Archaeologists found several projectile points thousands of years older than any found in the Americas, according to archaeologists from Oregon State University, were found in Idaho.
This fantastic discovery might help close some historical gaps in the earliest people's development and use of stone weapons.
An Iraqi worker excavates a rock-carving relief recently found at the Mashki Gate, one of the monumental gates to the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, on the outskirts of what is today the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on October 19, 2022.
More Than 15,000 Year- Projectile Points
The 13 entire and shattered projectile points range in size from half an inch to two inches and are carbon-14 dated to a period roughly 15,700 years ago.
This is 3,000 years older than the Clovis fluted points across North America. Researchers added that these projectile points are also 2,300 years older than those previously identified at the Cooper's Ferry site along the Salmon River in contemporary Idaho.
But according to the team's leader Loren Davis, the discovery of projectile tips provides novel insights into the early Americans' use of technology to communicate complex ideas.
The Salmon River, which is on traditional Nez Perce territory and is known to the tribe as the location of the old settlement of Nipéhe, is close to where archaeologists found the points. The federal Bureau of Land Management currently owns the land.
According to Davis, the points are significant not only because of their antiquity and similarity to projectile points found on Japan's Hokkaido island between 16,000 and 20,000 years ago.
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The Same Projectile Points Found in Japan
Davis said (per Heritage Daily) that the points are significant not only because of their antiquity and similarity to projectile points found on Japan's Hokkaido island between 16,000 and 20,000 years ago.
Their existence in Idaho supports the hypothesis that the ice age populations of Northeast Asia and North America had early genetic and cultural connections.
According to Davis, the indigenous peoples of North America exploited their cultural knowledge to persist and flourish over time. The way people created stone tools, like the projectile points discovered at Cooper's Ferry site, demonstrates some of this knowledge.
Davis said in a statement that it is possible to estimate the spatial extent of the social networks where this technical information was dispersed among early humans by comparing these locations with sites that are similar in age or older.
He added that it is possible to estimate the spatial extent of the social networks where this technical information was dispersed among early humans by comparing these locations with sites that are similar in age or older.
Davis claimed that despite their small size, they were deadly weapons and were likely attached to darts rather than arrows or spears.
The more extensive Cooper's Ferry record contains the freshly discovered pits, a fire pit that has been there for 14,200 years, and a food-processing area with artifacts from an extinct horse, both previously documented by Davis and his team.
More than 65,000 items were found and plotted, and their locations were precisely documented down to the millimeter.
The team's complete findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.
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