When and how people first settled in the Americas is a matter of controversy. In the 20th century, archaeologists believed that humans reached the interior of North America no earlier than 14,000 years ago. But new research reveals something different and supports the view that humans were in the Americas around 23,000 years ago.
20th century experts thought that the emergence of humans coincided with the formation of an ice-free corridor between two huge ice sheets in what is now Canada and the northern United States. According to this idea, the corridor, caused by melting at the end of the last ice age, allowed people to travel from Alaska to the heart of North America.
In recent decades the dates for the earliest evidence of humans have been pushed back to 14,000 to 16,000 years ago. This is still consistent with humans reaching the Americas as the last ice age was ending.
In September 2021, a paper was published in the journal Science dating fossil footprints discovered in New Mexico to about 23,000 years ago. They were made by a group of people passing by an ancient lake near what is now White Sands. The discovery added 7,000 years to the record of people on the continent, rewriting American prehistory.
If people were in the Americas at the height of the last ice age, either the ice was a barrier to their crossing, or else people were there much longer and may have reached the continent when the ice was previously in a melting period.
Source: Phys