16 Oct 2026 · Shég’ Xdaltth’í’, Tanana valley, Alaska, United States
13,800-year-old Alaskan camp links both sides of the Bering Land Bridge
Kelly Graf, Ted Goebel and colleagues report on Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ (formerly McDonald Creek), 55 km south-southeast of Fairbanks. It has three Late Pleistocene occupation layers dated to about 13,800, 13,000 and 12,700 years ago. The oldest layer holds more than 80,000 specimens, including a distinctive hafted biface, bone and antler tools, animal remains and well-preserved activity areas.
Why it matters: It is the earliest known Nenana Complex site east of the land bridge, and its biface form matches sites of the same age in Siberia. That gives a rare cultural link across Beringia during the peopling of the Americas.
Mainstream view: The authors stress it is not Beringia’s oldest site (Swan Point is about 14,200 years old) and read it as fast “settling in” within a few centuries of people first arriving in the region.
Alternative view: Graham Hancock (America Before, 2019) argues the Americas were settled far earlier than the conventional timeline; this site sits within the accepted Late Glacial window and does not test that claim.
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