Archaeologists Discover Ancient Weapons in Idaho
When considering the earliest known occupants of North America, the Clovis culture is commonly brought up. The culture is thought to have flourished in the Americas between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. Although it isn’t thought to be the earliest civilisation of its kind in North America, it nevertheless provides a helpful comparison point for other prehistoric discoveries in the continent.
All of that serves as an introduction to a recent article from Oregon State University, where a team of archaeologists recently discovered 14 projectiles in modern-day Idaho that were made 3,000 years before the Clovis culture. This makes the new discovery the oldest of its sort ever found in North America, as an article in ARTnews points out.
The discovery was made in western Idaho, close to the Salmon River, at a location known as Cooper’s Ferry. In a report that was printed in the journal Science Advances, the archaeologists described their discoveries. The projectiles provide a fresh viewpoint on how people first arrived on the continent, as the authors of the paper note.
They emphasize that the appearance and feel of the tools found can tell us more about the lineage of their creators. The authors of the report state that in order to pinpoint prospective geographic areas where the First Americans may have originated, “[W]e must also rely on a close appraisal of technological (stone tool) data.”
One of the paper’s authors, Oregon State professor Loren Davis, remarked that the projectiles mimic tools discovered close to what is now Hokkaido, Japan, that date back between 16,000 and 20,000 years. These 14 munitions may significantly alter our understanding of the continent’s early history.
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