An 11,000-year-old settlement in Canada is challenging the idea that the first indigenous people were nomads. The newly discovered village site of Âsowanânihk, which means “a place to cross” in the Cree language, is one of the oldest archaeological sites found on the continent and suggests that an organized society existed in central Canada much earlier than experts believed.
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Evidence already recovered from Âsowanânihk, located on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation (SLFN) in central Saskatchewan, includes stone tools, hearths and bison bones, according to the statement. A very large hearth suggests the site was used for a long period of time or repeatedly for shorter periods, according to Glenn Stuart, an archaeologist at the University of Saskatchewan involved in the project. Such use suggests the settlement was likely long-term, rather than a temporary hunting camp where indigenous hunters strategically gathered an extinct species of bison.
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Charcoal from one of the hearths was radiocarbon dated to about 10,700 years ago, Stuart told Live Science in an email. That means people lived in the village right after the end of the last ice age, when land was finally suitable for plant growth.
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The Âsowanânihk site is currently being studied by archaeologists, including Stuart, alongside the SLFN Âsowanânihk Council, which includes Elders, Knowledge Keepers and educators. The council is also working with local stakeholders to protect the site, which was originally identified because it was eroding from a riverbank and now faces potential destruction from logging activities in the area.
Source: livescience
