Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Evidence grows that peopling of the Americas began more than 20,000 years ago

The long-debated timing of the peopling of the Americas comes into focus, thanks to some archaeological findings. What are the implications of a revised timeline for our understanding of these earliest inhabitants?
  1. Ruth Gruhn

    1. Ruth Gruhn is professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4, Canada.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Writing in Nature, Ardelean et al.1 and Becerra-Valdivia and Higham2 report evidence that the initial human settlement of the American continent happened earlier than is widely accepted, and some of this evidence suggests that expansion into the continent began at least 10,000 years earlier than was generally suspected. A study of radiocarbon dating of early archaeological sites by Becerra-Valdivia and Higham reveals that interior regions of Alaska, Yukon in Canada and the continental United States were already widely populated before 13,000 years ago. For decades, that time frame was widely considered to mark the earliest possible date of initial entry, until data from sites more than 13,000 years old in North and South America, first reported in the 1970s, raised the possibility of earlier arrivals3–5. Archaeological excavations in Chiquihuite Cave in northern Mexico by Ardelean and colleagues provide evidence of human occupation about 26,500 years ago. This Mexican site now joins half a dozen other documented archaeological sites in northeast and central Brazil that have yielded evidence suggesting dates for human occupation between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago6–12.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 584, 47-48 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02137-3

References

  1. Ardelean, C. F. et al. Nature 584, 87–92 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Becerra-Valdivia, L. & Higham, T. Nature 584, 93–97 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Dillehay, T. D. Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene Settlement in Chile (Smithsonian Inst.) Vol. 1 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gruhn, R. in New Perspectives on the First Americans (eds Lepper, B. & Bonnichsen, R.) 27–31 (Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Adovasio, J. M. & Pedlar, D. Strangers in a New Land: What Archaeology Reveals About the First Americans (Firefly, 2016).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Boëda, E. et al. in Paleoamerican Odyssey (eds Graf, K. et al.) 445–465 (Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Guidon, N. & Delibrias, G. Nature 321, 769–771 (1986).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Boëda, E. et al. Antiquity 88, 927–941 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Boëda, E. et al. PaleoAmerica 2, 286–302 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Lahaye, C. et al. J. Archaeol. Sci. 40, 2840–2847 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Lahaye C. et al. Quat. Geochronol. 49, 223–229 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Vialou, D. et al. Antiquity 91, 865–884 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Mosiman, J. E. & Martin, P. S. Am. Sci. 63, 304–313 (1975).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Dillehay, T. D. et al. PLoS ONE 10, e0141923 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Clark, P. U. et al. Science 325, 710–714 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. McLaren, D. et al. PaleoAmerica 6, 43–63 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Postdoctoral Position

    We are seeking highly motivated and skilled candidates for postdoctoral fellow positions

    Boston, Massachusetts (US)

    Boston Children's Hospital (BCH)

  • Qiushi Chair Professor

    Distinguished scholars with notable achievements and extensive international influence.

    Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Zhejiang University

  • ZJU 100 Young Professor

    Promising young scholars who can independently establish and develop a research direction.

    Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Zhejiang University

  • Head of the Thrust of Robotics and Autonomous Systems

    Reporting to the Dean of Systems Hub, the Head of ROAS is an executive assuming overall responsibility for the academic, student, human resources...

    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

  • Head of Biology, Bio-island

    Head of Biology to lead the discovery biology group.

    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    BeiGene Ltd.

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links