Oldest Evidence Found of Humans in America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ Humans appear in the video as reaching the Americas far earlier than the old “Clovis first” model, with a series of archaeological sites and genetic findings progressively pushing the date back, and a few extreme outliers hinting at occupations hundreds of thousands of years old.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) Below is the requested outline, followed by site details, people, and a discovery timeline.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) --- ## Video outline - **Intro & framing** - Opens with the claim that new discoveries are “rewriting” when humans first reached the Americas, asking whether humans arrived hundreds of thousands of years earlier than once thought.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Presenter introduces himself as Michael, with a degree in ancient history, and sets up the tension between old dogma and new evidence.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Clovis-first model** - Explains the 20th‑century consensus: humans entered the Americas ~13,000 years ago via a land bridge from Siberia, using an ice‑free corridor between two ice sheets.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Describes Clovis points (fluted stone spear points), radiocarbon‑dated by C. Vance Haynes to about 11,000–11,500 years ago, which supported this migration window and hardened into the “Clovis first” model.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Notes active suppression of earlier claims: pre‑13,000‑year dates were treated as career‑ending, with critics using peer pressure and institutional power.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Collapse of Clovis-first** - Introduces Tom Dillehay and Monte Verde in Chile as the key early pre‑Clovis settlement, dated ~14,500 (possibly up to 19,000) years ago, and the intense backlash he faced.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Describes the eventual 1997 site visit by skeptical archaeologists and their unanimous acceptance of Monte Verde as pre‑Clovis, opening the door to more early sites.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Pre‑Clovis expansion across the Americas** - Covers Cooper’s Ferry (Idaho), Chiquihuite Cave (Mexico), Bluefish Caves (Canada), Paisley Caves (Oregon), Page‑Ladson (Florida), and Pedra Furada (Brazil) as early sites pushing human presence back beyond Clovis, some into the Last Glacial Maximum.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Connects Cooper’s Ferry to Knut Fladmark’s “kelp highway” coastal‑migration hypothesis, previously sidelined.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **White Sands footprints revolution** - Shifts to White Sands National Park (New Mexico), where fossil footprints of adults, teenagers, and children on an ancient lakeshore are dated to about 21,000–23,000 years ago.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Discusses initial radiocarbon dating of aquatic seeds (2021), criticisms, and then later confirmation in 2023 with multiple independent dating methods (pollen, luminescence on quartz, lakebed sediments).[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Shows behavioral “snapshots”: a giant ground sloth hunt and a woman/adolescent walking with and carrying a small child, emphasizing the human immediacy of the prints.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Extreme outlier sites** - Moves to much older, highly controversial sites: Cerutti Mastodon (California), Hueyatlaco (Mexico), and the Calico site (California), with claimed dates between ~130,000 and ~250,000 years ago.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Emphasizes that even if only one such site is valid, the entire narrative of human arrival changes.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Genetic evidence & haplogroup X2a** - Summarizes mitochondrial DNA lineages in Native Americans: A, B, C, and D link clearly to East Asia, but X2a does not.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Notes X2a appears in ancient remains (e.g., Kennewick Man, ~9,000 years ago) and in modern groups such as Ojibwe, Sioux, and Nuu‑chah‑nulth, yet closest relatives lie in Western Eurasia, not along the Siberia–Beringia route.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Explains that the mainstream view is that X2a arose within North America after founding populations arrived, but this leaves puzzles about its spread and affinities.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Later American civilizations and lost records** - Briefly highlights later achievements: Caral (Supe “super‑civilization”) in Peru (~3000 BC), massive Andean stonework at sites like Sacsayhuamán, Ollantaytambo, Puma Punku, and large Amazonian settlements revealed by lidar (e.g., Upano Valley in Ecuador).[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Stresses that stone itself cannot be easily dated, Amazonian cities were long dismissed as myths, and many records were erased by conquest and the absence of indigenous writing systems.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Sea level, climate windows, and missing sites** - Notes that sea level during the Last Glacial Maximum was ~400 feet lower, likely submerging coastal sites along continental shelves.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Points to brief warm periods around 24,000 and 18,000 years ago (and earlier) that may have allowed separate migration waves that later vanished with cooling, leaving minimal traces.