Spearheads and DNA found at the Paisley Caves in Oregon suggest that a separate group of people using different hunting tools arrived in North America several hundred years prior to the Clovis, long thought to be the first to migrate to North America from Asia.
Archeologists at the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and the University of Copenhagen used radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis to examine fossilized excrement, obsidian projectile points and the stratified sediment inside a series of caves located in the Summer Lake basin in south-central Oregon.
The caves are part of a unique archeological site that is part of the Great Basin watershed and thanks to its arid climate has been able to preserve some of the oldest human remains in the Western Hemisphere.
The researchers concluded that the human DNA they found in the Paisley Caves excrement was as old as 14,000 years, and the spear points dated from about 13,230 to 12,960 years ago and did not resemble the spearheads used by the Clovis people, who are believed to have settled in North America between 13,400 and 12,800 years ago.
The find suggests North America was colonized by multiple cultures, some of whom arrived possibly earlier than the Clovis.
Our investigations constitute the final blow to the Clovis First theory, said Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen's Centre for GeoGenetics, which did the DNA analysis, in a news release. Culturally, biologically and chronologically, the theory is no longer viable.
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Archeologists at the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and the University of Copenhagen used radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis to examine fossilized excrement, obsidian projectile points and the stratified sediment inside a series of caves located in the Summer Lake basin in south-central Oregon.
The caves are part of a unique archeological site that is part of the Great Basin watershed and thanks to its arid climate has been able to preserve some of the oldest human remains in the Western Hemisphere.
The researchers concluded that the human DNA they found in the Paisley Caves excrement was as old as 14,000 years, and the spear points dated from about 13,230 to 12,960 years ago and did not resemble the spearheads used by the Clovis people, who are believed to have settled in North America between 13,400 and 12,800 years ago.
The find suggests North America was colonized by multiple cultures, some of whom arrived possibly earlier than the Clovis.
Our investigations constitute the final blow to the Clovis First theory, said Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen's Centre for GeoGenetics, which did the DNA analysis, in a news release. Culturally, biologically and chronologically, the theory is no longer viable.
Read full article
