How Arizona Helped Upend Our Knowledge Of Human History

For almost the entirety of human history, we've been trying to find the beginning. It's not easy. Early humans notoriously didn't keep records of their lives, and if they did, they were lost to time.

A recent study at the University of Arizona, however, has uncovered evidence that changes everything we know about our collective past.

New Clues Uncovered

90 years ago, remains were found in Clovis, New Mexico that helped date the earliest humans in America to around 11,000-13,000 years ago. This theory stayed intact until 2019, when researchers from Bournemouth University and the U.S. National Parks Service discovered a bombshell only 5 hours away.

Preserved in clay were footprints, human footprints. These were ancient, and when testing of seeds and pollen in the soil were complete, it was estimated that the tracks were around 21,000-23,000 years old, almost 10,000 years older than we originally thought.

The Dumbest Crime in Arizona History

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University of Arizona Puts the Pieces Together

Unfortunately for the researchers, their evidence was flawed. The seeds and pollen used to date their discovery were not nearly as reliable as they'd believed. However, a recent study by Vance Holliday at the University of Arizona backs up those findings with concrete evidence.

The study used the mud around the footprints to radiocarbon date them, it was found that the original study was, in fact, correct. The footprints showed that we've had ancestors walking this land for 10,000 years longer than believed, completely changing our understanding of how our species has evolved. This raises new questions, however, and thee University of Arizona is keen to find the answers.

[University of Arizona][Science Advances]