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Conclusion** - Argues that at least 23,000 years of human presence are now secure, with plausible but unproven much earlier occupations.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Ends by emphasizing that more than 99% of Upper Paleolithic sites remain undiscovered, and that every new discovery pushes American prehistory “older and older.”[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) --- ## Archaeological sites mentioned ## Monte Verde (Chile) - **Features** - Waterlogged settlement along a creek bed, with preserved wooden structures, stone tools, medicinal plants, and butchered mastodon remains.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Main occupation: ~14,500 years ago, with some evidence possibly reaching ~19,000 years.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Southern Chile, near the modern city of Puerto Montt in the Los Lagos region.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) ## Cooper’s Ferry (Idaho, USA) - **Features** - Open‑air site with stone tools and biological remains, interpreted as a long‑term camp linked to riverine travel routes.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Dated to roughly 16,500–15,200 years ago.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Near the confluence of the Salmon River with the lower Snake/Columbia River basin in western Idaho, USA.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) ## Bluefish Caves (Yukon, Canada) - **Features** - Cave complex with mammoth, horse, and other animal bones bearing cut marks interpreted as signs of human butchery.library[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Some bones dated to around 24,000 years ago, placing human activity during the Last Glacial Maximum.library[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Northern Yukon Territory, Canada, near the Porcupine River close to the Alaska border.library ## Paisley Caves (Oregon, USA) - **Features** - Caves containing coprolites (desiccated human feces), stone tools, and animal remains, used to argue for pre‑Clovis human presence.library[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Occupation layers and coprolites dated to roughly 14,000–14,300 years ago.library - **Location** - South‑central Oregon, USA, in the Summer Lake basin.library ## Page‑Ladson (Florida, USA) - **Features** - Submerged sinkhole site with stone tools and butchered mastodon remains, interpreted as a kill or processing locale.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Human activity around 14,550 years ago. - **Location** - In the Aucilla River, northwest Florida, USA. ## White Sands footprints (New Mexico, USA) - **Features** - Numerous human trackways (adults, teens, children) preserved in ancient lakebed sediments, including: - A sequence tracking a giant ground sloth (interpreted as a hunt). - A path showing an adult/woman or adolescent walking with and carrying a small child over >1 mile.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Initial seed‑based radiocarbon dating: about 21,000–23,000 years ago.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Later confirmed by pollen, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) on quartz, and other sediment dating, reinforcing ages >20,000 years.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - White Sands National Park, southern New Mexico, near the Tularosa Basin.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) ## Chiquihuite Cave (Zacatecas, Mexico) - **Features** - High‑altitude cave with lithic assemblages interpreted as stone tools; extensive dating campaign.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Stone tools dated to about 31,000–33,000 years ago based on >50 radiocarbon and other dates.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Sierra Madre Occidental, central‑northern Mexico, in the state of Zacatecas. ## Pedra Furada (Piauí, Brazil) - **Features** - Rock shelter complex with hearth features, stone artifacts, and rock art; critics argue many “tools” are geofacts.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Claimed human evidence extending back to 30,000 years or more.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí state, northeastern Brazil. ## Cerutti Mastodon site (California, USA) - **Features** - Mastodon bones with spiral fractures and impact marks, alongside large cobbles interpreted as hammerstones and anvils.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Dated to about 130,000 years ago, with the implication of extremely early human or hominin activity.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Near San Diego, California, along State Route 54 construction area. ## Hueyatlaco (Mexico) - **Features** - Stone tools found beneath thick (≈10 m) sediment, in association with fossil fauna, leading to very old age estimates.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Some analyses suggest roughly 250,000 years old.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Valsequillo Basin, near Puebla, central Mexico. ## Calico Early Man Site (California, USA) - **Features** - Desert alluvial site where more than 11,500 “tools” or modified stones were recovered; many archaeologists consider them naturally fractured rocks.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Proposed ages >200,000 years, though highly disputed.