Oregon State University archaeologists have made a historic discovery in Idaho by uncovering projectile points thousands of years older than any previously found in the Americas, shedding light on the history of early human crafting and usage of stone weapons.

Previously, Davis and other researchers working the Cooper’s Ferry site had found simple flakes and pieces of bone that indicated human presence about 16,000 years ago.

Their presence in Idaho adds more detail to the hypothesis that there are early genetic and cultural connections between the ice age peoples of Northeast Asia and North America.

“Finding a site where people made pits and stored complete and broken projectile points nearly 16,000 years ago gives us valuable details about the lives of our region’s earliest inhabitants.”

The projectile points were uncovered over multiple summers between 2012 and 2017, with work supported by a funding partnership held between OSU and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

extends the age of stemmed points in the Americas” by Loren G. Davis, David B. Madsen, David A. Sisson, Lorena Becerra-Valdivia, Thomas Higham, Daniel Stueber, Daniel W. Bean, Alexander J. Nyers, Amanda Carroll, Christina Ryder, Matt Sponheimer, Masami Izuho, Fumie Iizuka, Guoqiang Li, Clinton W. Epps and F. Kirk Halford, 23 December 2022, Science Advances.