ENCORE: Something's afoot. There is, yet again, another controversial preclovis find. This time, away from the West Coast and in New Mexico. The controversy surrounds human footprints found in White Sands National Park that are dated between 23 and 21 kya.

To discuss these possible pre-Clovis footprints, we invited Dr. Jesse Tune and Dr. Shane Miller on the show to contextualize the data. We begin with an open discussion about the recent published report and try to understand what the researches found at the site. We then chat about their controversy, how it’s hit the mainstream media, and what the ramifications of the repaint are for archaeology.

The conversation then turns into a open dialogue about scientific biases, as well as the role of Indigenous oral traditions and their incorporation into scientific theories.

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Literature recommendations

• 2020, Bennett et al., Walking in mud: Remarkable Pleistocene human trackways from White Sands National Park (New Mexico), Quaternary Science Reviews
• 2018 Bustos et al., Footprints preserve terminal Pleistocene hunt? Human-sloth interactions in North America, Supplmentary Materials, Science Advances
• 2021 Rachal et al., Lake levels and trackways: An alternative model to explain the timing of human-megafauna trackway intersections, Tularosa Basin, New Mexico, Quaternary Science Advances
• 2021 Bennett et al., Evidence of humans in North Americaduring the Last Glacial Maximum, Science
• 2020 Ardelean et al., Evidence of human occupation in Mexico around the Last Glacial Maximum, Nature

Links

• Earliest evidence of human activity in the Americas found at White Sands National Park
• Oldest human footprints in North America found
• The White Sands discovery only confirms what Indigenous people have said all along

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