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Mojave Desert, near Yermo (east of Barstow), California, USA. ## Caral / Supe civilization (Peru) - **Features** - Complex with platform mounds, a major pyramid >20 m high, sunken circular plazas, aqueduct systems, and architecture aligned to celestial bodies; little evidence of fortifications or weapons.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Flourished roughly 3000–1800 BC, roughly contemporaneous with early Old World civilizations and older than many Egyptian pyramid dates.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Location** - Supe Valley on Peru’s central coast, north of Lima. ## Andean megalithic sites (Peru/Bolivia) The video groups several high‑Andean sites together: - **Sacsayhuamán (Peru)** - Features: Massive zig‑zag defensive walls with multi‑ton polygonal stones fitted with extreme precision.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Timeline: Main Inca construction in 15th century AD, on earlier foundations. - Location: Above Cusco, southeastern Peru. - **Ollantaytambo (Peru)** - Features: Terraces and megalithic blocks (some >100 tons) forming temple platforms and fortifications.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Timeline: Primarily Inca, 15th century AD, possibly over older work. - Location: Sacred Valley of the Incas, Cusco region, Peru. - **Puma Punku (Bolivia)** - Features: Monumental platform and precisely carved stone blocks (including “H‑blocks”), some >100 tons, fitted with great accuracy; some researchers speculate about poured “geopolymer” type stone, though this is controversial.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - Timeline: Part of the Tiwanaku complex, mainly 500–1000 AD. - Location: Near Tiwanaku, by Lake Titicaca, western Bolivia. ## Amazonian cities / Upano Valley (Ecuador) - **Features** - Lidar reveals extensive earthworks: ~6,000 earthen mounds, wide roads up to about 33 feet (≈10 m) wide, suggesting sizeable urban or proto‑urban populations.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Timeline** - Settlements in the Upano region appear to date roughly 500 BC to 300–600 AD, though Amazonian urbanism more broadly spans several periods. - **Location** - Upano River valley, eastern Andean foothills, Ecuador.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) --- ## People mentioned |Person|Role in video|Key contributions / discoveries|Notable biographical points| |---|---|---|---| |**Michael Button**|Presenter|Synthesizes archaeological and genetic data on early Americans and presents the case for much earlier arrivals, including extreme outlier sites.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)|YouTube creator focusing on ancient history and “unexplained” past; describes having a degree in **ancient** history.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)| |**C. Vance Haynes**|Clovis‑first archaeologist|Used radiocarbon dating in the 1960s to date Clovis points to ~11,000–11,500 years ago, reinforcing the 13,000‑year entry model.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)|American archaeologist and geologist (b. 1928), major figure in Paleoindian research and Beringia–Clovis chronology.| |**Tom Dillehay**|Monte Verde excavator|Discovered and excavated Monte Verde (Chile), documenting pre‑Clovis occupation with structures, tools, plants, and mastodons; ultimately forced revision of Clovis‑first.youtube+1|American anthropologist/archaeologist (b. 1940) who spent decades defending Monte Verde against strong criticism before its broad acceptance in 1997.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)| |**Knut Fladmark** (referred as “Knutt‑Fladmark”)|Coastal‑migration theorist|Proposed the “kelp highway” hypothesis (1979), arguing for early Pacific coastal migration; Cooper’s Ferry’s position supports this idea.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)|Norwegian‑born Canadian archaeologist specializing in Northwest Coast prehistory; worked at Simon Fraser University.| |**Jacques Cinq‑Mars / Sainte‑Marse** (video says “Jacques Sainte‑Marse”)|Bluefish Caves excavator|Excavated Bluefish Caves and argued for human presence ~24,000 years ago, long dismissed, later partially vindicated by reanalysis.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)library|French‑Canadian archaeologist (Jacques Cinq‑Mars) whose career suffered due to promoting very early dates; recognition came late, near the end of his life.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)library| |**Louis Leakey**|Supporter of Calico’s antiquity|Advocated for very ancient human presence at the Calico site (>200,000 years), lending prestige to the controversial interpretation.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)|Kenyan‑born British paleoanthropologist (1903–1972), central to discoveries in Olduvai Gorge and early hominins; highly influential in human‑origins research.| |**Kennewick Man** (The Ancient One)|Ancient DNA reference|Example of ancient Native American individual carrying haplogroup X2a, dated to about 9,000 years ago in Washington State.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ)|Remains discovered in 1996 on the Columbia River; intense legal and ethical dispute over study and repatriation; ultimately determined to be Native American and reburied.| _(The video also refers generically to unnamed “researchers,” “critics,” and “archaeologists,” but does not provide additional personal names.)