Ancient weapons found in Texas could be the oldest ever found in North America by 2,500 years - and could shed new light on how mankind came to the continent.

The 'numerous' weapons found 40 miles northwest of Austin could point to two separate migrations into North America - one earlier than previously known, researchers say.

Spear points made of chert and other tools were discovered under several feet of sediment that dating revealed to be 15,500 years old, and pre-date Clovis, who for decades were believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

However, some researchers have questioned the dating methods used.

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A 15,000-year-old stemmed point: Researchers found a style of projectile point often attached to a weapon that would be thrown, and dated it between 13,500 and 15,500 years ago

WHAT THEY FOUND Researchers have identified a particular style of projectile point – or triangular blade often attached to a weapon that would be thrown – dated between 13,500 and 15,500 years ago, they say. This is earlier than typical Clovis-style technologies dated to 13,000 years ago. The finding suggests that projectile points changed over time from the stemmed form found here into the more widespread, Clovis-style lanceolate fluted projectile point. It's also possible, say the study's authors, that the projectile point style they found in Texas is a distinct style created by people of an earlier, separate migration into the Americas.

'There is no doubt these weapons were used for hunting game in the area at that time,' said Michael Waters, distinguished professor of anthropology and director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, who led the research.

'The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America.'

It's also possible, say the study's authors, that the projectile point style they found in Texas is actually a distinct style created by people of an earlier, separate migration into the Americas.

Researchers found a style of projectile point often attached to a weapon that would be thrown, dated between 13,500 and 15,500 years ago.

This is earlier than typical Clovis-style technologies dated to 13,000 years ago.

Clovis is the name given to the distinctive tools made by people starting around 13,000 years ago.

The Clovis people invented the 'Clovis point,' a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that is found in Texas and parts of the United States and northern Mexico and the weapons were made to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.

Excavations at the Debra L. Friedkin site in 2016: Spear points made of chert and other tools were discovered under several feet of sediment that dating revealed to be 15,500 years old, and pre-date Clovis, who for decades were believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

The team say from 19 optically stimulated luminescence dates of sediments, they determined the artifacts were between 13,500- and 15,500- years-old.

'Given the age of the Debra L. Friedkin site—early people carrying stemmed points likely arrived by entering the Americas along the Pacific coast,' Waters told Gizmodo.

'Later lanceolate point forms like Clovis may have developed from the stemmed point forms or a second migration of people carried some sort of lanceolate point, like the triangular lanceolate form we found at the Friedkin site, and this developed into Clovis.'

'The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts – such as projectile points – that can be recognized as older than Clovis and this is what we have at the Friedkin site,' Water said in a statement.

'The peopling of the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age was a complex process and this complexity is seen in their genetic record.

'Now we are starting to see this complexity mirrored in the archaeological record.'

However, some researchers have questioned the dating techniques.

The Buttermilk Creek Complex is known to have been home to a group of Clovis people, but in recent years scientists have turned up evidence to suggest the presence of human settlement that predates the Clovis culture.

HOW DID OUR ANCESTORS FIRST REACH THE AMERICAS? The conventional story says that the earliest settlers came via Siberia, crossing the now-defunct Bering land bridge on foot and trekking through Canada. In recent years, evidence has mounted against the conventional thinking that humans populated North America by taking an inland route through Canada. To do so, they would have needed to walk through a narrow, ice-free ribbon of terrain that appeared when two major ice sheets started to separate. But recent research suggests that while this path may have opened up more than 14,000 years ago, it did not develop enough biological diversity to support human life until about 13,000 years ago. That clashes with archaeological findings that suggest humans were already living in Chile about 15,000 years ago or more and in Florida 14,500 years ago. Scientists now believe the first Americans could have taken a coastal route along Alaska's Pacific border to enter the continent. This theory provides an alternative narrative and could mark a step toward solving the mystery of how humans came to the Americas. By analysing boulders and bedrock, researchers from the University at Buffalo say they have 'direct evidence' that part of a coastal migration route along Alaska's Pacific became accessible to humans 17,000 years ago. During this period, ancient glaciers receded, exposing islands of southern Alaska's Alexander. The area was home to food sources such as ancient ringed seal that could support human life at the time that early settlers may have been passing through. Recent genetic and archaeological estimates suggest that settlers may have begun travelling deeper into the Americas some 16,000 years ago, soon after the coastal gateway opened up.

