - Clovis humanity occupied the caves . The desiccated nincompoop also made it potential to reconstruct these early occupants ' diet , which partially dwell ofgrasses , large shuttle and now - out elephantine bison .
Three spear points that were discovered during excavations at Paisley Caves in Oregon.
5. Page-Ladson, Florida
Page - Ladson is an underwater archaeological site located at the bottom of a 30 - foot - deep ( 9 meter ) sinkhole in the Aucilla River , in northern Florida . A former Navy stamp unintentionally discovered the website while scuba dive in the other 1980s , when he spotted finger cymbals belong to an nonextant species of proboscidean .
Since then , archeologist have uncovered stone tools and the remains of other extinct animals — let in prehistorical camel , bison and mastodon — thatdate to 14,550 years ago . A mastodon ivory unearthed at the situation bears cut marking that were belike made by humans , although it is unknown whether they butchered the brute or scavenged its remains .
6. Monte Verde II, Chile
Monte Verde II is one of four excavated arena in the Monte Verde archaeological complex , turn up near Puerto Montt , in the Los Lagos region of southerly Chile . Astudypublished earlier this twelvemonth dates artifacts and structures unearthed at Monte Verde II to 14,550 years ago .
The site hold back the ruination of a 60 - foot - long ( 18 m ) wood frame that may have support a tent - like social organisation , as well as wooden artefact , stone peter , hearths , solid food remains and animal bones — including those of half a dozen mastodont . Inside the wood frame , archeologist discovered hundreds of microscopical patch of hide tissue embedded in the background , suggest the floor was covered with beast skins .
7. White Sands, New Mexico
White Sands National Park , settle in southern New Mexico , is the world ’s big gypsum dunefield . It contains some of the earliest"unequivocal evidence " of peoplein the Americas in the shape of23,000 - to-21,000 - year - old footprint .
These footprint are still visiblethanks to a megadroughtthat get down the water supply levels of an ancient and now dried - up lake called Lake Otero , exposing boggy priming coat that preserved rail left by humans and brute . The archaeological internet site contain 61 human racetrack , mostly from teenagers and children .
8. Meadowcroft rock shelters, Pennsylvania
The Meadowcroft rock protection are a National Historic Landmark , located in southwestern Pennsylvania , that contain evidence of human occupationdating to 16,000 geezerhood ago .
The situation was first discovered in 1955 by a farmer , who receive a Flint River knife , flint flakes and burn finger cymbals in a groundhog gob . archeologist did n’t turn up Meadowcroft until the seventies , when they uncovered a panoptic array of human artefact , admit stone tools , spearpoints and wooden instruments .
Meadowcroft sits atop a yellow sandstone lot and have a massive stone overhang carved out by the flowing waters of nearby Cross Creek . While being close to this vital source of fresh water , the web site would have also kept its other occupant safe from flood .
A mastodon tusk discovered at the Page-Ladson archaeological site in Florida bears cut marks left by humans.
9. Debra L. Friedkin Site
locate about 40 miles ( 64 kilometers ) NW of Austin , Texas , the Debra L. Friedkin archaeologic web site held weapon system and tool possibly date to 15,500 geezerhood ago .
archeologist have unearthed 100,000 artifacts from the website , which sits just north of Buttermilk Creek . These detail let in blade , scrapers and a round core from which stone utensils were fall upon . They also found thousands of chert slice — scraps and geek created during tool product — that are at least 13,500 years honest-to-goodness .
Someclaims about the site are controversial , notably regarding the discovery of 11 spearpoints that archaeologists have estimated could be 15,500 geezerhood old . Some expert have raised doubts about the methods used in a2018 discipline , which employ optically stimulated luminescence instead of radiocarbon - dating 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 meshwork of three small cavity overlook the Bluefish River in Canada ’s northerly Yukon Territory . The site was first discovered during an melody survey in 1975 , and a 10 - year - long excavation undertaking commence in 1977 .
Archaeologists come across asmall number of tools and 36,000 mammal off-white — include from mammoths and extinct cavalry — some of which hold disregard marks and have since beendated to 24,000 years ago . Some expert remain disbelieving of those results , as well as of those from a2021 studythat dated several long - contend geek and fragments of gigantic off-white to 28,000 geezerhood ago .
11. Cueva del Chiquihuite, Mexico
The Cueva del Chiquihuite , or Chiquihuite Cave , is posit in the desert mountains of north - central Mexico and contains evidence evoke there werepeople in North America as early on as 31,500 years ago .
A2020 studydescribes thousands of stone fragments , tools and artillery that were found in the cave but were made of a type of limestone source elsewhere . Archaeologists also unearthed bits of charcoal date as far back as 32,000 old age ago , but they are unable to tell whether these were made by humans or in natural events .
Experts question the result linked to Chiquihuite Cave , with some arguing that the stone artifacts could have been created by natural processes . The cave also lacks grounds typically associated with human line of work , such as hearths and animal clappers with weakened marks . Traces of human DNA were found inside the cave , but expert suspect this could be contamination from modern 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 careen shelter has exposed strange evidence of early humans : three pendant made from elephantine sloth bone .
The discovery places people in South America between 25,000 and 27,000 eld ago , whileearlier studiesdescribing hundreds of rock artifact and 1,000 examples of rock’n’roll art indicated humans were there over 20,000 twelvemonth ago .
The pendent are made of sloth osteoderms — bony deposit that form the protective armor over the skin of animals such as armadillo — and boast diminutive , smooth holes likely drill and polished by humans . While some experts argue that these holes could not have been created by natural processes , others uphold that the grounds is n’t strong enough to evidence that humans engross the site so betimes .
An ongoing archaeological dig at the Meadowcroft National Historic Site in Pennsylvania.
13. Pedra Furada
Pedra Furada — a large careen tax shelter situate in Serra da Capivara National Park , in Brazil ' Piauí country — is one of the most controversial archaeological sites in the Americas .
— Some of the 1st Methedrine geezerhood humans who ventured into Americas total from China , DNA cogitation suggests
— The first American cowboys may have been enslave Africans , DNA evidence paint a picture
A spearpoint made out of chert, a type of sedimentary rock, could be 15,500 years old, but experts are divided.
— old homo - made structure in the Americas is older than the Egyptian Great Pyramid
Excavations in the seventies and 1980s bring out Edward Durell Stone artifacts and hearths that suggested the website wasoccupied by man 32,000 years agoand even as far back as50,000 years ago .
But a2022 studyfound that capuchin rascal living in the interior Mungo Park are capable of creating objects out of stone that tight resemble those found at Pedra Furada . This finding — combined with the lack of any other trace of human presence , such as hearths or food continue — evoke the website was not populated by humans until much later .
The Bluefish Caves in Canada’s northern Yukon Territory look out onto the Bluefish River.
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.
