Texas Site Pushes Back Known Settlement Date For North America

Velcroman1 writes "The discovery of ancient stone tools at an archaeological dig in Texas could push back the presence of humans in North America, perhaps by as much as 2,500 years. The find was located 5 feet below materials left by the well-known Clovis culture, which was once thought to have been the first American settlers around 13,000 years ago. It was 'like finding the Holy Grail,' Waters said in a telephone interview. To find what appears to be a large open-air campsite 'is really gratifying. Lucky and gratifying.'"

Comments

Clovis humor

[snsh]

The Clovis kids were probably just playing a practical joke 10,000 years ago, burying pottery five feet under, to confuse the archaeologists.

Re:Until the next discovery

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Are you charging the archaeologists with falsifying data? Because it sure sounds like that's what you're doing, and if so, you'd better contact the Texas A&M ethics board with your allegations. If you're not willing to do that, and provide evidence, you should probably just STFU.

Settlements

[HikingStick]

It's nice to read about a settlement that has nothing to do with a lawsuit.

Re:Science in Texas?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone in Texas still believe in science?

Lots of people in Texas believe in science.

It's the ones who don't believe in science who make the front page on Slashdot.

Not a big breakthrough

[dkleinsc]

This is getting a lot more hype than it should: Several other sites, as well as genetic studies, have pointed to the existence of pre-Clovis human habitation in North America, and it had long been a working hypothesis for a lot of archaeologists who had been studying early American habitation.

The only really interesting question is what these tools most resemble: If they look like they're related to a culture not from Siberia, that would be a much bigger deal, since it would suggest migration from Africa or Europe or Polynesia.

Texas 13000BC, South India 1.5M BC!

[billstewart]

The Texas find is interesting, because it's dealing with settlement of North America, but to me the India find in the same article was much more interesting. Acheulian stone tool designs in India at 1.5 million years BC, saying humans migrated out of Africa at least 100,000 years earlier than we thought! That difference is a lot longer than the time modern Cro-Magnons have been around.