Ben Potter, an archaeologist from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said radiocarbon dating on cultural elements and artifacts would provide 'more precise and secure chronology.'

The team say from 19 optically stimulated luminescence dates of sediments, they determined the artifacts were between 13,500- and 15,500- years-old.

Waters and his team say that once developed, the lanceolate fluted point technology (associated with Clovis) could have spread over much of North America into northern Mexico, or alternatively, the stemmed and lanceolate point traditions may be evidence of two separate human migrations into North America

Waters and colleagues from Baylor University and the University of Texas have had their work published in the current issue of Science Advances.</s>Ancient weapons found in Texas are believed to be the oldest ever found in North America and could shed new light on how humans came to the continent, Science Daily reported.

According to researchers, spear points and other tools discovered under several feet of sediment 40 miles northwest of Austin were dated to be 15,500 years old and pre-date Clovis, long believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

The Clovis people invented the “Clovis point,' a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that is found in Texas and parts of the United States and northern Mexico. The weapons were made to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.

“There is no doubt these weapons were used for hunting game in the area at that time,” Michael Waters, distinguished professor of anthropology and director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, who led the research, told The Daily Mail.

“The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America,” he added.

The researchers believe that the projectile point found in Texas is a distinct style created by people of an earlier migration into the Americas and would have been used between 13,500 and 15,500 years ago.

Conventional science says that the earliest settlers reached the Americas via Siberia, crossing the now-defunct Bering land bridge on foot and trekking through Canada some 13,000 years ago.

That clashes with archaeological findings that suggest humans were already living in Chile about 15,000 years ago or more and in Florida 14,500 years ago.

Scientists now believe the first Americans could have taken a coastal route along Alaska's Pacific border to enter the continent.

This theory provides an alternative narrative and could mark a step toward solving the mystery of how humans came to the Americas.</s>DALLAS (AP) — Anthropology researchers have found spearheads in Central Texas that the team’s leader says are the oldest hunting tools discovered so far in North America, according to a report published this week in the journal Science Advances.

The spear points, hewn of limestone, were found in 2015 at a dig near Buttermilk Creek, which is about 45 miles north of Austin, said Michael Waters, the Texas A&M University anthropologist who led the study and director of the university’s Center for the Study of First Americans.

Waters wrote in the report that analysis suggests the spearheads are between 13,500 and 15,500 years old, which is as many as 2,500 years older than projectile points found near Clovis, New Mexico, that many believed to be the oldest in North America.

The Texas artifacts came from what is known as the Debra L. Friedkin site, which was under excavation from 2006 to 2016. The earliest people in the area were hunter-gatherers who “probably moved from camp to camp over a year,” Waters said. They were likely attracted to the site by the year-round availability of drinking water and abundant chert on the surrounding slopes that was used for making stone tools. The region also had plenty of hunting and gathering in the surrounding Hill Country, Blackland Prairie and Coastal Plain, Waters said.

As for the spear points, they were not meant as combat weapons, Waters said.

“They were used for hunting. We saw evidence that they were hafted onto a spear (shaft), and there was clear evidence they were used for butchering,” he said. “They probably would have been used for hunting everything from mammoths and horses to deer.”

Given the age and shape of the recently found spear points, the people who used them likely arrived in the area from the Pacific coast as they circumvented the ice sheet that overlaid most of North America at the time, Waters said.

James Adovasio, director of archaeology at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, wasn’t involved in the study. He said the spear points find was “certainly the oldest in Texas,” but questioned if they were the oldest discovered in North America.

Adovasio told The Associated Press that other sites “have produced items 1,500 or 2,000 years older than Clovis.” He argued the Clovis find was no longer the standard by which subsequent finds are judged, adding that the Texas find was “in the ballpark as some of the oldest finds (in North America). It may or may not be the oldest.”

Waters told the AP he was aware of other contenders for the oldest projectile points found in North America, but he contends there have been flaws in how the claims were substantiated. His findings are supported by the geological layer where his points were found, how they were dated, and the shape and style of the points, he said.</s>Ancient tools that may give historians a glimpse into America's history were recently discovered just feet below the surface in Texas. Researchers with Texas A&M University made the stunning discovery during a dig at the Debra L. Friedkin site, located just 40 miles northwest of Austin.

