Possibly Oldest Human Artifacts in N America Found

Missed this yesterday from LiveScience as well.

Archaeologists in Minnesota surveying a planned construction route find stone tools beleived to 13-15,000 years old. If the dates are confirmed, they would be the oldest human tools ever found in North America by almost 2,000 years.

"The items were found beneath a layer of glacial deposits that had been covered by windblown deposits. Based on what's known about the geology of the area, they believe the objects are between 13,000 and 15,000 years old....Not only do the age of the items and the soil in which they were found need to be confirmed, it must also be determined whether the objects are really human-made artifacts or merely rocks that were chipped in interesting ways by glaciers during the Ice Age. And it's not yet certain if the items were left at the site by humans, or carried there by glaciers or flowing water."

Other researchers had already discovered that the area was an glacial "oasis", an area free from ice although surrounded by glaciers except to the southeast. If the dates for this find are confirmed, it would help prove a growing scientific consensus that humans migrated to the New World much earlier than 11,000 years ago, which is the generally accepted date for the Clovis points found in New Mexico in the 1930's, the oldest conclusively proven artifacts found in the Americas, athough some other sites have their own proponents as well.