Arrow found that could rewrite American history
(ORDO NEWS) — A team of researchers from Texas A&M University discovered a bone arrowhead that is 13,900 years old.
Thus, the previous record for the most ancient projectiles found in the Americas has been updated by about 900.
The team studied bone fragments that were found by archaeologists in a mastodon rib at the Manis site in Washington state between 1977 and 1979.
However, only now the equipment has appeared at the disposal of scientists, which made it possible to study them in detail. In particular, the team used computed tomography and 3D modeling.
The study showed that the bone fragments represent an arrowhead from a bow or dart. It was made from the bone of an extinct mastodon of the genus Mammut.
With the help of an arrow, an ancient hunter tried to get another mastodon.
The discovery has already caused quite a stir in scientific circles, as it has fueled a controversy over exactly when the Americas were settled. The fact is that the age of the found tip is 13,900 years.
That is, this artifact is 900 years older than the arrow, which was considered the oldest. And this means that the history of the settlement of America can be rewritten, especially given other recent sensational discoveries.
“It’s interesting to note that Idaho has the 16,000-year-old Coopers Ferry and Oregon has 14,100-year-old Paisley Caves,” says Dr. Michael Waters, director of the Texas A&M Early Americans Center.
“And in a new study, we report a 13,900-year-old Manis site, so there appears to be a group of early settlements in the northwestern United States dating from 16,000 to 14,000 years ago These sites likely represent stopping places of the first people and their descendants who came to America at the end of the last ice age”.
The arrow from Manis turned out to be the first and only bone tool that surpasses the age of the culture of Clovis, which is considered to be the most ancient culture of both Americas.
Only once before, at another prehistoric site, stone tools were found that turned out to be older than the Clovis culture.
“This indicates that the early Americans made and used bone weapons and probably other types of bone tools,” says Waters.
“It looks like the first people arrived in America by boat. south. They eventually broke through the ice sheets that covered Canada and made landfall in the Pacific Northwest.”
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