Asteroid Impact Could Have Coincided with Clovis Demise

The mysterious disappearance of the Clovis people could be explained by an asteroid impacting the earth thousands of years ago, according to a newly published study.

Three archaeologists from the University of South Carolina have discovered platinum is widespread at a number of archaeological sites throughout the United States. The presence of the element could prove a vital clue to the fate of one of North America’s earliest cultures.

Artefacts from the Clovis culture have been found across the United States and as far south as Panama. The prehistoric culture is known for its distinctive stone tools and weapons such as projectile points, often found in close proximity to the remains of Pleistocene mega fauna such as mammoths. Since the 1930s it has widely been believed that the Clovis were the first humans to inhabit North America, although recent discoveries have brought this idea into question.

12,800 years ago the Clovis people, along with iconic mega fauna such as sabre-toothed tigers, mammoths and mastodon, suddenly disappeared. Archaeologists have long been at a loss to explain this dramatic event but the new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests an extraterrestrial cause.

The University of Carolina archaeologists found that platinum was most abundant in soil layers which coincided with the ‘Younger Dryas’, a period of extreme climatic cooling which started around 12,800 years ago and lasted around 1,400 years. The return to ice age conditions during the Younger-Dryas is well documented, but its causes have remained shrouded in mystery. The platinum discovery could change all that.