News Archaeology

First settlers reached Americas 130,000 years ago, study claims

Mastodon bones, stone tools place unknown Homo species in California surprisingly early

mastodon bones

HERE FIRST  An unidentified Homo species pounded apart mastodon bones with large stones in southern California around 130,700 years ago, a controversial study concludes. Finds at what’s proposed as the oldest archaeological site in the Americas include this mastodon leg bone with a notch possibly produced by a pounding stone.

T. Deméré/San Diego Natural History Museum

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

The New World was a surprisingly old destination for humans or our evolutionary relatives, say investigators of a controversial set of bones and stones.