North America's Oldest Inhabitants Found in Texas by Brian
Thomas, M.S. * Museums with illustrations of early North
American human inhabitants often assert that the first peoples
on the continent were the Clovis natives who lived during the
Ice Age. But a handful of archaeological sites have shown
evidence of human occupation found in soil layers that are
below, and hence earlier than, Clovis remains. However, museums
have not jettisoned their "Clovis hunters were first" displays
because the pre-Clovis evidence from these sites was not
compelling enough. A new report in the journal Science may
change that, opening the question of how and when North America
was first inhabited. Archaeologists from various universities
have been excavating a site beside Buttermilk Creek west of
Salado, Texas. In the past, the creek periodically overflowed,
covering an inhabited site with clay-rich sediment. Careful
sifting of this sediment has turned up over 15,000 stone
artifacts, most of which are tiny chipped flakes left ove