Cave Gives Up Artifacts From Ancient Americans Discovery In Brazil Challenges Theory Of Early Migration

Cave dwellers in a South American tropical forest may have lived at the same ancient time as the early mammoth hunters of the U.S. Southwest, a new excavation suggests. The research may alter experts’ belief about the first humans in the New World.

Anna C. Roosevelt of the Field Museum in Chicago said chemical dating of spear points, remnants of fruits, fish bones and rock art found in a cave near the Amazon River in northern Brazil all suggest that humans lived in the area about 11,200 years ago.

This, she said, is a challenge to the so-called Clovis theory that humans who migrated from Asia established the first major New World culture in the U.S. Southwest around 11,200 to 10,900 years ago. The theory is based on distinctive, fluted quartz spear points and arrowheads found near Clovis, N.M.

Clovis points have been found in other ancient settlements, leading to the idea that most human cultures in the New World originated from the Clovis settlements.

“The situation in South America does not support the Clovis theory,” said Roosevelt, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the lead author of a study to be published today in the journal Science.