Humans were in America 30,000 years ago: study

Tools excavated from a cave in central Mexico are strong evidence that humans were living in North America at least 30,000 years ago, some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday. Artefacts, including 1,900 stone tools, showed human occupation of the high-altitude Chiquihuite Cave over a roughly 20,000 year period, they reported in two studies, published in Nature.  No traces of human bones or DNA were found at the site. The stone tools -- unique in the Americas -- revealed a "mature technology" which the authors speculate was brought in from elsewhere.   The saga of how and when Homo sapiens arrived in the Americas -- the last major land mass to be populated by our species -- is fiercly debated among experts, and the new findings will likely be contested. "That happens every time that anybody finds sites older than 16,000 years -- the first reaction is denial or hard acceptance," said Ardelean, who first excavated the cave in 2012 but did not discover the oldest items until 2017.

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Source: Reuters