Weird & Interesting science

[robkelk]

Mexican cave relics suggest humans were populating the Americas up to 17,000 years earlier than thought

"When Oxford got involved and the first dates from all strata started to come in the summer of 2016, I opened a bottle of Macallan [whisky]," Ardelean said.

He said his team's discoveries complement and confirm the current mix of pre-Clovis sites in North and South America, providing evidence of human presence on the continent as old as 26,500 years ago and possibly even to 30,000 years ago.

The discoveries also suggest a great diversity in culture and technologies, he said. "That is what always happens when we find pre-Clovis sites; their artefacts never look the same. We are adding to the vast cultural diversity and provide new arguments that humans were here at least since the beginning of the last glacial maximum (LGM, between 26,500 and 20,000 years ago)," he said.