Texas scientists have found the oldest confirmed site of human habitation in the Americas just north of Austin, where the Edwards Plateau meets the coastal plains.
The unprecedented haul of artifacts from as far back as 15,500 years ago brings archaeologists much closer to answering the mysteries of who the first Americans were, where they came from and how they got here.
The new work, published Thursday in the journal Science, may definitively prove humans lived in the Americas prior to the “Clovis” people, who spread widely across the western hemisphere beginning about 13,000 years ago. These people, identifiable by their characteristic fluted spear points, were long thought to be the first Americans.
The discovery of such an old settlement also suggests the first Americans must have come from Asia, not through an ice-free corridor over land, but along the Alaskan and Canadian coasts in boats as long as 16,000 years ago.
“I think we’re getting closer and closer to understanding how and when the first people came into the Americas,” said Michael Waters, a Texas A&M University archaeologist who led the study.
I love this story, and I can’t wait to hear more about what Dr. Waters and his team discover. I couldn’t quite read it without thinking to myself “And whoever these people were, and whenever they arrived, they probably encountered some ancient ancestors of Debbie Riddle and Leo Berman demanding to see their papers”. I think I’ve been following the Lege too closely and it’s scrambled my brains a bit. Anyway, read the article and be excited about what we’re learning about the people who were in Texas before we were.