Clovis culture

In recent years, though, archaeological evidence has increasingly called into question the idea of "Clovis First." Now, a study published by a team including DRI's Kathleen Rodrigues, Ph.D.

The Clovis First hypothesis also states that the distinct Clovis lithic technology is the mother technology of all other stone artifact types later occurring in the New World.

But a number of sites in North America and one in Chile have established that people were living in the Americas earlier than 13,000 years ago, and in the last decade the "Clovis First" hypothesis has gone the way of the woolly mammoth.

This "Clovis First" model theorizes that the Clovis people came to the New World from Northeast Asia by crossing the Bering Land Bridge, which once connected Asia and North America.

Archeologists debate the date of first arrival of humans in North America, with some holding to the "Clovis First" theory, while others insist that people arrived here earlier.