Archaeologists have been searching for artifacts at the site near Buttermilk Creek for more than a decade — but this may be their most important find yet.

Michael Waters, professor of anthropology and director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, and staff from Baylor University and the University of Texas described the various ancient items they found in a study published in the latest issue of Science Advances. The team reveals they found 3 to 4-inch weapons, including spear points made of chert, under sediment they believe to be at least 15,500 years old.

“The discovery is significant because almost all pre-Clovis sites have stone tools, but spear points have yet to be found. These points were found under a layer with Clovis and Folsom projectile points," Waters said in a statement Wednesday, noting the term Clovis describes tools used by people 13,000 years ago. "The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts — such as projectile points — that can be recognized as older than Clovis and this is what we have at the Friedkin site.”

The Clovis people invented the "Clovis point," a spear-like weapon which has been discovered in portions of the U.S. and Mexico. For decades, the Clovis population was considered the first people to enter the North American continent, according to Science Daily.

Like the Clovis point, Waters believes the 15,000-year-old weapons recently uncovered in Austin were used to hunt large animals. Their existence may further support evidence that shows the first American settlers came to the country earlier than historians previously thought.

"Over the past decade, genetic studies of modern Native Americans and prehistoric skeletons have shown that the initial movement of people south of the continental ice sheets occurred as early as ~15 to ~16 ka ago and that there is genetic continuity between the first immigrants to enter the Americas and modern Native Americans," authors of the research explained. "Archaeological studies over the last 25 years show that people successfully occupied the Americas ~14 to ~15 ka ago, in agreement with the genetic estimates."

However, Waters admits there's still a lot of research to be done in regard to the tools to gain better insight into the people who roamed North America back then.

“The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America,” Waters said. “The peopling of the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age was a complex process and this complexity is seen in their genetic record. Now we are starting to see this complexity mirrored in the archaeological record.”</s>Scientists believe newly-discovered, 15,500-year-old spear points are the oldest weapons ever found in North America.

The findings raise new questions about the settlement of early peoples on the continent.

As reported in Science Advances, scientists found numerous weapons—about 3-4 inches long—while digging at the Debra L. Friedkin site, named for the family who owns the land about 40 miles northwest of Austin in central Texas. The site has undergone extensive archaeological work for the past 12 years.

Researchers found spear points made of chert and other tools red under several feet of sediment that dating revealed to be 15,500 years old, and pre-date Clovis, who for decades scientists believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

“There is no doubt these weapons were used for hunting game in the area at that time,” says Michael Waters, a professor of anthropology and director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University.

“The discovery is significant because almost all pre-Clovis sites have stone tools, but spear points have yet to be found. These points were found under a layer with Clovis and Folsom projectile points. Clovis is dated to 13,000 to 12,700 years ago and Folsom after that,” Waters says.

“The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts—such as projectile points—that can be recognized as older than Clovis and this is what we have at the Friedkin site.”

Clovis is the name given to the distinctive tools people made starting around 13,000 years ago. The Clovis people invented the “Clovis point,” a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that researchers have found in Texas and parts of the United States and northern Mexico. Those weapons were made to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.

“The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America,” Waters says. “The peopling of the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age was a complex process and this complexity is seen in their genetic record. Now we are starting to see this complexity mirrored in the archaeological record.”

Additional coauthors are from Texas A&M, Baylor University, and the University of Texas. The North Star Archaeological Research Program and the Elfrieda Frank Foundation funded the work.</s>Ancient weapons found in Texas could be the oldest ever found in North America by 2,500 years - and could shed new light on how mankind came to the continent.

The 'numerous' weapons found 40 miles northwest of Austin could point to two separate migrations into North America - one earlier than previously known, researchers say.

Spear points made of chert and other tools were discovered under several feet of sediment that dating revealed to be 15,500 years old, and pre-date Clovis, who for decades were believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

However, some researchers have questioned the dating methods used.

Researchers have identified a particular style of projectile point – or triangular blade often attached to a weapon that would be thrown – dated between 13,500 and 15,500 years ago, they say. This is earlier than typical Clovis-style technologies dated to 13,000 years ago. The finding suggests that projectile points changed over time from the stemmed form found here into the more widespread, Clovis-style lanceolate fluted projectile point. It's also possible, say the study's authors, that the projectile point style they found in Texas is a distinct style created by people of an earlier, separate migration into the Americas.

