From Canada’s far north to the southern tip of Chile, through the southern United States, central Mexico and Brazil’s Mato Grosso, new consistent but still controversial archaeological discoveries in the archeology of American prehistory have brought to light a new paradigm: the appearance of the first humans on the continent could predate our era by almost 30,000 years, or about 15,000 years earlier than the commonly accepted and scholarly thesis…

For the majority of archaeologists, the settlement of the Americas dates back to 13,000 years ago. Populations of hunter-gatherers following their prey would have come from Siberia and walked through the Bering Strait, which was then covered with ice. But in Brazil, at the site of Santa Elina, a couple of Franco-Brazilian archaeologists, Denis and Agueda Vilhena Vialou, discovered small bones of an animal that has now disappeared, the giant sloth. And these are cut and drilled as if they had been used by humans to make jewelry. According to dating methods, these objects are 27,000 years old. Which would mean the first Americans would have arrived much sooner than we thought. Something that excites the scientific community, which is now wondering if these men also came through the Bering Strait on foot, or if they came to America across the Pacific, by raft, or by canoe…

America: The New History of the First Men: Saturday, February 25 at 8:50 p.m. on Arte

FREDERICK RAPILLY