HUMANS lived in South America at the height of the last ice age, thousands of years earlier than we thought, according to a controversial study. A team claims to have found 22,000-year-old stone tools at a site in Brazil, though other archaeologists are disputing the claim.
of Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 University in France and colleagues excavated a rock shelter in north-east Brazil and found 113 stone tools.
The team dated the sediments in which the tools were buried using a technique that determines when the sediments were last exposed to light. Some tools were buried 22,000 years ago 鈥� thousands of years earlier than any known human colonisation of the Americas ().
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For decades, archaeologists thought that the Clovis people were the first to enter the Americas, 13,000 years ago. But since the 1980s evidence has accumulated for an earlier colonisation, at least 15,000 years ago.
Could humans have been in Brazil 22,000 years ago? 鈥淭he [dating] tests they present suggest they鈥檝e got a good signal,鈥� says at the University of Cambridge.
For others, it is the tools that are raising eyebrows. 鈥淩ock shelters are difficult to interpret,鈥� points out of the University of Southampton, UK. Stones falling from above can break, making them look like human-made tools.
Lahaye says that is unlikely in this case: the tools are made of a rock not present at the site. 鈥淭hey come from at least 15 kilometres away,鈥� she says.
There have been many claims of an early human presence in South America, but none has proved conclusive, says of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. 鈥淯ntil someone finds a human skeleton, no one is going to believe this,鈥� she says.
鈥淭here have been many claims, but until someone finds a human skeleton, no one is going to believe this鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淏razilian twist to tale of the first Americans鈥