'There is no doubt these weapons were used for hunting game in the area at that time,' said Michael Waters, distinguished professor of anthropology and director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, who led the research.

'The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America.'

It's also possible, say the study's authors, that the projectile point style they found in Texas is actually a distinct style created by people of an earlier, separate migration into the Americas.

Researchers found a style of projectile point often attached to a weapon that would be thrown, dated between 13,500 and 15,500 years ago.

This is earlier than typical Clovis-style technologies dated to 13,000 years ago.

Clovis is the name given to the distinctive tools made by people starting around 13,000 years ago.

The Clovis people invented the 'Clovis point,' a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that is found in Texas and parts of the United States and northern Mexico and the weapons were made to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.

'Given the age of the Debra L. Friedkin site—early people carrying stemmed points likely arrived by entering the Americas along the Pacific coast,' Waters told Gizmodo.

'Later lanceolate point forms like Clovis may have developed from the stemmed point forms or a second migration of people carried some sort of lanceolate point, like the triangular lanceolate form we found at the Friedkin site, and this developed into Clovis.'

'The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts – such as projectile points – that can be recognized as older than Clovis and this is what we have at the Friedkin site,' Water said in a statement.

'The peopling of the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age was a complex process and this complexity is seen in their genetic record.

'Now we are starting to see this complexity mirrored in the archaeological record.'

However, some researchers have questioned the dating techniques.

Ben Potter, an archaeologist from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said radiocarbon dating on cultural elements and artifacts would provide 'more precise and secure chronology.'

The team say from 19 optically stimulated luminescence dates of sediments, they determined the artifacts were between 13,500- and 15,500- years-old.

Waters and his team say that once developed, the lanceolate fluted point technology (associated with Clovis) could have spread over much of North America into northern Mexico, or alternatively, the stemmed and lanceolate point traditions may be evidence of two separate human migrations into North America

Waters and colleagues from Baylor University and the University of Texas have had their work published in the current issue of Science Advances.</s>Texas A&M University researchers uncovered what are believed to be the oldest weapons ever found in North America.

A handful of ancient spear points were discovered under several feet of sediment at a dig site about 40 miles northwest of Austin.

Revealed to be 15,500 years old, the chert tools pre-date Clovis, a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that dates back roughly 13,200 to 12,900 years ago—previously believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

“There is no doubt these weapons were used for hunting game in the area at that time,” professor Michael Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, said in a statement. “The discovery is significant because almost all pre-Clovis sites have stone tools, but spear points have yet to be found.

“The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts—such as projectile points—that can be recognized as older than Clovis and that is what we have at the [Debra L.] Friedkin site,” he added.

Waters, along with colleagues from Baylor University and the University of Texas, describes the breakthrough in a paper published this week by the journal Science Advances.

Clovis culture is named for the distinctly shaped stone spear point made by people some 13,000 years ago. Known as the “Clovis point,” the fluted weapon—found in Texas and other parts of the US and northern Mexico—was designed to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons.

“The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America,” Waters said.

“The peopling of the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age was a complex process and this complexity is seen in their genetic record,” the professor explained. “Now we are starting to see this complexity mirrored in the archaeological record.”</s>For many years the consensus among archaeologists was that humans began settling in North America around 13,000 years ago. This timeline was based on artifacts found that dated back between 12,700 and 13,000 years, including weapons. Now, a new discovery in Texas could throw that theory right out the door.

Researchers from Texas A&M, Baylor University, and the University of Texas have uncovered what they believe to be spear points that were used by human hunters as far back as 15,500 years ago. The discovery pre-dates the accepted timeline for the settlement of North America by a significant margin, and scientists may be forced to rethink when and where the first groups of humans pushed into what is now the United States.

“There is no doubt these weapons were used for hunting game in the area at that time,” Michael Waters of Texas A&M, lead author of the paper published in Science Advances, said in a statement. “The discovery is significant because almost all pre-Clovis sites have stone tools, but spear points have yet to be found. These points were found under a layer with Clovis and Folsom projectile points. Clovis is dated to 13,000 to 12,700 years ago and Folsom after that. The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts – such as projectile points – that can be recognized as older than Clovis and this is what we have at the Friedkin site.”

