Archaeologists have uncovered shocking evidence that a mysterious group of people colonized the Americas as far back as 30,000 years ago and inhabited North America during the last glacial maximum.
According to Sci-News, astonishing evidence was excavated at the Coxcatlan Cave, located in the southern part of the Tehuacan Valley (Puebla, Mexico). This dry rock cave rises several meters above the valley floor, measuring 30 meters in length and up to 8 meters in width. Within the cave’s sediment layers, traces of ancient humans were found, who hunted animals, crafted stone tools, wove baskets, and produced mats…
A researcher examining the cave where a mysterious group of people colonized the Americas 30,000 years ago – (Photo: Andrew Somerville).
Many animal bones showing clear signs of having been butchered by humans were found buried in the sediment layers at the bottom of the cave, indicating they are between 28,279 and 33,448 years old.
Dr. Andrew Somerville from the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University (USA), who led the research, stated: “We did not expect such an ‘old’ age. These findings add to the debates surrounding the hypothesis that humans colonized the Americas by crossing the “Bering Land Bridge” 13,000 years ago.”
Inside the cave, a total of 28 human habitation areas were discovered across different periods, indicating that many separate groups of people occupied the cave, with each group selecting a distinct corner as their main living area, reflecting 42 separate occupational phases. The last inhabitants of this cave even knew how to make pottery, according to Science Alert.
The identity of the first group that conquered this continent and the means by which they did so remains a significant mystery. However, the prevailing hypothesis is that they also traveled across a land bridge—parts of land that have since disappeared, connecting ancient continents.
The study recently published in the scientific journal Latin American Antiquity suggests that the greatest mystery is that if the cave was occupied 30,000 years ago, it is clear that humans were in North America during the last glacial maximum when global temperatures were at their coldest.
During that period, much of North America became a “dead zone”, completely inhospitable to life, with land surrounded by glaciers. Therefore, understanding how they survived during this “death zone” will be the next step in the research.
