The earliest date that humans first settled in the Americas is something anthropologists do not agree upon – yet. Although whole-genome DNA processing might someday shed more light on the subject, some scholars favor an idea that people first crossed the Bering Straights less than 20,000 years ago, while others argue for an earlier wave of humans that lived in the Americas before 40,000 years ago: that’s quite a gap.
Close to my Pennsylvania home, there is an American Indian site that has also been a point of contention among historians: the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, featured in these two images here. Located on the far western border of the state, Meadowcroft Rockshelter is a sandstone natural shelter where tools, firepits, and food remains of some of the most ancient inhabitants of the Americas were discovered in the 1970s. Dr. James Adovasio, the site’s lead archaeologist, claims that the findings can be dated to at least 16,000 years ago, but as early as 19,000. These are big claims, but regardless Meadowcroft testifies to an ancient past of some of America’s first peoples.
Source(s): _Archaeology_, “Meadowcroft Rockshelter,” Nikhil Swaminathan, Sept/Oct 2014; photos from www.heinzhistorycenter, “Meadowcroft Rockshelter”.
