The traditional belief was that the first settlers in the Americas were the Clovis people, arriving about 14,000 years ago, and that subsequent civilizations like the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas developed much later. However, recent archaeological and genetic evidence has revised this timeline.

New discoveries suggest that humans may have arrived in the Americas much earlier—potentially as early as 26,500 years ago. This is supported by excavations in Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico, where Ciprian Ardelean and his team found stone tools that indicate human presence well before the previously accepted timeline.

Ardelean’s research, published in Nature, suggests that humans crossed into the Americas either by land or sea from Siberia or Southeast Asia (Sundaland). This earlier migration predates the Clovis culture by at least 10,000 years and raises the possibility that humans were present in Central America much earlier than previously believed.

Additionally, genetic studies propose that Native Americans have two major ancestral lineages: one from Siberia (the Iñupiat) and another, termed “population Y,” potentially originating from Southeast Asia. These findings continue to challenge conventional views of early human migration into the Americas