Barren and remote, Chiquihuite Cave in Mexico seemed an unlikely place for anyone to live. But stone objects recovered from deep inside the cave may tell another story.
BY KRISTIN ROMEY
PUBLISHED JULY 22, 2020
WHEN RESEARCHERS FIRST arrived at a cave high in the desert mountains of north-central Mexico, they hoped to learn what the environment was like there thousands of years ago. But the unexpected discovery of what they believe is an ancient projectile point led to a decade-long excavation that could rewrite the history of the Americas.
According to a paper published today in the journal Nature, the site, known as Chiquihuite Cave, may contain evidence of human occupation that places people in North America around 30,000 years ago—roughly twice as early as most current estimates for when the first humans arrived on the continent.
The question of when people first arrived in the Americas has been debated for more than a century. For much of that time the reigning theory put the arrival around 13,500 years ago. But archaeologists are now exploring sites that keep pushing the date farther back, including some who have reported finding signs of human presence beyond 30,000 years ago. The evidence supporting those claims is hotly contested, and this latest discovery is already stirring more controversy.
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New find suggests humans in North America pre-date the last great ice age.
The earth’s Last Glacial Maximum ended 19,000 years ago. During this time, vast ice sheets covered land and sea level was about 400 feet lower than today’s. Previous models for explaining the arrival of Homo sapiens to North America supposed that migration into the continent came after glaciers retreated. But a new discovery of stone tools in a Mexican cave indicate human arrival possibly occuring thousands of years earlier.
More:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/07/surprise-chiquihuite-cave-discovery-mexico-double-peopling-americas/
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