Humans in South America 22,000 years ago?

[Abramelin]

Disputed finds put humans in South America 22,000 years ago

March 13, 2013

Stone tools unearthed at a Brazilian rock-shelter may date to as early as 22,000 years ago. Their discovery has rekindled debate about whether ancient people reached the Americas long before the famed Clovis hunters spread through parts of North America around 13,000 years ago.

These relics of ancient South Americans add to evidence from nearby sites challenging the longstanding view of Clovis people as the first Americans, a team led by geochronologist Christelle Lahaye of the University of Bordeaux 3 and archaeologist Eric Boëda of the University of Paris X reports March 4 in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

“We have new, strong evidence that the Clovis-first model is out of date,” Lahaye says.

Among other South American locations proposed as human settlements well before North America’s Clovis culture, the most controversial is Brazil’s Pedra Furada rock-shelter. There, archaeologists unearthed burned wood and sharp-edged stones and dated them to more than 50,000 years ago. Pedra Furada’s excavators regard the finds as evidence of ancient human hearths and stone tools. Critics, and especially many Clovis investigators, say the Brazilian discoveries could have resulted from natural fires and rock slides.

More here:

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.nl/2013/03/disputed-finds-put-humans-in-south.html#.UUbdrzdOzEQ

[Ashotep]

Really doesn't surprise me. I think there is a lot we don't know about early humans.

I think the Sphinx is older than is widely accepted.

[Everdred]

These tools they've found look rather primitive. They're definitely not related to the more complex pre-Clovis tools associated with the Solutrean theory.

[coolguy]

Very cool i bet they even go back farther then that.

[CrimsonKing]

I think we will eventually find out we as a species capable of using tools go way farther back in time than modern estimates.

[CrimsonKing]

Very cool i bet they even go back farther then that.

You beat me to that response by a few seconds

[No Censorship]

They should do genetic tests on individuals from various areas and tribes. See whose genes cluster with Polynesians. See whose genes cluster with Siberians. There must have been a lot of explorers since time immemorial!

[Ashotep]

These tools they've found look rather primitive. They're definitely not related to the more complex pre-Clovis tools associated with the Solutrean theory.

If I were to come across some of these tool I would think they were just rocks.

[PersonFromPorlock]

I've no problem with the idea of humans in America long ago: The Diomede Islands are only 22 miles from Siberia and 25 miles from Alaska, which makes crossing from Asia to North America something that could have been done easily even without a land bridge. Nonetheless, at a time when the entire world was making sophisticated stone tools, 'tools' that are so crude that many think they're just rocks are probably just rocks.