_[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) --- ## Timeline of discoveries and events Years are approximate; “discovery” here mixes actual excavation dates and ages of human activity as described. ## Human occupation dates (chronological) - **≈250,000 years ago** – Claimed human presence at Hueyatlaco, Mexico, based on deep stratigraphy and dating; highly controversial and widely rejected.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **>200,000 years ago** – Proposed age for Calico Early Man Site artifacts in California; most specialists see them as naturally fractured stones.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈130,000 years ago** – Cerutti Mastodon site in California interpreted by its excavators as evidence of human or hominin bone‑breaking activity.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈31,000–33,000 years ago** – Chiquihuite Cave in Mexico yields stone assemblages dated to this period.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≥30,000 years ago** – Pedra Furada in Brazil with claimed early hearths and tools.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈24,000 years ago** – Bluefish Caves (Yukon) show cut‑marked bones from the Last Glacial Maximum.library[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈23,000–21,000 years ago** – Human trackways at White Sands, New Mexico, confirmed by multiple dating methods.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈16,500–15,200 years ago** – Cooper’s Ferry (Idaho) occupation along the Salmon–Columbia river route.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈14,700 years ago** – Major post‑glacial warming event; human populations expand rapidly across the continent.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈14,550 years ago** – Page‑Ladson (Florida) with tools and mastodon butchery. - **≈14,500 (to possibly 19,000) years ago** – Monte Verde (Chile) settlement.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈14,000–14,300 years ago** – Paisley Caves (Oregon) with human coprolites.library - **≈13,000 years ago** – Traditional Clovis‑first entry date via ice‑free corridor.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈11,500–11,000 years ago** – Clovis culture peak, with widespread fluted points across North America dated by Haynes.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈9,000 years ago** – Kennewick Man, carrying haplogroup X2a, lives in what is now Washington State.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈3000 BC onward** – Caral / Supe civilization arises in coastal Peru with monumental architecture and complex society.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈500 BC–~600 AD** – Upano Valley Amazonian urban complexes in Ecuador flourish, with mounds and road networks.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **≈500–1000 AD** – Tiwanaku and Puma Punku monument building in the Andes. - **15th century AD** – Inca construction at Sacsayhuamán and Ollantaytambo. ## Modern discovery, research, and acceptance dates - **1960s** – C. Vance Haynes radiocarbon‑dates Clovis sites to ~11,000–11,500 years, reinforcing the Clovis‑first model.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **1976** – Tom Dillehay begins work at Monte Verde in southern Chile, identifying pre‑Clovis occupation.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **1979** – Knut Fladmark publishes the coastal “kelp highway” migration hypothesis.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **1992–1993** – Cerutti Mastodon bones discovered during highway construction near San Diego.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **1997** – Panel of skeptical archaeologists visits Monte Verde and unanimously accepts it as pre‑Clovis, undermining Clovis‑first.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **Early 2000s** – Growing acceptance of additional pre‑Clovis sites such as Paisley Caves and Page‑Ladson; Clovis‑first considered effectively abandoned.library[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **2017** – Cerutti Mastodon results published in Nature, arguing for ~130,000‑year age.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **2017** – Reanalysis of Bluefish Caves cut marks supports ~24,000‑year human presence, vindicating Jacques Cinq‑Mars decades after his original claims.library[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **2019** – White Sands human footprints publicly announced.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **2021** – Seed‑based radiocarbon dating of White Sands footprints published, giving ages around 21,000–23,000 years.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **2023** – Additional dating (pollen, quartz OSL, sediments) at White Sands corroborates their Late Glacial age, strengthening the early‑occupation case.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) - **2020s** – Lidar‑based work on Amazonian sites such as Upano Valley becomes widely known, confirming extensive pre‑Columbian urbanism in the Amazon.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) This covers the structure of the video, the archaeological sites and their key attributes, the people cited, and how the discoveries fit into both deep prehistory and modern research history.[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o6DC182cQ) 2. [https://www.perplexity.ai/search/596ea824-74ca-44d6-b382-4eea9381d198](https://www.perplexity.ai/search/596ea824-74ca-44d6-b382-4eea9381d198) 3. [https://www.perplexity.ai/search/0a57c8ec-f9ec-4a8f-8a88-cf18937393fe](https://www.perplexity.ai/search/0a57c8ec-f9ec-4a8f-8a88-cf18937393fe)