Texas A&M University researchers have discovered what are supposed to be the oldest weapons ever found in North America: prehistoric spear points that are 15,500 years old. The discoveries raise new questions about the settlement of early peoples on the continent.
Spear points made of chert and other tools were unearthed under several feet of sediment, that dating revealed to be 15,500 years old, and pre-date Clovis, who for decades were thought to be the first people to enter the Americas. Clovis is dated to 13,000 to 12,700 years ago and Folsom after that.
Clovis is the name given to the characteristic tools made by people beginning around 13,000 years ago. The Clovis people created the "Clovis point," a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that is found in Texas and parts of the United States and northern Mexico and the weapons were made to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.
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