Archaeologists Just Found the Oldest Dwelling in the Western Hemisphere
Artifacts and a hearth suggest the site was a base camp used intermittently for about 1,000 years, researchers said.
- University of Kansas archaeologists discovered a 13,800-year-old base camp at the Shg Xdaltth site in Alaska, roughly 34 miles southeast of Fairbanks, representing the earliest potential habitation structure in North America.
- While hunting camps are common in the region, this location shows people "settling in" intermittently over roughly 1,000 years; Kelly Graf, the study's lead archaeologist at the University of Kansas, said the team uncovered tens of thousands of artifacts.
- The site yielded bone needles—the oldest discovered in the Western Hemisphere—and an antler pendant, tying the camp to sites farther south and emphasizing a strong cultural connection between early Beringians and Americans.
- Researchers identified wolf-like canids unique to central Alaska, distinct from dire or gray wolves; because early domesticated dogs in North America likely descended from Siberian wolves, the site offers circumstantial evidence of dog ownership.
- Hafted bifaces found at the site resemble tools from northern Siberia, suggesting ongoing links across the Bering Land Bridge; further work is needed to fully understand population dispersal east of the land bridge.
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31 Articles
Archaeologists examining a 13,800-year-old Alaska campsite found thousands of artifacts, a hearth and traces of a possible shelter; the discovery offers rare clues about how early people lived near Beringia
Archaeological research at Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ in Alaska revealed a rich site dating back 13,800 years. The site included stone tools, animal remains, and evidence of a possible shelter. Researchers identified activities such as food processing, toolmaking, and clothing production among early inhabitants. Comparisons with similar tools in Siberia suggest cultural connections across the Bering Land Bridge.
For a long time, the first Americans left behind only stone shrapnel and a few bones. In Alaska, permanently frozen soil kept much more, until the footprint of a camp set up in the tundra. This prehistoric home could be the oldest known on the continent.
Archaeologists have identified what could be the oldest housing structure in North America. Thousands of finds tell the lives of the first inhabitants of the continent
Among the findings stand out stone and bone tools, which suggest possible connections between Alaska The entry More than 80,000 archaeological pieces are discovered in Alaska in a camp of mammoth hunters who inhabited the region 13800 years ago was first published in Research and Development.
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