According to a paper published in the latest issue of Science, American and British archaeologists have found a set of 23,000-year-old human footprints in White Sands National Park in New Mexico, which may be the earliest evidence of human activity in the Americas, 10,000 years earlier than previous researchers believe.
U.S. and British archaeologists reportedly found the footprints in the soft mud of Alkali flat ground in a dry lakebed in White Sands National Park, and experts from the U.S. Geological Survey determined that the footprints date back 23,000 years by radiocarbon determination of the seed layers above and below the footprints.
Early human footprints discovered by archaeologists.
For decades, it has been widely believed in academia that Homo sapiens first entered North America between 13,000 and 16,000 years ago, much later than the time of these footprints.
It is reported that 23,000 years ago corresponded to the end of the glacial period, when ice sheets covered most of North America and sea levels were about 120 meters lower than today.
Most scholars believe that ancient humans migrated from Asia to the Americas via land bridges across the Bering Strait. The Bering Road Bridge is now underwater, forming the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia. Beginning about 33,000 years ago and continuing into the Ice Age about 16,000 years ago, the route was blocked by glaciers. Few archaeologists claim reliable evidence that humans have lived in the Americas for more than 16,000 years.
Dan Oddes, a scientific adviser to the White Sands Park Authority, countered that the white sand footprints were "clear evidence that humans appeared in the Americas during the end of the glacial period."
It's reportedly unclear how these footprints formed, but other studies have found evidence that ancient humans lived on the North American continent thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Stone tools excavated from the Chikwwit Cave.
In July 2020, stone tools were found in a cave in Mexico known as the Chiquihuite, revealing archaeological evidence of human habitation dating back 27,000 years.
In 2018, 150,000 "unique" stone tools were found in northwest Austin, Texas, suggesting that humans lived on the continent as early as 20,000 years ago.
Archaeologists believe that humans from Northeast Asia may have crossed the Bering Strait land bridge before the Ice Age. Alternatively, early humans may have traveled by boat from Asia along the Pacific coastline, bypassing glaciers to reach North America.
The archaeologists who led the excavations of the Chikwwit Cave say it could have been a "failed migration" that left no detectable genetic legacy in today's Indigenous population.
Whenever Homo sapiens first set foot in the Americas, it is widely believed that there was a population surge around 15,000 years ago, when evidence of humanity was prevalent in the United States and Canada, as well as in Central and South America.
Text/Nandu reporter Chen Lin