People have a much longer hold in the Americas

Until recently, it was common to think about the earliest presence of people in the Americas to be based on findings that stretch to 13,500 years ago. And that likely then was believed to be the limit for earliest presence. Some tied it into the Clovis culture which was considered well established then.

Much more recently, there suddenly is a claim which advances the early time of man on the western hemisphere is double that of the previous finding. An excavation of a cave in elevated central Mexico, called Chiquihuite, by Ciprian Ardelean of Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas have released new findings from that site.

They say they uncovered 1,900 stone tools apparently from human occupation of over 20,000 years they reported to French Press Agency. Radio carbon dating can put the oldest samples to 31-33,000 years old. It is said the tools found are not the same as those of the Clovis culture. No bones were found at the site. It is believed the location was visited on a seasonal basis.

Other scientists who work with radio carbon dating at Oxford, Lorena Becerra-Valdivia and Thomas Higham, say the timing is significant. The glacial age is recorded to have been 19,000-27,000 years ago. They say it is remarkable because during that time of glacial advance, it would mean the new find would put the human arrival before the glacial era, which is not precedented in american anthropological studies. Their presence could coincide with the disappearance of megafauna.

This stretches the study of when human arrived on the Americas and by which route. The Bering Sea bridge or another way, even by boat. It could also leave open that these dates could even hint of older settlements up to 40,00 years.

This is something I anticipated after hearing about results some 10 years ago. Not agreed upon by others.

Elsewhere, there are claims of an ancient society that could be uncovered  in Antarctica ice sheets melt that could predate all.