Spearheads, DNA Point to Second Founding Society in North America

Spearheads, DNA Point to Second Founding Society in North America

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Stone spearheads and human DNA found in Oregon caves, anthropologists say, have produced firmer evidence that these are the oldest directly dated remains of people in North America. They also show that at least two cultures with distinct technologies — not a single one, as had been supposed — shared the continent more than 13,000 years ago. In other words, the Clovis people, long known for their graceful, fluted projectile points, were not alone in the New World.

The new research, based on the recent discovery of the artifacts and more refined radiocarbon dating tests, established that the cave dwellers who made a particular spearhead with more narrow points than the ones crafted by the Clovis overlapped or possibly preceded the Clovis artisans elsewhere, the scientists reported in a paper published online by the journal Science.