It’s thought that hunting was what drove groups of ancient peoples into new areas, and at the time the spear points may have been used in hunting efforts against large game like mammoths. However, it wasn’t as though settlers of the age had maps or even a vague understanding of how the continent was shaped. They would have had little knowledge of what lied over the horizon as they traveled north, and wouldn’t have relocated unless it was necessary.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why determining when human settlers arrived is such a difficult task. Smaller groups may have come and gone over time, and progress would have been slow. Whether this new discovery represents a large-scale movement into North America far earlier than was previously known, or if it’s nothing more than a bizarre outlier, remains to be seen.</s>Michael Waters, distinguished professor of anthropology and director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, and colleagues from Baylor University and the University of Texas have had their work published in the current issue of Science Advances.

The team found the numerous weapons – about 3-4 inches long – while digging at what has been termed the Debra L. Friedkin site, named for the family who owns the land about 40 miles northwest of Austin in Central Texas. The site has undergone extensive archaeological work for the past 12 years.

Spear points made of chert and other tools were discovered under several feet of sediment that dating revealed to be 15,500 years old, and pre-date Clovis, who for decades were believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

"There is no doubt these weapons were used for hunting game in the area at that time," Waters said. "The discovery is significant because almost all pre-Clovis sites have stone tools, but spear points have yet to be found. These points were found under a layer with Clovis and Folsom projectile points. Clovis is dated to 13,000 to 12,700 years ago and Folsom after that. The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts – such as projectile points – that can be recognized as older than Clovis and this is what we have at the Friedkin site."

Clovis is the name given to the distinctive tools made by people starting around 13,000 years ago. The Clovis people invented the "Clovis point," a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that is found in Texas and parts of the United States and northern Mexico and the weapons were made to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.

"The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America," Waters said. "The peopling of the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age was a complex process and this complexity is seen in their genetic record. Now we are starting to see this complexity mirrored in the archaeological record."

More information: Michael R. Waters et al. Pre-Clovis projectile points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas—Implications for the Late Pleistocene peopling of the Americas, Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4505</s>For a long time, anthropologists believed that the first people to inhabit the Americas were the so-called Clovis people, defined by their exquisitely chiseled spear points that begin appearing around 13,500 years ago or so. These peoples were so successful that they spread out across the Americas, from Alaska to Venezuela, dominating the ancient archaeological record of the New World.

But that story is rapidly beginning to change, as more and more evidence gets unearthed which hints at a mysterious pre-Clovis population that may have called America home for thousands of years before the Clovis set foot. Now newly discovered spear points at a 15,000 year old site in Texas all but set it in stone: humans were here before Clovis, reports the Washington Post.

Archaeologists have been scouring the Buttermilk Creek complex in central Texas since 2006, after an initial discovery there of scores of stone point fragments, which scientists suspected were the tips of pre-Clovis spearheads. Without any whole spearheads, however, it was difficult to determine whether these stone fragments were from tools, or if they were something else entirely.

Finally, though, eureka! Researchers have now confirmed that two perfectly preserved artifacts-- one triangular point, and one lobe-shaped projectile with a tapered, or "stemmed" bottom-- are, in fact, pre-Clovis in origin and human-crafted. They are different in design from Clovis points, and they significantly pre-date them. It's the clearcut evidence of pre-Clovis habitation of the Americas that researchers have been looking for.

"I just thought, 'Holy cow,'" recalled geologist Mike Waters, who oversaw the excavation. "Whenever you see something for the first time that you didn't expect, it's always very exciting and exhilarating."

"This is a really fascinating paper," said Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist at the University of Kansas who was not involved in the new study. "It's filling in some of the gaps in the archaeological record regarding the Clovis complex and the histories of the very first peoples in the Americas.

It's quite possible that these stone tools were held by some of the first cultures to reach North America. There is very little genetic evidence of these people remaining in modern populations of Native Americans, but they left their tools behind. It's a chapter in human history that is only now beginning to be brought to light.

Right now, it's impossible to know who exactly these pre-Clovis peoples were. It's possible that the Clovis were descendants of some of these people; it's also possible that the Clovis may have supplanted them. Right now, it's a mystery that's sure to open up a whole new book into the origins of American colonization.

The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

Scientists unearth 15,000-year-old tools that may have belonged to the first Americans

The find confirms that America's earliest human inhabitants were here much sooner than previously thought.
Stone tools are found in Texas dating back 15,000 years, being the oldest evidence of humans in North America.