Earliest evidence of human activity found in the Americas, researchers
report

Date:
September 23, 2021
Source:
University of Arizona
Summary:
Footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico confirm human
presence over at least two millennia, with the oldest tracks dating
back 23,000 years, say scientists.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico provide
the earliest unequivocal evidence of human activity in the Americas and
provide insight into life over 23,000 years ago, scientists report.


==========================================================================
The findings are described in an article in the journal Science.

Researchers Jeff Pigati and Kathleen Springer, with the U.S. Geological
Survey, used radiocarbon dating of seed layers above and below the
footprints to determine their age. The dates range in age and confirm
human presence over at least two millennia, with the oldest tracks dating
back 23,000 years.

This corresponds to the height of the last glacial cycle, during something known as the Last Glacial Maximum, and makes them the oldest known human footprints in the Americas.

It was previously thought that humans entered America much later,
after the melting of the North American ice sheets, which opened up
migration routes.

"Our dates on the seeds are tightly clustered and maintain stratigraphic
order above and below multiple footprint horizons -- this was a remarkable outcome," Springer said.



==========================================================================
The footprints tell an interesting tale of what life was like at this
time.

Judging by their size, the tracks were left mainly by teenagers and
younger children, with the occasional adult.

"The footprints left at White Sands give a picture of what was taking
place, teenagers interacting with younger children and adults," said lead
study author Matthew Bennett from Bournemouth University in England. "We
can think of our ancestors as quite functional, hunting and surviving,
but what we see here is also activity of play, and of different ages
coming together. A true insight into these early people." "For decades, archaeologists have debated when people first arrived in the Americas,"
said co-author Vance Holliday, a professor in the UArizona School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences. "Few archaeologists see
reliable evidence for sites older than about 16,000 years. Some think
the arrival was later, no more than 13,000 years ago by makers of
artifacts called Clovis points. The White Sands tracks provide a much
earlier date. There are multiple layers of well-dated human tracks in streambeds where water flowed into an ancient lake. This was 10,000 years before Clovis people." Holliday and study co-author Brendan Fenerty,
a UArizona doctoral student in the Department of Geosciences, documented
basic geologic layering and dating in trenches on the White Sands Missile
Range near the discovery site several years before the tracks were found.

"We were interested in reconstructing the evolution of the landscape in
the context of environmental changes and some younger archaeological sites
in the area," Holliday said. "We had no idea what was buried nearby."
Tracks of mammoth, giant ground sloth, dire wolves and birds are also
all present at the White Sands site.



==========================================================================
"It is an important site because all of the trackways we've found there
show an interaction of humans in the landscape alongside extinct animals,
like mammoths and giant sloths," said study co-author Sally Reynolds of Bournemouth University. "We can see the co-existence between humans and
animals on the site as a whole, and by being able to accurately date
these footprints, we're building a greater picture of the landscape."
The human tracks at White Sands were first discovered by David Bustos, resources manager at the park.

"It is incredible to have the confirmation on the age of the human prints,
and exciting but also sad to know that this is only a small portion of
the 80,000 acres where the prints have been revealed bare and are also
being rapidly lost to ongoing soil erosion," Bustos said.

The team also pioneered non-invasive geophysical techniques to help locate
the site. Tommy Urban, from Cornell University, led this part of the work.

"Detection and imaging with nondestructive technology has greatly
expanded our capacity to study these remarkable footprints in their
broader context," he said.

Traditional archaeology relies on the discovery of bones and tools but
can often be difficult to interpret. Human footprints provide unequivocal evidence of presence and also of behavior.

"White Sands provides the first unequivocal evidence for human presence
in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximum," said study co-author Dan Odess of the National Park Service. "Not all archaeological sites contain
such unequivocal evidence. One reason why this discovery is important is
that it makes the idea that other purportedly ancient sites really are
evidence for human presence that much more plausible, even if the evidence
they contain is less unequivocal. This doesn't mean all of those sites are legitimate, but it means they cannot be dismissed out of hand." See Also:
* Bournemouth University: Earliest evidence of human activity found
in the
Americas (https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/2021-09-23/earliest-
evidence-human-activity-found-americas)
* Cornell Chronicle: Earliest evidence of human activity found in the
Americas
(https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/09/earliest-evidence-
human-activity-found-americas)
* U.S. Geological Survey: Fossilized Footprints Reveal Human
Habitation of
North America Thousands of Years
Earlier than Previously Thought (https:/
/www.usgs.gov/news/fossilized-footprints-reveal-human-habitation-north-
america-thousands-years-earlier-previously)
* National Park Service: Information on White Sands National Park's
fossilized footprints
(https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/nature/fossilized- footprints.htm) ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Arizona. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* YouTube_video_(Bournemouth_University):_Earliest_evidence_of_human
activity_in_the_Americas_found_at_White_Sands_National_Park ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Matthew R. Bennett, David Bustos, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Kathleen B.

Springer, Thomas M. Urban, Vance T. Holliday, Sally C. Reynolds,
Marcin Budka, Jeffrey S. Honke, Adam M. Hudson, Brendan Fenerty,
Clare Connelly, Patrick J. Martinez, Vincent L. Santucci,
Daniel Odess. Evidence of humans in North America during the
Last Glacial Maximum. Science, 2021; 373 (6562): 1528 DOI:
10.1126/science.abg7586 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210923161340.htm

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