Astonishing discovery of human traces in North America 24,000 years ago

The earliest human presence in North America may be at the end of the ice age. The group hid in caves in Bluefish, quickly expanding throughout the continent and being the ancestors of today's North Americans.

So far, we still believe that humans arrived on the North American continent through the Bering Strait 14,000 years ago. But recent research shows that the time was much earlier, 24,000 years ago.

Canadian and UK researchers surveyed the carbon isotope of bone samples excavated from caves in Bluefish, in the Yukon region in northwestern Canada, near the border with Alaska state, and found The undeniable trace of human activities here was 24,000 years ago.

The area was first excavated by Jacques Cinq-Mars archaeologist from 1977 to 1987. Cinq-Mars found a lot of animal bones. Based on the age of carbon isotopes, he said that the first people set foot on North America at the end of the last ice age, about 30,000 years ago.

However, Cinq-Mars's hypothesis is controversial because there are no archaeological sites around the same date, and there is also a shortage of animal bones at the same time as horses, mammoths, bison and reindeer. . Because if there are people, there must be hunting activities and bone samples.

Traces of animal bones discovered in caves in Bluefish.

To solve this problem, Dr. Lauriane Bourgeon and Professor Ariane Burke of the University of Montreal spent two years examining 36,000 bone samples from caves in Bluefish being preserved in the Canadian History Museum in Gatineau. .

They found clear traces of human activity in 15 bone samples, and 20 other bone samples that were unclear but could also be about human activity and evidence of straight cuts, images. the letter V on the surface of the bone, due to skin peeling with stone tools.

"These are human cuts, it can't be different , " Burke said.

They also sent bone samples to Oxford University to measure carbon isotopes with isotope accelerators again. They measured the largest age of bone samples aged between 23,000 and 24,000 years.

"Our findings confirm previous analyzes and prove that this is the first place where human presence is in Canada. People have reached East Beringia at the end of the last ice age , " Burke said. adds.

According to Burke, previous studies on genetics have shown a group of thousands of individuals who have been isolated in Beringia - a large area stretching from the Lena River in Russia to the Mackenzie in Canada - about 15,000 to 24,000 years ago.

Burke claims that their findings also confirm the "genetic isolation" hypothesis of individuals in the Beringian region, when the Beringian region is isolated from the rest of North America because of glaciers and steppes with gas. post-harshness into the last ice age.

This means that the earliest human presence in North America could be at the end of the ice age. This group of people can hide in caves in Bluefish, they quickly expand throughout the continent and are the ancestors of today's North Americans.