June
18
/ 2025
A sequence of footprints hidden deep within a long-dried paleo‑lake bed were discovered in 2021 by archaeologists, pushing back the purported arrival of early North American settlers between 23,000 and 21,000 years. A new study, using radiocarbon dating of the footprints in the mud, rather than the earlier seed and pollen dating, has confirmed this astonishing timeline – a good 10,000 years ahead of the mythical Clovis culture's own earliest marked presence in the archaeological record. Led by Vance Halliday (also a co-author on the earlier 2021 study), once a skeptic, and now a believer, the finds have been published in the latest edition of the journal, Science Advances. He verifies that the mud in the footprints were left behind
