Archaeologists in the mountains of Oregon have discovered a remote rock shelter that could overturn what we know about the first inhabitants of North America.
According to preliminary findings, this site may have been inhabited by humans around 18,250 years ago, much older than scientists had believed for decades.
This date, if confirmed, would make the site one of the oldest known human settlements in North America, dating back to a time four times the age of Egypt's Great Pyramid.
These findings challenge the long-held notion that early humans arrived in the continent from Asia via an icy passage only about 13,000 years ago. Instead, the new evidence supports a different theory: that humans reached North America much earlier, perhaps by traveling along the Pacific coast before the inland route became passable.
A team from the University of Oregon discovered exquisitely crafted stone tools made of carnelian, a type of quartz, buried beneath a layer of volcanic ash. This ash resulted from the eruption of Mount St. Helens more than 15,000 years ago.
Besides the tools, they found fossilized teeth from extinct camels and bison. When they dated these teeth using radiocarbon dating, they were found to be about 18,250 years old.
Since the tools were buried under these remains, they concluded that the tools were older than that, meaning that humans inhabited the site more than 18,000 years ago.
David Lewis, an anthropologist at Oregon State University, said this early date is consistent with tales from the region's indigenous tribes, who recount witnessing massive geological events and floods that occurred between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago.
He added that the tribes mention in their oral tradition their encounter with giant animals, and the tools that were found support that humans did indeed interact with those huge animals.
Archaeologist Patrick O’Grady confirmed that dating the volcanic ash to 15,000 years was surprising, but even more astonishing was dating the teeth of extinct animals to 18,000 years, with stone tools buried beneath those teeth, meaning the tools were older than 18,000 years.
It's worth noting that this timeline was first published in 2023, but it recently resurfaced in a YouTube video. While the findings haven't yet undergone rigorous peer review by independent researchers, they could fundamentally alter the timeline of human migration to the continent.
Earlier this year, another significant discovery was made in Oregon, where researchers unearthed pieces of sewn-up animal hides dating back to the end of the Ice Age, approximately 12,000 years ago. This suggests that humans in North America possessed advanced skills in working with hides, plants, and wood.
The artifacts were made of materials that would normally rot over time, such as leather, but they remained preserved because they were hidden in dry caves.
Researchers previously believed that early North American inhabitants were simply hunter-gatherers, but these discoveries prove that they were inventive, cleverly crafting sewn clothing, baskets, and wooden traps.
